WHY I GO POTTY FOR NATURAL CONTAINERS

AS I’ve grown older, I’ve got more and more pleasure from how containers can be used to create a beautiful space, whatever the season. There is no reason to not have a border or raised bed as part of your patio, but a good selection of containers is preferable.

The most common pots are polythene but gardeners are trying to reduce the amount of plastic. Clay pots are my favourite but nice ones are pricy, fragile and tend to need more regular watering than polythene pots. Barrels have long been cut in half and used as tubs for larger displays. Metal pots can either be sleek and chic or come in the form of recycled buckets and bathtubs – both of which I use in my own garden. Sinks and troughs are shallow but attractive and good for alpines that have shallow roots.

There is no right or wrong. Anything that can be grown in soil can be raised in a container, and as long as it has some drainage and the opening is the widest part of the vessel then anything that will hold soil and take regular watering can be used.

REACH FOR THE SKY

COLLECTING pots is addictive and I love how lots of different-sized pots can be blended to create a tableaux, which can be changed as plants pass their best.

Larger containers like tubs are ideal for growing climbers, shrubs or small trees. Do remember to ensure they have sufficient drainage though, as waterlogging will kill a plant. I’ve grown climbing roses, clematis, hawthorns, Portuguese laurel and acers in pots that have flourished for years, as well as citrus, bay and large rosemary bushes. Freestanding largish pots are ideal for annual climbers like sweet peas, Cobaea scandens, thunbergia or morning glory, using a temporary wigwam of canes to support the growth. Replace the compost at the end of the growing season as the plants will have used up every nutrient.

A single dramatic container adds weight and substance to even a small patio and a pair of pots flanking a door or window is always good. If you are prepared to change the planting once or twice a year you’ll wring every last drop of value from a costly pot.

This means either having plants with a long season – like pelargoniums, pansies or fuchsias – or having at least two separate plantings, which works well for bigger pots. In high summer, I mix big dramatic plants like cannas or grasses with annuals such as cosmos, petunias, zinnias or whatever will flower repeatedly into autumn. I’ll then replace them with a mass of tulips and/or a few daffs, teamed with an over-planting of violas and pansies and wallflowers for colour. Another tip is to plant summerflowering bulbs like gladioli and lilies in aquatic baskets – containers that are a cross between a pot and a basket – and let them grow. Then, when a winter or spring display in a terracotta pot is over I empty that out and place the basket, without disturbing the growing bulbs, inside the pot. The extra holes let roots reach into the soil of the pot and nourish the bulbs. After flowering the whole thing can be lifted out and stored for next year.

A patio is usually the best place to concentrate plants that are fragrant after dark, like nicotiana, night-scented stock (Matthiola bicornis), honeysuckle, Madonna lilies (Lilium candidum) or sweet peas.

Almost anything will grow in a pot. But get the mix right. Mediterranean plants such as lavenders or pelargoniums do better with extra grit added to the compost, and big pots crammed with flowers that you expect to give months of quality performance will need the mix boosting with homemade garden compost and ideally some leaf mould, which greatly improves root-run.

Give them a good soak at least once a week, and daily in hot weather. The best allround feed is liquid seaweed, which can be added to a watering can as part of the round of watering. I’d recommend fitting an outdoor tap.

NEXT WEEK PATIO PLANTS THAT LOVE THE SHADE