Ever wondered how to keep your container gardens vibrant and teeming with life all year round? Tune in to our latest Master my Garden podcast, where we transform your planting strategies from temporary to timeless. We're dissecting the secrets to bountiful hanging baskets, window boxes, and planters, giving you the know-how to blend the best of ornamental and culinary herbs for that perfect herb planter. From the dynamic use of structural plants to the delicate care of shade-loving plants & alpines, this episode is your guide to a garden that captivates with every season.
Today, we're not just talking foliage; we're ensuring every plant thrives with practical tips on soil nutrition and the magic touch of seaweed-based feeds. You'll learn why compost mixed with farmyard manure and seaweed meal can be a game-changer for your plant's health. Plus, discover my personal planting favorites for creating show-stopping front door displays that leave neighbors green with envy. With a focus on quality growing mediums and the art of consistent care, let's dig into the practices that will have your container garden flourishing for months on end.
If there is any topic you would like covered in future episodes, please let me know. Email: info@mastermygarden.com
Ever wondered how to keep your container gardens vibrant and teeming with life all year round? Tune in to our latest Master my Garden podcast, where we transform your planting strategies from temporary to timeless. We're dissecting the secrets to bountiful hanging baskets, window boxes, and planters, giving you the know-how to blend the best of ornamental and culinary herbs for that perfect herb planter. From the dynamic use of structural plants to the delicate care of shade-loving plants & alpines, this episode is your guide to a garden that captivates with every season.
Today, we're not just talking foliage; we're ensuring every plant thrives with practical tips on soil nutrition and the magic touch of seaweed-based feeds. You'll learn why compost mixed with farmyard manure and seaweed meal can be a game-changer for your plant's health. Plus, discover my personal planting favorites for creating show-stopping front door displays that leave neighbors green with envy. With a focus on quality growing mediums and the art of consistent care, let's dig into the practices that will have your container garden flourishing for months on end.
If there is any topic you would like covered in future episodes, please let me know. Email: info@mastermygarden.com
How's it going, everybody, and welcome to episode 226 of Master my Garden podcast. Now, this week's episode, we're looking at the subject of growing in containers and you know covering things like hanging baskets, window boxes, planters, you know that type of thing and at this time of the year, those, all of those are. You know it's one of the most popular things that people do at this time of the year. They fill up their containers, their hanging baskets, their window boxes, their mangers, their troughs and so on with bedding plants and that gives a huge splash of color and you'll see it through all the towns and villages throughout the country. You'll see streets where you know all of the hanging baskets go out and they can look really good. And yeah, it's, it's, it's a huge, gives a huge splash of color and vibrancy at this time of the year. And if you get kind of a decent summer in terms of nice weather, not so much rain last year wasn't a good year for hanging baskets in general because we had constant rain from sort of June through to early September but if you get kind of decent, normal, typical summer weather, then they can look very, very good for long periods of time. But we mentioned it on a previous episode. Episode 123 actually was an episode where we looked at kind of plant combinations and the best practice on how to combine plants, how to make them look good together. How to combine plants, how to make them look good together and I suppose we'll look a little bit at that again in this episode but also how to care for bedding plants, hanging baskets, window boxes and so on, some good tips to kind of keep them looking for a longer period of time, looking good for a longer period of time, and then also look at some kind of good alternatives. So I suppose we mentioned it on previous podcasts as well where it kind of is a good idea to put in sort of more structured plants and then you just use the bedding around the outside as kind of the dressing on it, but that the structure of the basket, the structure of the you know the potter container, is there kind of 12 months of the year, and then you're adding little splashes of color through bulbs, through bedding plants, at other periods during the year and kind of two switches, you know, from your summer to your autumn, winter, will give you kind of 12 months of color in two simple switches once you have a good, a good plant in the center with with a bit of a, you know, structure to it and leaf interest or foliage interest, something like that, and then, as I say, filling in around that with with some, some bedding after that. And, yeah, as I say, episode 22, 123, if you want to go back on that one, and that'll give you a kind of good plant computations and so on. First thing to remember when it comes to to bedding plants and you're planting at this time of the year into containers of any sort, is that you're, generally speaking, looking at a small amount of growing media and then quite a you know it's going to be quite densely packed with bedding plants and and that's what gives you the impact. You know you have a lot of flower in a small space. Just thinking about that. Then you typically have that in a growing media In Ireland here still, it's predominantly peat-based growing medias that are being used Not exclusively but predominantly.
