Window boxes/hanging baskets etc

cosnochta

I'm a total novice with no idea about any kind of gardening. Just moved into a little house that has a small paved yard to the rear. We would love to make this into a little oasis by having pots, hanging baskets, a trellis (maybe) and a window box for the kitchen windowsill.

I'm looking for advice on what I should plant that will be low-maintenance and would perhaps be evergreen so the yard looks nice all year round. I really haven't got a clue at all, so I apologise in advance if I ask ridiculously stupid questions.

Thanks!

The Sweeper

How much sunshine does this wee yard get? Also, how small is small? I'm not looking for exact measures, but give us an idea of size and orientation (direction it faces and therefore how much sun various bits of it get during the day) and we'll give you ideas...

Dizzyblonde

Ivies look good in window boxes and baskets and are evergreen. For colour, at this time of year your best bet is cyclamen or pansies. Then in Spring and summer there will be a better selection of flowering and trailing plants and you can change them.

cosnochta

The Sweeper wrote: »

How much sunshine does this wee yard get? Also, how small is small? I'm not looking for exact measures, but give us an idea of size and orientation (direction it faces and therefore how much sun various bits of it get during the day) and we'll give you ideas...

Rough estimate 2metres X 4metres
The walls are quite high so it only gets a bit of sun down one end and no sun at the other end.

cosnochta

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

Ivies look good in window boxes and baskets and are evergreen. For colour, at this time of year your best bet is cyclamen or pansies. Then in Spring and summer there will be a better selection of flowering and trailing plants and you can change them.

Is ivy hard to keep under control? I have visions of it taking over the whole yard. lol

Would heather be an option? And is it possible to put a mix of evergreen and seasonal plants in the one pot so it changes appearance with the seasons.

The Sweeper

Potentially expensive, but just perfect for pots in a sheltered courtyard with no wind, brightness but shelter from hot sun: japanese maples. Try a genus called acer palmatum dissectum - these are small, weeping trees, suitable for pots, with stunning foliage colour.

Acer palmatum dissectum in Ever Red or Crimson Queen are both red/burgundy varieties that would live happily in a pot and get no larger than around 1.5 metres, so they'd be a great feature plant.

Herbs are great pot plants as well and can add gorgeous scent and colour to small gardens - try lavendar (various, but hidcote blue varieties reach about 30cms and you can also buy english lavendar in pink and that gets to around 40cm tops) and rosemary (would prefer the sun, but is quite hardy).

If you want to put a creeper up one wall, you'll need something that won't take over your entire garden space. Don't disregard deciduous if you already have screening walls - the lack of leaves in winter can let in additional light to a small space and every last bit of light counts in winter. Consider attaching a trellis to one wall and growing a flowering annual - (like sweet pea? Yeah, I know, the seventies called and they want their garden back. ) Alternatively try a jasmine. Chinese star jasmine is an evergreen that you can plant in a pot and espallier up a fan-shaped trellis from the pot - won't take over, and the flowers have a beautiful scent.

Shade lovers may also be your friend in this situation. There are a lot of plants that can do very well in pots and function well in shaded conditions. Try Daphne - specifically daphne odora, a slow-growing evergreen perennial with flowers that range from pink to white, and have a really magnificent scent.

In such a small space, you'll want colour and fragrance and you can't afford to have something that's all foliage and no fun, as it were - unless the foliage has a fantastic colour. Herbs will thrive, provide colour and scent and also be very useful in your kitchen. Bulbs do well in pots too - hyacinths and lilies may both give you a surprise when planted in pots, as will daffodils and tulips planted for spring flowering.

Various plants in the Heuchera genus suit both shade and pots - these are evergreen perennials with interesting, dense, often coloured foliage, that flower with attractive flowers from spring to autumn - depends on the variety you pick what colours you get.

If you have some sun, or at least bright light, consider azaleas. These plants are great for pots because they like acidic soil and you can buy acidic potting soil in garden centres and control the acidic environment in the pot to suit the plant. There are a LARGE range of azaleas to choose from, but with around four hours of sunshine a day, you should be able to find one that will throw very striking flowers.

Choose attractive pots - terracotta is great in a warm spot, but in a shady spot, terracotta pots can get mossy and dank looking. If you choose 'display' pots, like enamelled clay pots etc, remember it's often better to plant up in a light, plastic pot and place THAT pot inside the display pot. Makes it easier to treat problems in the plant, feed it, repot it and so on if needed.

Raid your local garden centres for ideas - perennial, evergreen shade plants and a few interesting splashes of colour will do the trick as a starting point to ask questions.

Dizzyblonde

cosnochta wrote: »

Is ivy hard to keep under control? I have visions of it taking over the whole yard. lol

Would heather be an option? And is it possible to put a mix of evergreen and seasonal plants in the one pot so it changes appearance with the seasons.

Ivies in window boxes and baskets are extremely easy to control because there's nowhere for them to spread too, and they provide greenery all year round. Small conifers are good too. Then you just add whatever flowering plants are in season.
A mix of evergreen and flowering plants is lovely.

Dizzyblonde

Spring bulbs are in the shops now - B&Q have a great selection. You could plant crucuses, dwarf daffodils etc in containers between now and November and have a beautiful display in the spring.

cosnochta

Thanks for all the ideas so far. It's given me a lot to think about!!

Just saw that they have a lot of plants in lidl this week. Would any of them be suitable?

http://www.lidl.ie/ie/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20090924.index

(They're at the bottom of the offers page)

Thanks!

The Sweeper

Yep, the primroses and violas are fine (violas can self seed so mind you don't start finding them in your other plant pots - unless you want them there). There's a cyclamen and pansies there too, as originally recommended by Dizzyblonde. I have no idea how good the quality of plants from lidl are.

Just a note about what you're buying: most pansies are biennials. In their first year of life, they produce foliage, and in the second year they produce flowers, then seeds. You're buying flowering pansies in their second year of life. They'll survive the winter, and then die and need to be replaced. (Not a problem really seeing how cheap they are, but just so you know.) The same will probably apply to the other mixed flowers in that punnet - violas etc.

Primroses are a herbaceous perennial.

A perennial plant will survive a number of years (as opposed to a single year - annual, or two years, biennial). A herbaceous plant has foliage that dies back to ground level every year, so there is no permanent stem above the ground - but being perennial, primroses will come back up again each year.