Container gardening gives you an advantage of ideal gardening soil, guaranteeing some good success. Simple peat moss mixed up with some good potting soil along with perlite and vermiculite would help in holding the moisture for a longer period of time. Firstly, just look at your area and decide on the container size you would like and then decide on the plants which you want to plant in your container garden. Do some calculations about how much sunlight is available and when, since many plants would not like to be exposed to sunlight through out the day while some require sunlight for almost whole day. Do some research over what plants would flourish in your surrounding area and in the container because some plants needs a fair bit of place to grow properly.

After considering the size of the container, make a check over the drainage holes it has; they should be adequate in the bottom and see how much depth would you need since plant’s roots would grow and they would not like to stay all congested up after the soil getting filled up otherwise it would be a total mess. Remember that the garden plants for containers are not able to move downwards because of surface water and at the same time lack of surface water will quickly finish them as well.

Get the largest containers you can possibly afford to fulfill this gardening hobby and give some good tailoring to the greenery considering the sunlight’s availability. Make sure you water your plants daily when hot summers hit. You can also get containers that are self-watering for your ease. Having a container garden is easily affordable fulfilling your desire at the same time so what are you waiting for? Go get some greenery and enjoy its pleasure and design a small yet cute garden in a container.

Shrubs are different from each other, so you should know which shrubs to go with for your garden. Your landscape will bring diverse results with diverse kinds of shrubs. Your plan should be a little futuristic focusing on what you really want and what would you get by planting a certain type of shrub. Shrubs are all about adding beauty and color to the garden and here a few most recommended shrubs you might want to go for.

Azalea tops the list; these are flowering shrubs that stay at the peak of beauty at the time they bloom. You would only get a flower per stem but stems are quite a lot meaning that it is going to be a color-mania at their bloom time. Acidic garden soil best suits these shrubs and they need a shady position to grow. Azalea does have a few various species as well so a little research is required to see what would suit you and which ones need pruning regularly.

Then comes the hardy shrub rose, this shrub type is also popular because of its different colors. They do not ask for deep and expensive maintenance and are disease resistant as well unlike the other roses. The best part is that these shrubs bloom almost in every season spreading their beauty and colors in your garden. They do not really have any planting requirements so plant them anywhere you want to see a beauty boost in your garden.

Hydrangea plants also count as shrubs adding lots of color to the existing beauty of your garden. They would suit around the borders and relatively in large bunches; most gardens seem to be incomplete without this shrub.

Many people have misconceptions about shrubs being color-less or just green, let me tell you that along with the above mentioned shrubs almost all the others carry fantastic colors with them and that is why they are so important for a garden to look bright and blossoming.

One of the oldest roses and the one with which I associate cottage gardens is the moss rose, Rosa centifolia ‘Muscosa’, named for the reddish-green moss on the flower buds. The blossoms are soft delicate pink, fully double and possess a spicy fragrance that announces ‘cottage garden’ to the world. Like all the old roses it prefers a soil that is on the heavy side, but is not fussy as to whether this is of acid or alkaline persua­sion. A sunny position is essential well away from the drip of overhanging trees which can cause the balling and browning of blos­soms. A vigorous grower, I can remember this particular rose invading the elderly hawthorn hedge in my grandmother’s cot­tage garden. In mid-summer it cheekily waved fresh wands of foliage above its sup­port, each garlanded in pink cabbagy blos­soms. Despite attempts to curb its activities, it became inextricably bound up with the hawthorn and there it remains to this day.

The gallica roses are the parents of the modern rose and had a big part to play in the development of the moss rose. Rosa gallica itself is known as the French rose, and more importantly its cultivar the old red damask, R. gallica ‘Officinalis’ as the apothecary’s rose. It was this latter that was thought during the Middle Ages to be able to pro­vide a cure for almost every known human ailment. Rosa gallica is a rather lax shrub, scarcely ever more than T5 m (5 ft) high with saucer-like pink blossoms which are followed by bold, rounded, brick-red hips. Its partner, ‘Officinalis’ is of similar habit, but with fragrant, semi-double, rosy-crim­son flowers. There is also an old cottage garden rose popularly referred to as ‘Rosa mundi’, but really R. gallica ‘Versicolor’, which occurred as a branch sport from the apothecary’s rose and has semi-double flowers that are striped with red and white.

