grow, cook, eat, arrange with Sarah Raven & friends The Colour Guide Mini Series #1: My life in colour - Episode 261
Feb 12, 2026
A dive into how a colour system was built for garden borders and why palettes matter. Stories of childhood colour obsessions and the link between floristry and planting. A tour of four palettes from velvet jewel tones to luminous citrus and cool washed pastels. Tips on separating palettes across garden spaces and using contrast so every shade can sing.
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Childhood Colour Obsession
- Sarah Raven remembers being drawn to colour-sorted art shops and crayon sets as a child, which shaped her love of organised colour.
- That early obsession explains her lifelong preference for rich, saturated palettes in gardening and arranging.
Separate Palettes To Avoid Chaos
- Sarah Raven warns that packing every colour into one visual field creates a chaotic, kindergarten-like effect.
- She argues for separating palettes across different garden areas to avoid visual chaos and to design intentionally.
How The Oast Garden Evolved
- Sarah Raven describes creating the Oast Garden in 1996–97 and choosing rich Venetian velvets of crimsons, purples and indigo blues.
- She found the palette enveloping but added a brighter stained-glass palette for lift when the space felt too heavy.
