How to have a garden with spring and Summer interest?
Since getting into gardening I have often wondered how you have spring and Summer flowering plants in the same border? Surely when the spring flowering plants have stopped flowering, they are then taking up space which could have summer flowering plants? Surely there would be gaps where the spring ones are going over? it got me thinking about it more when some lovely little old lady at a garden I was visiting, said that every garden should have primroses as they signify the start of spring and she practically forced me to buy some! 
But the thing is I don't have much space in the garden as it is full of summer flowering plants. Any advice appreciated
But the thing is I don't have much space in the garden as it is full of summer flowering plants. Any advice appreciated 0
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It's pretty easy Craigh, you just pack your borders. As the spring flowering bulbs and perennials go over the summer flowering things take over, especially with perennials. What you'll find is the summer perennials will smother the spring ones as they die back or go over. The same applies to later in the year. As the summer perennials go past their best the Autumn flowering plants come into their best. If you go to the RHS website and use the filters in the perennial section you can choose accordingly. Having the courage to do it is often the issue, but with a bit of foresight it's easy to achieve.
I have snowdrops growing between geraniums. The geraniums are dormant in winter then take over in spring. I also have primulas and cowslips growing between perennials which are dormant in winter.
I do the same with snowdrops and hostas. I also use annuals in summer, like salvia farinacea, to provide long lasting colour in gaps where I had tulips and forget-me-nots in spring. I plant bellis daisies and violas in front of borders in late autumn to flower from early spring. I plant dahlias and daffodils side by side.
The garden is well worth a visit! It's in Warwick and it's called The Mill Garden. The garden has the river Avon running by it at the end and to the side is the huge Warwick Castle and I thought the couple just worked there but it turns out it is their back garden!! Some people are so lucky to live somewhere like that
You can plant verticals like alliums and lilies in the same area as your spring planting. They'll take up little room but give some summer colour in the parts where spring flowers have faded. Useful if you don't have a huge space to work with. I use cornflowers and the little scented gladioli - (Acidanthera) as well, and there are plenty of other similar plants.
Dahlias will prolong the colour into autumn.