3 Easy Ways To Make Your Garden POP!

Pots and containers are wonderfully versatile. They make great focal points whether your garden is large or small, and I'm going to show you three distinct planting schemes, different styles. See which one you prefer. Now we all have an idea of what the ideal cottage garden looks like, so I'll do my take on a sort of slightly more tasteful cottage garden. I'm planting in what's called a Versailles tub. They're handsome things in almost any style of garden, but they do suit the cottage mix. When you're using a tub which is wooden, line it to help preserve it for future years from rotting. I've put in here a liner of black polythene just to make sure that the compost itself doesn't sit right alongside the wood, and I'm using a multi-purpose peat-free compost with added John Innes, which has a bit of loam in it. It just gives it that much more body, and we'll see the plant through right to the end of the year because it's got a bit more nutrition in it. Don't fill it too full because every time you put a pot in you're adding more, so you can always add a little bit more if you need it, but for now make sure it's down a good three or four inches at the sides. I'm going to start in this back corner with a foxglove, a wonderful pyramidal plant, a great bee plant too. New ones come on the market every year, but if you look at this flower, Dottie Mixed is an extremely good name for it, isn't it? There are some wonderful markings on foxgloves. Like all these plants, it's had a good watering before I put it in. Ease it out of its pot, plenty of roots there. Now when I worked in the Parks Department, the boss there, the Parks Superintendent, always said every plant has a front and a back. I think that's the front. The front is where it's been seeking out the light. You don't have to thump this down really hard, but gently with your fingers just push out any air pockets, fill them with compost. I've got a hole down this back corner. I mean you wouldn't know that, but I do, and I want to make sure it's full. Next one going in is a hosta. Always a good idea to have some foliage in your container as well as flowers. Foliage lasts much longer than flowers, and this hosta here goes in there, taking that leaf out the way. That sits in this back corner, feeding around it with compost again, and then I'm going to pay attention to the front. Right in the middle here, I'm going to put a blue scabious. You'll sort of start to get an idea of my kind of colour scheme. There is one, that's why it's a little bit more sophisticated than a normal cottage garden. Here we have an old favourite, scabious butterfly blue. It has these glorious flowers. That will go in the middle there. Don't be alarmed at the amount of plants I'm putting in, apart from the fact that you think it costs a lot of money. Well, you know, it's cheaper than a tank full of petrol in your car. It gives you far more lasting pleasure, but in the container they're not going to grow a huge amount, so you can cram them quite close together. Next is this corker, an osteospermum. Again, it's a lovely daisy. You get these in all kinds of colours from yellow and white right through to crimson and purple. They're quite small root bores on these, but it does mean that you can tuck them in quite neatly. I've got another one for the other side, slightly different colour, but still a lovely shade of soft pink. And the underside of the petals on this one are quite interesting, because they're a sort of pale primrose yellow, so you get this dual effect, but it's really quite pleasing, isn't it? This one's called Senorita Double Lovely Pink. Snappy name, eh? The funny thing is, the only O-level I left school with, having taken it a year early at 15, was Art, so I suppose I've always been thought a bit arty. You can judge whether or not it was awarded justifiably, or whether I got away with it. And then along the front, something to trail down. Little pots of ivy are so useful, because they're perennial, they go on forever. You can take cuttings that root like weeds, so you can keep these going as youngsters, and then they get bigger plants when you plant them out. You can see now what I've done. A bit of height here, because that's the side from which you're meant to view it, then the middle ground here and down to the front. They're what we call thrillers, fillers and spillers. When it comes to contemporary containers, you'll have a wide choice. All shapes, sizes and colours, though they tend to be rather muted in terms of colour, like this sort of pewter grey. This is a composite pot. It's made of goodness knows what. It's not plastic though, it's recycled stuff, which is really quite useful. Again, the mix inside is multi-purpose, peat-free, with added jolliness for extra weight, for extra nutrition, keep your plants going for longer. The same rules apply, but I've just got a different colour palette, as well as a different style of plant in here. This, the main plant of them all, is the agapanthus, or African lily. There are hardy varieties available now. When they first came into cultivation in gardens, African lilies were, by virtue of their name of course, rather tender. They didn't get through the winter. A lot of the varieties now, particularly the head-borne hybrids as they're called, are really quite tough, provided it's not really soggy and really, really