Gardens hit the pot spot
IT’S no coincidence that National Gardening Week runs into May Day bank holiday weekend to give you time to get your garden, balcony or window boxes into shape. The trend for smaller gardens and rise in renting means many want instant gardens says Mark Sage, head of horticulture at Wyevale Garden Centres.
“Customers are looking for impact in small spaces that are easy to move between homes,” he says, “such as lightweight potted plants with easily portable features for a balcony or windowsill display.”
Mark suggests evergreen viburnums and camellias for year-round interest, pre-planted summer bedding containers or even herbs and vegetables.
“Herbs thrive in small spaces with lavender, rosemary and mint varieties giving gardeners a great-tasting reward.”
Creative
But once you have your pots and plants, there’s the compost dilemma. The move from unsustainable peatbased composts has led to creative innovations such as Dalefoot Compost – made from Cumbrian fells bracken and Herdwick sheep’s wool.
The family firm (dalefootcomposts. co.uk) offers several choices, including a new bulb compost up for RHS Chelsea Garden Product of the Year 2018.
It’s also time to cut back overhanging branches to allow more sunlight into your garden and Fiskars’ new PowerGear X Telescopic Tree Pruner (fiskars.co.uk) has a six-metre reach while the PowerGear mechanism exerts three times the usual cutting strength.
And how about a make-over for your shed or fence? New hues from Ronseal Garden Paint include on-trend Pebble, Mint, Charcoal Grey and Moroccan Red. LICK INTO SHAPE: Spruce up your shed with a pot of Ronseal’s Garden Paint, seen here in Willow, £14.95 for 2.5L (ronseal.com)