Speaker 1:
And then in the UK, you know it's generally speaking, now switch to peat free. Whichever one you use, whether it's peat free or it's peat based multi-purpose compost or tub and basket compost, for example. That's going to be generally speaking. There's going to be added, going to be. Generally speaking, there's going to be added fertilizer in that, but the media itself is it can. The that amount of plants places a high demand on the on the growing media. So I would always recommend to mix your multi-purpose compost with some farmyard manure, with some johnnyness compost mix, and definitely add in seaweed meal into that and that mix will give you a couple of things. It'll give you better water retention, it'll have more um, more natural elements to help the root zone of the plant, it will stop it drying out quickly, it'll hold nutrients better and it'll be just an all-around better mix for that intensity of planting and that's. That's a good, a good thing to do at the start.
Speaker 1:
Seaweed in general is you know whether it's adding granular seaweed into the planting at planting stage but also liquid seaweed as a sort of a healthy way of boosting, of boosting the baskets, boosting the plants and keeping vibrancy in it. Once, once every two to three weeks, giving it a liquid feed of seaweed will definitely help and will definitely allow you to extend, I suppose, the season. As to bed and pants, typically you're getting maximum kind of three months out of it, but by using seaweed you'll be able to kind of get longer. It'll also prevent things like um getting a shock from from drought or drying out. It'll keep them producing strong, healthy leaf growth, root growth, which in turn will lead to strong and healthy flowers. So typically, given a feed every couple of weeks with seaweed will be a huge advantage, as well as adding it into the growing media. Also, bedding plants like that we were talking about a lot of flower growth and that typically needs k. So npk is going to the nitrogen is is going to give you a leafy growth, but the k is really what you need for for flowers. So high potash feeds and definitely you will need that to extend the flowering and keep the flowering looking good.
Speaker 1:
The other important thing that a lot of people either forget to do or don't bother doing is deadheading, and that really is important. It's not the most glamorous job in the world but once a week to just go and pick off any kind of dead flowers or flowers that have just gone over. What that does is it takes off those decaying flowers, number one, which keeps the plants healthy. Also, it it encourages new flowers to come forward and new buds to form. So deadheading is really important but, as I say, an often, often overlooked sort of job when it comes to the maintaining of hanging baskets.
Speaker 1:
When it comes to the plant combinations, as I say, we mentioned them before, but you're looking at, you know the, the likes of all the bedding plants, really, you know the pansies, the petunias, the violas, the creeping plants like bacopas, or the climbing um trading plants like bacopas, geraniums, serfinas, begonias, the non-stop begonias used a lot and probably one of the best plants that you can use in in hanging baskets, planters and so on. And some of these plants, you know, are annuals. A lot of them are treated just as annuals generally, but some of them, if they're, if they're minded, likes the geraniums, the likes of the non-stop begonias, they can actually become almost perennial in that all you need to do is take away the corms afterwards, take them into you know a dry place, let them dry out and then replant them again the following year and they will keep producing flowers for years and years to come. Uh, geraniums as well, they can be minded and overwintered. Most cases, you will need to bring them into a greenhouse or polytunnel or conservatory to do that, but you can cut them right back, pot them on and then feed them up as you come into the following spring and they'll they'll produce again for the second year. So you're getting, I suppose, almost a perennial type effect from from what is generally treated as annual plants, and then all the other bedding plants obviously give you the splash of color that that you're looking for. Uh, different plant, you know color schemes that you might be going for. You pretty much get a flower for any color scheme, whether that's a, you know, pink scheme, a red scheme, white yellows and so on. So you just choose your plants to go to that color scheme, but episode 123 will give you kind of good combinations.
