Add colour and interest to your hanging baskets & Containers

Colour from Hanging Baskets & Patio containers

One of the very best ways to add a profusion of colour to your garden is to plant up a selection of Hanging baskets, window boxes and patio planters and late April is the ideal time to do just that.

Summer flowering bedding and patio plants flower from now right up until early winter providing months of welcome colour for your garden and patio areas.

No other selection of plants provides such welcome colour for such a long period as bedding and patio plants, they are easy to grow and flower for months.

Now is the ideal time to plant a selection of window boxes and hanging baskets in your garden. It’s important to select a large enough basket or container as this makes it easier to maintain and creates more colour and interest. For hanging baskets I recommend you use 14 or 16 inch baskets, these are large enough to create a stunning display of colour to create colour from May to October.

The plants I recommend you plant in your patio planters, hanging baskets and window boxes include – Trailing petunias, White trailing Bacopa, Purple trailing verbena, trailing geraniums and fuchsia, Lobelia in mixed colours, Million bell petunias, Busie lizzies, double begonias and scented white alyssum.

Remember to use good quality compost and add some slow release feed all granules to the compost before planting.

Regular watering and feeding is important to promote a stunning show of long – lasting colour, feed all your containers weekly with ONE liquid feed.

My tips for this week

1. Late April is a great time to plant some early and main crop potatoes in planters or directly out into ridges and drills. Plant varieties like Red Duke of York, Sharpes express home guards and British Queens for great tasting early potatoes in mid summer.
2. Plant Apple trees now – I recommend the Apple family tree; this is two varieties of eating apples which have been grafted onto the on tree. You can grow your family apple tree in a pot or directly into the garden soil. Family apple trees will provide you with two varieties of great tasting apples from the one tree and are so easy to grow.
3. Plant Sweet Pea Plants now in large containers or directly out into the garden soil for sweetly scented blooms all summer long. Sweet peas are ideal for covering trellis, wire or netting to provide cover and scented colour all summer long.
4. Shamrock seed can be sown now out of doors in pots or directly out into the garden soil to provide you with lots of rich green shamrock for St Patrick’s Day next march. Shamrock seed is easy to sow and grow – go on give it a try.
5. Problems with Deer, Hares, Rabbits or Pigeons eating your garden plants? Use a dressing of GRAZERS to ward off unwanted attention from these garden pests. Apply a dressing of grazers to the effected area, its easy to apply and will not harm the animals or plants.
6. Rhododendrons are bursting into flower, and now is a super time to plant Rhododendron in your garden. They are now available in a wide choice of colours and types and many are ideal for planted containers or shrub borders. Remember to feed all existing Rhododendron, Camellia, Pieries and Azaleas with the slow release rhododendron fertiliser now and again in mid summer.
7. Grow Totem Tomato plants on your Window sill or Patio area – Totem is a compact dwarf variety that is ideal to grow inside on a window sill or patio area. It produces good sized tomatoes on a compact shaped plant.
8. Replacement hedging plants of Green Privet, portugusese and green Laurel can be planted now to fill in gaps or replace damaged plants in your existing hedge. It’s also a great time to plant a new hedge in your garden. Strong hedging plants are now available for planting and soil conditions are just ideal.
9. Feed all hedging, shrubs and trees now with Super grow fertiliser. Many of your garden plants will be showing the effects of the winter damage with scorched and damaged foliage and stems. Super grow will encourage strong new growth and will replace lost energy.
10. Plant Marrow, courgette and cucumber plants now for great tasting fruit in mid summer. Marrow and Courgette can be planted out doors in mid may to grow on and fruit, whilst cucumbers are better planted in a greenhouse or polytunnel or warm patio for lots of pickings from mid summer.
11. Wild flower meadow seed can be sown now to create a wild flower meadow or patch in your garden. Wild flower mixes contain a selection of beautiful flowering wild flowers including Poppies, cornflowers, foxgloves, and many more to add colour and interest to your garden.
12. Dandelions and Daises are a problem in most lawns this season – take action now by applying a dressing of Dandelion and daisy killer to your lawn, the treatment will kill any broadleaved weeds without affecting your lawn.
13. Green up your lawn without forcing growth by applying a slow release lawn fertiliser to the entire lawn area – apply the dressing lightly and evenly using a lawn spreader.
14. Now is a great time to sow a new Lawn – I recommend you use a dwarf lawn seed mix like green velvet. Green velvet will provide you with a hard wearing rich green lawn that is easy to mow and maintain and ideal for kids and pets to play on.

Join Paraic Horkan this Saturday and every Saturday morning from 9am to 10am on mid west radio for the gardening programme