Whether your garden is large or small, use containers to add colour, structure and interest
- Containers in shady areas need enough light for plants to survive. Choose shade-loving plants for those in shady areas.
- Plant low-growing, cascading flowers around tall, leafy plants.
- Mix popular herbs with flowering plants, for example chives and carnations.
- Fruit and vegetables such as dwarf tomatoes and peppers and lemon trees are colourful and ornamental in containers.
- Consider putting big, heavy containers on a platform with wheels to make it easy to move them.
- Group a selection of containers in different heights and sizes.
- Roses can be grown successfully in a container in a sunny spot. A climbing variety can be used singly with a support or even combined with a low-growing variety.
- Use containers planted with evergreen shrubs like lavender or a small cupressus tree to lend a particular style such as French or formal or just as a focal point.
- To hide bare walls, use hanging containers or vertical planters or place containers with climbing plants next to a trellis. Obelisks also look attractive placed on top of a pot.
- To keep containers looking good, water them fairly frequently, remove dead and tatty growth and pinch of the ends of some of the shoots for a more compact or bushy growth.