Speaker 1:
What we wanted to look at today, though, as well, was looking at the possibility of adding different plants or looking at containers in a different way. So, instead of just using bed and plants and adding, you know, filling your containers with those and all the intensity that goes into producing those for a short window of time, why not look at other plant combinations or other ideas for for containers? And there's, you know there's the multitude of them. We spoke about them on the podcast previously. There's from, uh, there's dial a couple weeks ago, where he mentioned, you know, using something like a fatia in your planters, in your relatively big planters and then just around the base of it, just sort of dressing that with bedding plants, so you still have your structure, your nice leaf, your color from the fatia, and then around the edges you're just dropping in a little bit of color, a little splash of color, and that's giving you your sort of 12 month. You just dropping in a little bit of color, a little splash of color, and that's giving you your, your sort of 12 month. You just whip out a little bit of bedding in the summer, coming into the late autumn, early winter, you add in some bulbs or some winter bedding and then that gets you through to the next next. You know sort of this time next year when you're going to put in your, your summer bedding again. And it's a much simpler cycling than completely changing everything.
Speaker 1:
But there is other options as well. So let's look at some of those. So planting, for example, a rose, a really nice quality specimen rose, a david austin rose, suitable for, suitable for growing in pots. That could be a patio rose or a miniature rose, and they will produce large amounts of flower. Typically they're going to be smaller type flowers than the normal rose flower that you'd be used to seeing, but they'll be very prolific in terms of flowering and that will flower for a lot longer than bedding plants typically would. Again, you will need to, you know, ensure that, as with all containers, that you're putting quite good quality growing median there. You are using things like seaweed, again, and fertilizer to make sure that you're getting the most out of that plant. But a good miniature rose, a good patio rose, could flower for, you know, up to six months and that gives you a pot with great color. You can get different plant combinations or different flower combinations so you can get all pink flowers, all whites, all yellows, all reds and so on, and that will give you color over a really long period of time. And so roses are a really good option for a singular planting of, you know, of a container.
Speaker 1:
The other options, you know you can look at things like grasses. So, for example, if you have terracotta pots actual terracotta, the terracotta colored pots they can look really good with different types of grasses in them. You know things like miscantus and you're looking at the hackenaclias carex you know that type of grasses and sedges. They can look really good. Astelias, astelias, silver shadow, and they're know they're foliage based, but sometimes containers can look brilliant with just the contrast of foliage, the different heights of maybe two or three different grasses. In there you might have a Hachinoclea and a Miscanthus and they'll give you different textures, different heights, different colours, all within the same planter. Now, it's not's not, you know, high flower, like a bedding plant, but it can be really interesting and and look really well and that particularly looks well with a terracotta pot or a terracotta colored pot. So it's not that you know, as I say, high color, but it's certainly really interesting.
Speaker 1:
I got two ferns last year and potted them into as just a basic pot, really basic pot, but I had them at the front door because there's like a porch and doesn't get sun. So I got ferns because they're kind of they like shade and they're an evergreen fern. They look quite good. So you have the glossy leaf in the wintertime. The variety is not coming to me my mind at the moment, but they look really good in the wintertime. But for the last month, as they're entering their spring color, they've looked really interesting. So the the leaf has been uncurling and it's shown this kind of lime green vibrant, this lime green vibrant leaf just above the canopy of the old leaf and it looks really good now that those leaves will change now, over this, over the next couple of months, and they'll go darker and then they'll become the, you know, the dark, glossy leaf of next winter. But it's changing all the time and it's a single plant but very suitable for a shaded spot, so takes very little water, takes very little maintenance, just, you know, occasional watering and it looks really good and something interesting all the time. And you know when it, when it was uncurling a couple of weeks ago, that looked really interesting, really good, and even my five-year-old girl was out looking at it because they were just they're interesting, looking like kind of curly leaves and and they were interesting as they were opening up.
