Sunlight plays a big part in how a garden feels. Too little means it’s dark and gloomy: too much and you and your plants end up being scorched and exposed. How the sun rises and sets also has an impact. Even how light shines on or through what we plant. The power of sunlight in the garden is a brilliant tool to harness and here’s three easy ways to do just that.

1. Back lighting. For most of the day sunlight shines down, bathing our plants with the light they need to grow. Which is fine but have you ever noticed how garden photographers tend to take their pics early or later in the day? That’s because light that shines at a low angle is more powerful and atmospheric. As an example, take something like the Tropicanna® Canna. With its high colouring and hot coloured rah-rah stripes, it looks fabulous enough when spot-lit from above at high noon. But when the early morning or late afternoon sun shines through from behind, those broad leaves become magnificent. So think about where the sun rises and sets at your place as you choose and position your plants. Any of the three versions of Tropicanna canna are an obvious choice, as is a clumping grass like Miscanthus. Try hollyhocks, single form roses, Iceland poppies and Christmas lilies. Like a fine porcelain plate held up to the light, if the sun can shine through, it will work beautifully.

2. Gloom reduction. At some point every gardener faces a dark corner in the garden. It’s usually the area under an evergreen tree with neighbouring fences helping to block out the light. There are plenty of plants that can thrive happily in that setting, but it can still be too gloomy. The trick here is to let more light in – if you can – and to add in plants with colourings that make them look brightly lit. Starting with the tree, have an arborist or clever gardener friend in to selectively prune the canopy so that the sunlight can shine more freely and reach the ground. If you can, try to lighten the fences by removing solid panels and replacing them with airy slats. Then source pale plants – white impatiens, astilbe, pale leaved hostas – and when these are planted as an understory they’ll help bounce and reflect the limited light. Gloom is banished and replaced with magical.

3. Know your compass points. Boring as this sounds, go outside and work out where the sun rises each day (East), where it sets (West), and, where it spends most of the day travelling across the sky (South: assuming you’re in the northern hemisphere). Now apply these two simple hacks. First, any trees between your home and the all-day sun need to be deciduous so that you have delicious shade in hot summertime, and after the leaves fall, winter sunshine reaching in through the windows. Hack two: plant tough easy-care performers on the western side because they will keep on looking good when the day’s end is a bit of a scorcher. Likewise put your more delicate treasures facing towards the East because the start to most days is softer and more kind.