Choose the right

DAVE ALLAN

YOU can grow your own fruit and veg when all you’ve got is a patio. I’ll look here at choosing and kitting out containers and next week will suggest some plants that work well in them.

You’ll want attractive planters that are suitable for you; each of the five kinds available has its pros and cons. Plastic has often been used, it’s cheap, fairly indestructible and quite light. But you’d naturally only want one made from recycled material.

Softwood is used for every kind and size of troughs and raised beds. But there are two drawbacks. It slowly warms up the soil and rots over time. On a much larger scale, my raised beds made from 6in by 3in timber are gently decaying at the joins.

More traditional terracotta is fine for large pots and comes in appealing shapes, but compost does dry out and pots crack and break during very cold weather. And it’s challenging removing large perennials from those with tapering tops, such as Greek urns.

Modern metal troughs are smart, elegant and long-lasting. But the compost or soil on the sunny side will get very hot.

And finally, there are the quirky eye-catching containers: half barrels, galvanised water troughs, chimney pots and even old kitchen sinks. Plastic, terracotta and metal warm compost in summer, but overwintering plants need extra protection from frosts.

Success with plants depends on the compost you use. You could go for multi-purpose compost. The quality of peat-free products varies hugely but, as a general rule, Sylvamix growing medium is very reliable and, although the quality of New Horizons has been poor for a few years, it currently performs well. These composts are fine for the smaller units, such as dinky micro-troughs suitable for herbs or leaf crops. But it’s clapped out after two or three months, so needs replacing. Emptying and refilling a raised bed every year would be a perfect pain and extremely expensive.

The sensible and realistic alternative is a soil mix that should last for years. Probably the best blend for larger units is 60 per cent topsoil, 25 per cent well rotted farmyard manure, containing as much homemade compost as possible, and 15 per cent coarse grit for drainage. This living soil will continue providing nutrients for plantings.

Like everywhere else in the garden, this soil needs feeding.