Be indulgent with pots!
Here at Glebe Cottage there’s no real shortage of space but we still plant up lots of containers
Although gardeners have planted up pots for centuries, perhaps aeons, container planting has become an all-encompassing phenomenon in recent years. Understandably so. Part of the increase is due to gardens becoming smaller and some people having no garden at all. Having pots filled with plants allows them to create a colourful display and to indulge in our favourite activity – gardening!
At Glebe Cottage there’s no real shortage of space but we still plant up loads of pots. Sometimes it’s tulips, lilies or gladioli; bulbs are ideal candidates for pots, their only shortcoming being their display is relatively short-lived. They’re often planted here in a series of clay pots of the same size and stood along a path when in flower. Often they’re replaced with dahlias or showy perennials for later in the year.
Container growing can be incredibly versatile – or very predictable! It allows gardeners to experiment and try new
‘Container growing allows gardeners to experiment and try new plants and novel ideas’
plants and novel ideas. A pot can be used year after year for the same plants or, at the start of each new year, seen as a chance to create something different. If the spirit takes you even vegetables or perennials can give pots a new lease of life.
At the moment at Great Dixter, outside the front door with its slightly leaning porch, Fergus Garrett and his team have used conifers of every shape and size to produce a breathtaking green display, rich in texture. Normally this space has been used for a more traditional, though never predictable, show full of colour.
As for the choice of containers, there’s no end of possibilities for the adventurous gardener. Almost anything can be used as a container, from a huge terracotta urn to an old boot, though personally I draw the line at old toilet bowls or tractor tyres! The container should fit the place in which it’s to stand – though one of the greatest advantages of container growing is that pots are very often portable and can be moved in and out of the limelight.
The only disadvantage of growing plants in containers is that they need more attention than their counterparts in the ground. The soil and therefore the availability of water and nutrients in a pot is finite. The smaller the container, the more frequently it needs attention. Plants will soon tell us when they’re short of either but it’s best never to let it get to that stage. Water frequently until plants are well established, then water and feed regularly. Here we use a liquid seaweed feed applied once a week at the height of the growing season. We always use compost with a high loam content, which sustains plant growth much longer than multi-purpose.
But most important of all is your choice of plants and the same natural laws apply in container gardening as they do for ‘regular’ gardening. If your garden stands in shade use woodlanders, not as limiting as you might first think: ferns, foxgloves, many lilies to mention, but a few will thrive in pots in shade. If you’re planting for sun, then the world is your lobster! You can use spectacular exotics, cannas, ricinus and salvias. One of our simple favourites here at Glebe Cottage is to fill big pots with just one bedding plant, cosmos or cerinthe ‘Purpurascens’. For the price of a packet of seed, or even for free when you’re a GN reader, you can make a spectacular show that will last for months.