Speaker 1:
Other options are, you know, alpines. Alpines are a brilliant option for containers, especially, you know, if you've small containers or you're going on something like a window, windowsill or little patio area. So alpines, you know things like saxifrage, oxalis, obreaches, that type of thing. There's, you know there's so many there Luisia, cotyledons, diascas, any of those type. You know rock plants or alpine plants and they will need a slightly different growing media. So you'll mix a bit of horticultural grit through it or or gritty sand through it. They want to be free draining. They're generally, you know, they like growing in. They don't need a huge amount of food necessarily. They'll grow in areas that are, you know, as the name suggests, rock, rock or alpine. So they don't need, they're not as demanding as, say, bedding plants or whatever. So that's a really good option.
Speaker 1:
Then, with the right combinations of alpines, you'll get flower. They're daintier, they're less, I suppose, vibrant and and big and bold than your bedding plants might be, but they're daintier, they tend to multiply as well and fill out a lot better and obviously then they're long term. So you know, a nice planter planted up with alpines will give interest 12 months of the year. Will it be be especially nice spring, summer, as they flower and, yeah, as, as I said, they can look brilliant. So alpines are a good mix. So Saxifrage, oxalis, dianthus, luisia, diascus, those type plants and, as I said, look really good.
Speaker 1:
Then other plants say, if you're in again, if you're in a shaded area like where, where I was, other plants that would work really well in containers hostas, and hostas combined, combined with the likes of the hackenaclaia that I mentioned earlier. So grassy, the grassy hackenaclaia with the big leafy hosta and they, they will look really well intertwined with one another and you can get so many different colors, textures, sizes of hostas and many people worry about them in relation to slugs, but when you're in containers it's actually quite easy to control that by starting fresh at the start, making sure there's no slugs inside and using something like a copper tape afterwards and they can multiply and really fill out that pot and then during during the summer months, when that has filled out the pot, it's only, it's only leaf color and texture that you're looking at, but it can look really really well and, again, really suitable for a terracotta pot. You know the terracotta color and then your different variances of green and lime green and dark green and the different leaf textures and structures up on top can look really good and really simple. And in terms of maintenance, you know you have no deadheading. You know good feed kind of twice a year will will really do there. Maybe need to repot them every three, four years and need a little bit of. You know they will need water okay, but not a huge amount, so there's less input needed to keep it looking well. But again, it's not a flower, high flower, high color, but definitely a lower maintenance and really nice looking way of doing it.
Speaker 1:
Other suitable plants for sort of shady area, things like heucheras again, they look good pretty much all year round still. Bees is another one. They will die back for the, you know, the winter time, but during the summertime they will look really good. They'll have an interesting leaf and an interesting flower again not necessarily a high color like you'd expect to see in bedding plants, but nonetheless a really interesting plant and a good plant for for containers. Things like skimmy is then as well. They're more given more interest in the winter time, say, than than in the summer time, but you can use a skimmy and then you're under planted with a little bit of bedding to give you that, you know, to give you that color in the summer months.
Speaker 1:
Herbs, then, is another really good option. So this would be more not necessarily for your. You wouldn't necessarily put it on your at your front door, for example, but you might put it near your patio where you're going to be cooking on a regular basis or where your dining area is outside. And this is a herb planter and you'll use probably a similar type mix to what you'll have used with the alpine, so you'll be mixing horticultural grit through that, and it can be really interesting as well.
Speaker 1:
The beauty of having it near your patio, obviously, is that you can use it as required while you're out doing, doing your outdoor entertaining, your outdoor cooking. And you can use plants like bay, thyme, rosemary sage and all of those. Will you know. For example, rosemary, you know you can get really nice flower in that the sage you can get a purple leaf version which you know tastes quite similar to the standard edible sage that we know looks attractive, can be used in the same way, tastes the same. Then you'll have things like thyme. Again, you can have different versions of thyme, that will you know. If you're looking for more of the aesthetic and you know a little bit of the culinary, you can mix in the different colours. Then, obviously, the standard stuff like parsley, oregano and, and you know, any of those type herbs, and you can get, as I say, ornamental looking versions of it that still have a functional culinary benefit as well, and so that's another way of of of creating something different that doesn't require a huge amount of work. You keep the, keep them cut regularly, so use them regularly, and that means that you can, you can, continuously have this kind of fresh, this fresh growth from them and you know that that's another really good type of container.
