Make hardy annuals a statement of intent
Planning should be well advanced for those floral displays in beds, borders, and containers, that bring smiles to faces in summer.
The plants we rely on to deliver such pleasure are building up in the garden centre, and although it remains too early for planting outdoors, best advice is to secure them while the choice is there and offer the moderate warmth with light that keeps them ticking over until May.
If you are eager to make an early statement of intent, why not sow a selection of hardy annuals outdoors?
They are so tough that in some favourable sites sowing occurs in late autumn, they survive winter frosts and secure an early start to the growing season.
However, in my experience, mid-March onward is the preferred sowing time, and these plants can be grown without an organic-rich soil or lashings of fertiliser.
Ever accommodating, a single variety can be sown where there’s a gap in the mixed border or join its peers on a spare piece of land, thus forming a bed of hardy annuals.
Fork over the chosen area to loosen any seriously compacted soil, then tread back and forth followed by raking to level the area, remove any stones and surface debris.
use the sand to mark out a series of irregular-shaped bays, one for each packet of seed. Use the back of your rake to create drills
1 to 2 centimetres deep, 12 to 15 apart in each bay, then sow thinly and lightly cover the seed.
Given reasonable weather, the first germination will come within 10 days.
Weeds will develop alongside the young seedlings but not all is lost.
Because we sowed in drills rather than broadcast the seed, enough room was left between rows to run a hoe between the obvious rows of plants.
Eventually the regimental rows converge and all we see is a bay of colour.
Packets of hardy annuals are in the racks now at circa £3 each. For a good range of colour and form try:- calendula (pot marigold); eschscholzia (Californian poppy); centaurea (cornflower); gypsophila (baby’s breath); chrysanthemum (annual type); lavatera (mallow); scabiosa (pincushion plant), sweet pea and clarkia.
Add three everlasting plants, helichrysum, acroclinium and nigella to dry and preserve, and continue the colour fest in a winter vase.