Herbs In Containers

Of all the possible container plants, herbs must be amongst the best to grow for several reasons.

First, they are not hard to grow, an important requirement, and second, they are useful in more than one way. Herbs can be decorative with their different leaf shapes and colours and they represent a growing resource for the kitchen table.

The problem to bear in mind with herbs is that once you start you will find that you need increasingly more and more containers to house your collection! On the subject of mint alone there are countless varieties, all with their own unique flavour and culinary use.

The best place for herb containers is by the kitchen door so that you can select the ones you want without having to go out too far into the garden.

Growing them is simple, you need a large container (or containers) some good compost and then just a little time to choose the plants and allow them to grow. After that maintenance is limited to watering and tidying the plants.

There is something nice about being able to walk outside and pick fresh herbs for the table whenever you want so a herb container is a must for any garden.

In addition, herbs look good in their own right so they can also be used as decorative plants.

If you live in a house that does not have a garden then all is not lost because herbs grow well near a window or window box.

Your choice will depend on what you use but old favourites like mint, chives, coriander, dill and bay are probably the most popular.

Hanging Baskets 2

We looked in the last post at the mechanics of hanging baskets but his week we can look at the plants that go inside.

It's important to note that I am discussing hanging baskets used in Europe. If you live elsewhere in the world then you will need to use different plants more suited to your environment.

What sort of plants to use
It is possible to use any bedding plants you wish provided that they are small and grow well. However, you also have the chance to use trailing plants as well which cannot normally be used in a container.

Take some time and choose well, matching the colours of the flowers with the contrast of the leaves. I like to see hanging baskets that are full of both flowers and unusual greenery. However, having said that, it is also possible to produce a hanging basket that has just one colour as a theme but, perhaps, a variety of shades of that colour.

It is impossible to list all the plants available but a search on the internet for 'plants hanging baskets' will produce a list that you can then take to garden centre or nursery.

Edible
As well as flowers, it is also possible (and fun) to plant a basket (or part of a basket) that is edible.

Both strawberries and tomatoes can be used, mixed in with the flowers and can look very nice.

If you decide to try this, go for the smaller varieties of fruit, and to find out more search on the internet for these words 'fruit hanging baskets'. I was, quite frankly, amazed at the results that I was given. I had not realised that so much choice was available.

Remember that my choice is for Europe, if you live somewhere where the climate is warmer then you have much more of a selection of edible plants to grow.

Edible or non-edible, hanging baskets are, perhaps, the queen of containers and can instantly transform the look of a house. Once you have used a hanging basket then you will always have one.

Hanging Baskets 1

Hanging baskets are amongst the easiest and prettiest containers that you can create in your garden (or on your wall).

Today we will more at the mechanics of planting and using hanging baskets while in the next post we will look at the plants that you can use.

Types of basket
There are two sorts of baskets: those with open sides and those without.

Open-sided baskets are the traditional ones that are made of metal mesh or, alternatively, now made of plastic but with open sides that require some sort of liner.

Traditionally, sphagnum moss was used as a liner but this is quite difficult to use and a modern, fibre liner is recommended. These are available quite readily and simply need placing inside the basket before it is filled with compost.

Solid baskets just need filling with compost as you would with any container but you are unable to plant into the sides and so they do not, in my opinion, look as good.

Finally, make sure that the support that you use is firm and in good repair if it is an old one.

How to plant
First of all, make sure you consider the water requirements. Open-sided baskets dry out quickly and, as the Summers get warmer, they will definitely need watering twice a day at least on hot days - sometimes three times.

There are various products available that will help retain water by soaking it up as you fill the container and then releasing it slowly during the day and they seem to work well.

As for the planting, handing baskets need no special care and can be planted in just the same way as any other container.

However, do watch the weight of the container which, when full of compost and water, can be considerable, and make sure that the support is ample.

Hanging baskets attached to the house can make all the difference to the look of the house and, once you have one, you will definitely want to renew and use it each year!

Shrubs In Containers 2

In the last post we looked at ways of creating containers of shrubs that would go some way towards hiding an unsightly fence or wall.

This post will look at some of the plants that you could use, but will look at them in a slightly different way to most gardening articles.

Shape
It helps to think of a garden just as shapes and then as shapes and colours before you begin to assign plants to the various areas.

A fence or wall is a long solid shape that extends, usually, most of the way along one side of a garden. To help hide that shape you need, not more rectangles, but curves.

Plants generally grow from a central stem and so this can help give them a conical shape but some plants achieve this better than others.

If you can, then, choose or prune plants into curves or shapes that have a curved side.

Colour
You want the plants to appear bold against the background so choose strong colours. You can choose contrasting colours but this might have the effect of creating little blobs of colour along a straight background where you really want to soften the line of the background.

Try colours that are closer to the each other and closer to the background, too. This will break up the background straight lines and so soften them.

Plants
Now we can look at what plants to choose. Obviously, the larger plants can be shrubs and more or less any shrub will suffice.

Have a look at the escallonias, they are well coloured with dense leaves, although they are not very conical in shape.

Berberis, of course, has a good selection of varieties as well as euonymus, both the silver and gold varieties.

For the smaller plants, you can use any that you have already or choose flowering plants that have the colours that you want.

Using containers in this way is an excellent use for them and has the advantage that you can move the containers around (or perhaps just the small ones) to create a different perspective from time to time.