Speaker 1:
Then, obviously, looking at things like front doors, we I will be changing one tomorrow, not here on somebody else's garden somebody has asked me to change out their, their pot on the front door. Their pots on the front door they have two really big would have been, you know, quite, quite nice at the start books as cones, and they have one of them has basically died and what's happening is what happens a lot with the likes of a boxes, so they get put at the front door, which is typically tied to the wall either side of the of your front entrance and that is typically sitting under the eve of the house. You know. So, generally, you might think that we've had a lot of rain over the last few months, but there might have no rainfall hit those planters and you think because it's raining, you don't need to look at them. And then, all of a sudden, someday you just realize that it's gone yellow and it's gone past its best and when you look at it it's bone dry. And that's so common it's.
Speaker 1:
It's a real pity that young people are getting these planters, getting these really nice plants and then it literally only takes a jug of water every couple of weeks to keep them right. But it gets forgotten about. Seaweed is your friend again when it comes to things like that. It really keeps the plants looking vibrant. So apply it as a root drench and as a spray on onto the leaves and it does, as I say, keeps the plants looking vibrant. So apply it as a root drench and as a spray on onto the leaves and it does, as I say, keep keep them looking vibrant.
Speaker 1:
So when it comes to, when it comes to front door, I tend I wouldn't tend to use something like just boxes. You know they can be, they can be good if they're minded, looked after and kept, trimmed, kept fed, kept watered and cared for, I guess. But they're also a little bit one-dimensional. So they look really good in terms of structure and things like that, but there's not much about them. They look the same all year round.
Speaker 1:
Again, the combination that Des Dial mentioned a couple of weeks ago, where he was using the Faxia as the main centerpiece, then interchanging that with some, you know, maybe some summer perennials, summer bedding, and then switching that out in the autumn time, putting in some the likes of Jetfire and Tetetet bulbs, and autumn bedding like Violas and Pansies and so on, and it's really good to have, you know, a centerpiece plant like that, that that can hold all year round, that gives you that kind of structure and continuity in the planter, and then you're just changing the colors or changing the, the flowering element of it, and that's a another really good way to do it. Whatever, whatever you're doing with containers, the the big key point, though, is the you know to make sure that you're putting and a decent growing media into it, because, generally speaking, you're asking that growing media to give a lot, because the, the demand from the plants above is quite high in generally a small amount of growing media. So, and again, seaweed. I probably said it four or five times at this stage, but seaweed is a real, real game changer when it comes to keeping all that stuff looking good. So, regular, you know, every two, three weeks, feed with seaweed, you might need to add some, as, as I say, k high potash food as well if you're using a lot of bedding plants or a lot of flour in it, because they do need that extra bit of that, of that element k, and that will keep the flowers looking good. But certainly, you know, seaweed mixed with a tub and basket food or something like that will give you will be hugely beneficial in keeping keeping everything looking lush, keeping everything looking fresh and good.
Speaker 1:
So yeah, that's, that's kind of this week's episode, relatively short episode, but a very topical one at this time of the year. Weather has really picked up over the last week but still getting heavy showers in certain parts of Ireland here. Actually, today as I record this, we had a really good day up until kind of lunchtime and then, out of nowhere, this heavy tundra downpour came and a lot of rain fell in about 30 minutes and then went back to beautiful conditions again. So nice enough, but that type of tundra heavy rain is can be quite damaging on bedding plants. So just watch that.
