One of the first jobs I did in the new garden was to plant lots of low growing spring flowering bulbs in the raised bed. We have mixed Crocus, Anemone blanda (blue shades), Galanthus Single Snowdrops and Narcissus Jetfire, which turned out to be too big really.
My hope is that they will flower at slightly different times so there should be colour from early March though to May.
Once I know where all the bulbs are I will plant alpine plants and mulch them will a layer of grit. In future years the alpines will be the main feature once the bulbs have died down.
This is how the bed looked on the 14th March: