Pot garden

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We had our front granite chipped a few years ago and used lots of pots. We found that really hard work in terms of watering and replacing them.

We now have plants actually in the granite chips - planted through the membrane. We have 3 pots of agapanthus which we put bulbs in for winter/spring colour and a fair few lumps of granite in between the plants. It is very easy to maintain

Callistemon

Esspee ??? not in the front garden, anyway!

At the back I have pots of rhododendrons, and a Japanese cedar, I also have a large hosta in a pot called Empress Wu?Maples are difficult as I live on the South Downs facing the sea and wind is an issue.

Our rhododendron didn't do well in a pot despite having ericaceous soil and has done better in a garden bed (so far).

They do need caring for. So they never have anything but rainwater which I carefully store all year. I water at least twice a week and more if they are drying. Lots of water and feed in summer through to autumn ensures masses of flowers in the spring.

I’m on the South Downs - chalk so no chance planting any acid lover, or even a neutral lover is touch and go like lupins.

My front ‘garden’ is really just a drive/ paved parking area and very, very windy. I only have two plants in pots (rather tattered and battered bay trees). People are surprised on entering my garden that is so lovely considering the front of the house is so bare, and dare I say it grim.

I’d suggest wandering around the neighbour with houses of a similar position and aspect to yours and seeing what has done well for others and taking pictures of what you particularly like. The local garden centre will be able to identify the different plants to purchase and how to care for them.

Pots need watering and refurbishing. Would you not be better with a small tree which could grow amidst the gravel and need no watering?

Esspee ??? not in the front garden, anyway!

At the back I have pots of rhododendrons, and a Japanese cedar, I also have a large hosta in a pot called Empress Wu?Maples are difficult as I live on the South Downs facing the sea and wind is an issue.

Our rhododendron didn't do well in a pot despite having ericaceous soil and has done better in a garden bed (so far).

Good point about location

JaneJudge

Olive trees love being in big terracotta pots but you will need to decide where you would want it first as it will be too heavy to move

I don't know where Lucky lives in the UK, but olives are not terribly keen on the NE unless in a very sheltered spot and coddled in the winter.

I grow lots of lilies in pots as they don't like my clay soil very much. They'd be nice for esspee's suggested succession of blooms.

I didn’t know that about your name Callistemon, I do like the bottle brush, there were a lot in France.

Olive trees love being in big terracotta pots but you will need to decide where you would want it first as it will be too heavy to move

seacliff

That sounds lovely Whitewave

Well I thought that it sounds as if lucky is halfway there with the gravel?

I was rather surprised at the thread title but as you are not in fact suggesting anything illegal may I suggest using coloured evergreen shrubs e.g. Euonymus emerald and gold kept neatly clipped, dwarf conifers of different shapes and colours, trailing plants such as variegated ivy with space for one plastic pot sunk into the soil to contain colourful seasonal interest.
Buy half a dozen plastic pots the same size and plant up things like dwarf daffodils, dwarf tulips, an azalea, pelargonium, dwarf rudbeckia, cyclamen, primula, etc. Try to get a succession of blooms. Use the empty pot amidst the shrubs to hold the other pots in turn and you have seasonal colour all year round.

That sounds lovely Whitewave

I have a Japanese type garden in the front. So gravel with two large different shaped rocks sitting in the gravel which I have surrounded with the lowest thyme I could find- it is a cerise colour, flowering at the moment and covered in bumbles. It should really be moss but it is too dry in my part of the world. I then have a few other smaller rocks and around all of them I make lines with a rake like a zen garden.

At the back I have pots of rhododendrons, and a Japanese cedar, I also have a large hosta in a pot called Empress Wu?Maples are difficult as I live on the South Downs facing the sea and wind is an issue.

But it looks really good, and takes up little time.

I read in a gardening magazine that if you put pieces of sponges at the bottom of the pot it help retain the water as the sponges soak it up when you water and release it slowly. I’m going to try it next year - too late now as I’m not going to dig up my pot plants!

My bottle brush is in a large pot. Some say they are a bit delicate in the wrong location
I am indeed very delicate but respond to tender loving care, some sun, sea, sand and sangria

Actually, my bottle brush/callistemon is doing well in a large pot, I used to wrap it in fleece in the winter but didn't bother last year.
Azaleas do well in pots, as do Daphne, Salix, Lavender, Pieris, Rosemary, Fuschias

I have pots outside my flat with buddleia (but spelled properly) fuschias, ivy, lobelia in.
Some are a good few years old, but the pot seems to give protection through winter, and up they come the next year.

We have three acers thriving in large tubs, all moved here with us. Most aren’t too happy in very windy positions so something to bear in mind. We also have a camellia and two rhododendron loving being in containers, remember they can and do grow fairly big, Spring flowers from those. Lavender is good for the summer, smells nice and the bees love it. Patio roses are happy in containers, shrub roses if the container is large. Bamboo seems to be happy enough in a container too. This year instead of bedding plants in our large planters outside the conservatory we have dahlias, first time we’ve put them in containers and they look stunning. Watering can be tiresome, the bigger the container the better it holds moisture. We put gravel or decorative stones on many of our containers, helps keep the moisture in. Most of our planting is now in containers, saves bending, if I like a plant I’ll often try it, usually they survive in spite of me . Enjoy choosing luckygirl, a wander around a local nursery will give you many more ideas I’m sure.

One thing I’d definitely get is an azalea. My mother in law gave me one in a pot when we moved into our first home, and it’s still going strong 36 years later, it never fails to put on a stunning display of bright pink each May.

Great - all wonderful ideas. That acer is beautiful!

Have the pots as big as you can and in drip trays. Use gel crystals mixed into the earth. All three things will save you having to water too often. Lavender does well and the bees love it.

My bottle brush is in a large pot. Some say they are a bit delicate in the wrong location. I have a Bay tree in a pot.
Grasses.
Acers
www.gardeningexpress.co.uk/acer-palmatum-dissectum-firecracker-japanese-maple?fee=6&fep=14022&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIx9Te5eTC8QIVCbrtCh1qCQnyEAQYAiABEgIyvPD_BwE

Some ideas - Skimmia and Gaultheria do well in pots, evergreen and are bright in winter. Maybe some pots of crocus for spring, winter pansies, heathers. Sarcococca is evergreen but with a tiny white flower but has a strong perfume in winter, so good near a door.

It will partly depend on which way the house faces (NESW), whether there is shade, if it is exposed, etc. One idea is to to look round a good local Nursery to see what is available locally and what grows well in your area. Also pots can require a lot of watering in summer - maybe awkward if at the front of your house, in terms of accessing a tap? It depends what effect you’re after. You could have small trees / large shrubs?