Container masterclass Right pot, right spot
Nick Bailey explains how containers can enhance your garden’s trickiest parts, from narrow passages to shady corners
One of the joys of container growing is its flexibility. Planted pots can be arranged, rearranged and moved to suit you and your garden throughout the season. A short-term potted plant can be brought to the fore when it’s at its peak, then tucked away again as it fades. Equally, a large, permanent planter can have its display changed through the seasons. Growing this way means that you can match pots to exact locations in your garden. Narrow, skinny walkway? No problem, try a tall, slim pot. Dark, shady corner? Not an issue – a pale planter can bring it to life.
Pot growing also opens up endless creative opportunities in terms of how you group containers together. You could
Turn on the light Why it works
Almost every garden has a shady underused area that lacks appeal. But the right style, shape, colour and size of pot can change this. Here, a dark corner is brought to life with a white planter. The cool colour catches the eye and injects life into a sulky spot.
Golden rules
For a dramatic effect, choose a tall pot that appears to ‘emerge’ from the planting beneath it.
Suit your choice of plants to their location. For shaded spots, pick paler-leaved species that will pop out of the darkness.
Stand tall pots like this one on a slab, so they won’t topple over as the soil beneath them swells and shrinks through the seasons. go for the same style and colour of pot in different sizes for cohesion, or maybe you have a cornucopia of different pots, but if you bring them together in a cluster and repeat a series of plants through them you can create a unified whole. Or why not group pots of the same shape, such as square or octagonal, to maximise your planting space?
However you approach it, container growing brings a new dynamic to your garden that you can change as the whim takes you. One example is Great Dixter House and Gardens in Sussex, where the main entrance is flanked by an ever-changing series of pots bursting with the best of the season’s offerings.
Nick used
Helichrysum petiolare
‘Gold’
2. Miscanthus sinensis
‘Gracillimus’
Tall Square Contemporary White Light Planter, various sizes, from £45.99