Tag: container planting

Pretty as a Picture Patio

by Fen Ryan, gardener and design at Bloomingplaces

pretty as a picture patio

Pick a corner, any corner of your garden and create instant interest and the perfect place to sit and here’s how:

 

Step one

Take a wall hanging basket and fill it with flowers of your choice, add trailers to the front of the wall hanging basket. They will drop down to meet the main feature plant growing up from the large planter placed below this. Covering the wall and giving an immersive experience whilst you are seated.

hydrenga and hanging basket

 

Step Two

Place a large pot of the prolific blooming hydrenga, shown above, or another large pot of flowers or flowering shrub of you choice beneath the wall hanging basket

alium family

Step 3

Add smaller pots, so as not to overshadow the main feature plant, to each side of the main feature pot.  Plant these up with tall growing flowering plants such as this Allium above. These will help cover/conceal the wall/fence backdrop and give you a sense of being immersed in the garden.

 

hydrenga patio

Step 4

To create another layer add smaller pots to the front of the arrangement.

hydrenga patio and garden

 

Step 5

Add in your garden furniture, a couple of chairs, a bench, a small side table whatever you have room for.

 

 

And there you have it in five easy steps your perfect summer patio planted up. Now you can really get amongst it and enjoy summer on the patio.

Something for Nothing

Ever the keen gardener my eyes are always peeled as I walk along surburban streets and parks alike to see what I can find.  Many of my garden plants are bourne of seed pods spotted and picked in the depths of winter or cuttings from friends and families gardens. These ones shown below I spotted a few weeks ago dangling daintly from a twig like shrub devoid of all its leaves so no idea what to expect from the planted seeds found inside the pods.  Watch this space……..

 

Spotted dangling daintily

seeds in a pod, plant in a pot

 

these little beauties found inside the pods wonder what joys they will bring….

   

the begining of a wisteria vine

 

It will take a few years but the wisteria vine will eventually be producing beautiful blooms like the mother plant pictured  in early summer

Last years major seed haul produced two huge pots of lupins which have started to sprout already again this year.  Mine looked  great  displayed in large tall pots on the patio or you can plant them up in the border in a sunny position.   The plants also produced another yield of seeds that I have just planted to produce more blooms this year which I will be able to share with friends.