Plant alpines into your wall

Add rock plants and alpines to the crevices in walls, where they will cascade down to soften the brickwork and turn it into a lovely early flowering feature in the garden. Alpines do best in full sun and planted into free-draining, poor soil, so cracks in walls are ideal for them.

Try plants like the arabis and aubrieta. Pink erigeron will flower all summer, phlox and creeping thyme work well too. Use a dibber to press plants into the cracks and put some moist compost over the roots.

Green up an old wall by planting alpines such as arabis in any gaps