Professional garden designer Alison Bridge offers expert advice on making the most of your green space.

This time, she explains how to keep your garden colourful throughout the winter months.

Short days and long nights mean that for many of us the only time we see our gardens properly is at the weekend. The winter months provide the perfect opportunity to take stock and plan any changes to your garden.

One of the most important things for a successful garden is structure, and this becomes even more apparent during the winter when gardens are stripped bare and all you are left with is the 'skeleton'.

With this in mind, now is the perfect time for a complete redesign, so that by the summer you can sit back and enjoy your hard work.

Alternatively, you may just be looking to inject a little more colour into your garden, and it may surprise you that the winter months need not be dull. There are still many plants that can provide colour, scent and interest, and not only flowers - use foliage, buds, berries, stems and bark to get the maximum interest.

Clematis cirrhosa var. balearica 'Freckles' is a charming clematis with bell-shaped flowers, appearing between November and February.

The cream winter flowers are heavily speckled inside with reddish-brown freckle-like markings - hence its name. Try growing it over a pergola where you will have a clear view of the delicate blooms.

Sarcococca confusa 'Christmas Box' is a really useful small shrub especially if you are looking for year-round interest in dry shade. It has dark glossy leaves, providing the perfect background for the small, white, sweetly-scented flowers that appear in late winter - these are then followed by shiny black berries.

Skimmia japonica 'Rubella' is another useful evergreen shrub, which over time will produce a rounded shrub approximately 1 x 1m. It has attractive red-margined dark green leaves and its most prominent feature is the red flower buds that appear during the winter months. These will open in spring to reveal pale pink scented flowers.

The colourful stems of dogwoods can provide excellent winter colour; some of my favourites include the red-stemmed Cornus alba 'Elegantissima', the yellow-stemmed Cornus stolonifera 'Flaviramea' and the flame-coloured stems of Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire'. To ensure strong coloured stems, it is important that they are pruned heavily in early spring.

Witch hazels provide fascinating flowers with strap-like twisted petals, in colours ranging from sulphur yellow to rich copper-red.

Depending on which cultivar you choose they will flower between December and March. Hamamelis mollis 'Advent', as the name suggests, is an early yellow cultivar flowering from December to January.

A later flowering cultivar, Hamamelis x intermedia 'Aurora', has soft yellow to light bronze-yellow flowers appearing in February.

These are especially striking because of their size - more than 5cm. If you are looking for a really eye-catching combination, try planting Hamamelis alongside the colourful stems of a few dogwoods.

So on those crisp, sunny winter days, get your gloves on and get out there - enjoy the sunshine and enjoy your garden!