Speaker 1:
If you are putting out the likes of a you know a hanging basket or a window box, just be careful of things like that at this stage. And if, if they do get, you know, damage from a shower like that at this stage of the year, just make sure you follow on and do a little bit of deadheading. Get off any of those flowers that are rotting or damaged, because they will cause damage to the plant elsewhere, and by taking them off then you allow new flowers to develop, new flowers to come forward, and yeah, it's, it's definitely a tedious job, but it's a worthwhile job. When it comes to containers, then, don't, you know, put lots of color where you want it, but don't go, you know, don't overdo it, because they need minding. Then afterwards and you do you do have to mind them. So either choose plants that are suitable for containers, that need less care and attention throughout the whole summer, or, you know, be sure you're able to get them water in any way, sure you're able to get them watered anyway, and don't forget about them, because even a day or two without water, you know, if they, the likes of bedding plants, get that they can struggle and it's very hard to get them back revived. So keep on top of your, your water and keep on top of your deadheading, ensure you're using a good growing media and that will keep your, your containers, your, your planters, looking great all year round. Play with combinations of, you know, other plantings that can sort of give you interest over a longer period of time and not just over the next kind of month or two for the bit that you would traditionally have with bedding and there's loads of options out there, loads of options for different areas, for shaded areas, for your dining areas and so on. And, yeah, play around with it, have fun with it. Lots of good options there and and if you check back on episode 123, there's good plant combinations there for sort of bedding, plant combinations and and how to position and so on.
Speaker 1:
Some lots of garden events really coming on stream now. So this weekend is open weekend in RHSI Bellafield. Paul Smith is doing talks down there. So if you check out their website, it's RHSI Bellafield and tours of the garden and good talks with Paul there. Then, obviously, bloom is on the horizon as well in June.
Speaker 1:
We'll chat a bit more about that in the coming weeks and leash garden festival mentioned it a couple of weeks ago. I'm speaking at that basically about how to create your own, grow your own garden from scratch, and carol wright from car bridge gardens is also talking at it, and I suppose the main speaker of the day is francis topple from bbc gardeners world and I'm sure she'll be talking about she has a new book out. She'll be talking about that. But they're you know, they're really interesting speakers, uh, if you're looking for grow your own, uh, that sort of thing I am. I'm giving the talk on that on the day, and just just look up Leash Garden Festival and it's on Sunday, the 9th of June, and again, we'll be chatting a bit more about that on the run-up to it and over the coming weeks. So there's lots going on. There's loads of garden shows, as I say, on the horizon, loads of plant fairs on the horizon. I try to keep you posted on them, as many as them as I can can. If there's any that you know that are coming up that you'd like mentioned on it, give me a shout, send me an email, info at mastermygardencom and I'll give it a shout out or give it a plug. Coming up to the event as well.
Speaker 1:
And, yes, gardening is in full swing now and weather is starting to play a ball over a longer period of time, and it's it's really really good. Growth is good, the temperatures are right up now over a longer period of time and it's it's really really good. Growth is good, the temperatures are right up now over the last couple of weeks here and, yeah, everything's kicking off for me in the garden. The potatoes are starting to push through the ground. Tomatoes are going into the tunnel this week. I know lots of you have them in for a while now, but for me, here I'll be going in now this week and you know lots of my tender stuff are really starting to burst out now to things like squash and french beans and all of that.
Speaker 1:
So, yeah, busy month, lots of sowing going on, lots of lots of planting going on and, yeah, generally, generally a busy month in the garden. But one of the most enjoyable months the the fact that we've had some nice, dry, dry, warm days. We're actually getting to enjoy it a little bit, getting to sit out an odd evening, and that's certainly something that's really welcome. Talking to somebody about it yesterday, I don't know what it is, but I just love eating outside. The person I was talking to said that they believe that the food tastes nicer outside and I don't know if that's if that's actually true or if it's just the feeling, but it is really nice to sit out and enjoy the outside, dine al fresco, enjoy the garden, and yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a nice time of the year, nice time of the year for sure.
Speaker 1:
So that's been this week's episode. The next week's episode. We have a couple of guest interviews coming up. They're kind of really interesting ones on the horizon and, yeah, with lots of, lots of interesting episodes coming up over the next couple of weeks. So that's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening and until the next time, happy gardening. Thank you.