cold. So this will have a heck of a root ball on it, I have no doubt. They tend to be really, look at that, I did warn you, really vigorous. Doesn't matter, these will be so glad to be set free and to explore the lovely rich compost in this pot. Hold them out of the way, in a kind of ponytail, then I'm going to put that right here in the middle at the back, having avoided doing that with the fox love. That goes in, feed back the compost, lightly firming it with your fingers. As I say, don't hammer it down, make sure the surface of that root ball has just disappeared under the soil, and then let it go. I want a contrast with this, and that I'll get from this Heuchera, Shades of Johnny Depp. This is Heuchera, black pearl. Easy one to remember. Colour on the top, and the colour underneath. Wonderful. When the sun shines on this, you get this wonderful sort effect, almost like a crimson stained glass window, and in it will go right alongside, keeping it fairly well black, because I've got other things to go in front of it. The thing I'm going to put in front of it doesn't contrast with it, but it rather picks up its colour, and that's this, which is a hardy geranium called Storm Cloud. So we've got black pearl in the Heuchera, and Storm Cloud, blue flowers, but red buds and leaves stained with maroon, sort of wine red. This is French Lavender. French Lavender has this little collection of florets at the top. I always think of them as ass's ears, I don't know why, but it's a little tuft of coloured bracts, almost like petals. I'm popping two of these in. Really cheek by jowl. The other one, just the same, will go in front of it. Beginning to get an idea now of the sort of colour scheme I'm going for, which is a bit more dusky, a bit more purple and grey are two great colours that work well together. And then along the front are Spillers, two variegated thymes, silver posy and another silver variegated one as well. Gloriously aromatic, so if you brush past this pot and bruise it, you'll either get a bit of lavender or a bit of thyme, and I can squeeze two into that hole there. So there we are, I've planted this as though it were in a corner, because you're getting the best view. If you walked around it, I'd put the Agapanthus in the middle and then scale down from it. But have a go, you know, do what pleases you. It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks. I just want to take a moment to thank you for supporting the channel. It has been an amazing start with so many subscribers. I mean, it's just my dream to get more people gardening, so if you haven't subscribed yet, do click the button below, it doesn't cost you anything, and encourage your friends to do it as well, and we'll carry on with a pheasant growing things together. If you want a container that's really punchy, hits you between the eyes in a nice sort of way, annuals are the plants to use, things that give you high impact of colour. Now geraniums, as we call them, or pelargoniums to give them their proper name, are not strictly annuals. You can keep these going through the winter if you give them a frost-free greenhouse or a very bright windowsill, but they're often treated as bedding plants if you don't have any kind of cover. Look at the flower cluster underneath the few petals that are open there, because that shows you what's to come. All those flowers on a single stalk, there must be 30 of them there, and they'll carry on for weeks on end, and these will be the centrepiece of my very unsubtle but very bright and very cheerful wooden trough. Now these pretty little things used to be called million bells petunias, now they're called calibrachoa, which makes it sound as though you're clearing your throat. Well, whatever you call them, they're very pretty, and this is a double one. Sometimes they're single little trumpets, the million bells one, but this one is a double, and it's very pretty with a mixture of pinks and mauves and whites. I'll stick that in a corner. I'm doing a real tit-for-tat mixture on this one, so it's quite symmetrical, those in the middle, those on the corners. And finally, these two aren't renowned for their fragrance, but this is an emicia called Wisley Vanilla, and it most definitely is vanilla scented. A little cluster of these in each corner will complement and contrast with the others and add a bit of fragrance, particularly when the sun shines on them. And just stuff them in. So there you are, you might think it's a bit garish, a bit in your face, but you can't deny that it's jolly and it lifts your spirits. Remember when it comes to watering, they're going to need quite a lot, there's a lot of plants in a relatively small area of compost here. Rainfall won't do much good because the whole collection of foliage here acts like an umbrella and the rain will run off, so it's you in charge of watering, and during the summer they'll need watering at least once a day, that way you end up with happy plants that grow well. What you also do is every couple of weeks give them some liquid feed and nip off any faded flowers to keep them blooming. So there we are, three different flavours, Cottage, Contemporary and Jolly Annual. Which is your favourite? Comment below and let me know. Gardening has changed my life, so let me show you how it can change yours. I'll be posting new videos every week, so subscribe and let's get gardening together.