Damask roses are derived from R. damas-cena, a short shrubby character with large clusters of red, pink or white richly fragrant flowers and vicious thorny stems. They are ancient roses of mixed parentage, believed to be old hybrids rather than true species, but so old that their origins are lost in the mists of time. There are innumerable named cultivars in modern catalogues, but for interest and cottage garden authenticity I would select the double soft pink ‘Trigin-tipetala’, an old kind that is used in the production of attar of roses.

Climbing and rambling roses find no place here, but the diversity that remains is still overwhelming. Those just mentioned would be a must in my cottage garden, but there are others that are worthy contenders and to which I must introduce you. Rela­tives of the moss rose, like its progenitor, the cabbage rose, R. centifolia; with both fragrant flowers and foliage it is an absolute delight. There is the dainty China rose, R. chinensis, the forerunner of the delightful fairy roses typified by R. chinensis ‘Minima’. We have sweet briars, R. rubiginosa, that can be utilized as a hedge and the ramanas rose, R. rugosa, which is equally at home in a difficult corner. This boisterous fellow has yielded many fine cultivars, amongst which the pale rose-pink ‘Frau Dagmar Hastrup’ reigns supreme. Not only are the blossoms lovely, but so too are the rich crimson hips. And there are dwarf burnet roses derived from R. pintpinellifolia, which make low thickets of thorny branches thronged during early summer with tiny sweetly scented blossoms.

Roses with cottage garden associations are nearly as many as the pebbles on the beach. If you are unsure about what you require, then visit one of the very many good collections that are growing in gardens open to the public and judge for yourself. Mid-summer is the time to check out the flowers, but many have useful and decora­tive fruits too and these should be looked at again during early autumn.

Providing that competition from weeds and other neighbouring plants is kept to a minimum, the production of good sized healthy bulbs is almost assured. That is providing that you maintain the foliage for as long after flowering as possible. The function of bulb foliage at this time is to develop the bulb for the next season and ensure the initiation of lower buds. By the time that the leaves have died down next spring’s flowers should be latent within the bulbs. No amount of feeding or replanting at this time will have any effect. Unsightly bulb foliage is usually a constant source of irritation after all the flowers have faded as it begins to look jaded and unhealthy. How­ever it is vital that it remains for at least six weeks after flowering, preferably until it disappears of its own accord, in order to build up the food reserves in each bulb.

Some gardeners lift, divide and store their bulbs, replanting in the autumn. This is unnecessary unless you want to fill the gaps that they leave with summer bedding or hardy annuals. In that case the bulbs will still be in leaf, so lift carefully and line them out in another part of the garden until all the foliage has died back naturally. Then is the time to lift, dry and sort them prior to storing in a cool dry place. Apart from tulips, I would seldom contemplate the dis­turbance of healthy bulbs unless it was clear that they had been in position for many years and were in desperate need of dividing and replanting.

The potential bare patches created by bulbs which are dying back can be filled with some of the hardy annuals if the seed is scattered amongst the receding foliage. Cornflower, night scented stock, Virginian stock, clarkia and godetia all hide the foliage well and their growth is not impeded by its presence. Remember that these annuals will take nourishment from the soil in which the bulbs are growing and so take appropriate measures with bonemeal or hoof and horn during the early spring.

I think that they are possibly the best colonizers of builders’ rubbish that there are. If faced with uncompromising clay sub-soil, then make pot marigolds a priority. They are large seeded, easily handled, and can be sown in their final positions quite readily. Their only disadvantage is that unless great care is taken over the removal of fading blossoms, large quantities of viable seed will be scattered and you will be troubled with young plants for the foreseeable future. In the informality of a mixed border this can usually be tolerated, unless the progeny are from the seed produced by an Fj hybrid. In this case it will almost certainly be very poor. Another reason to select older open pollinated strains of marigolds rather than brash modern hybrids.

Modern cultivars of the mallow, Lavatera trimestris, need treating with a similar re­serve. They are perfectly acceptable if the old plants are to be cleared and volunteer seeding is not to be allowed. Where cottage garden traditions are more strictly adhered to and chance seedlings are allowed to prosper, then it is important that from the outset only open pollinated non-F, hybrids are grown. These reproduce themselves more or less to type and, while without selection will tend to slowly deteriorate, produce quite tolerable plants even if allowed to regenerate for eight or ten years. All the mallows have bold mounds of glossy green leaves and spires of open cup or saucer-shaped blossoms. The species itself is pink and, although occasionally grown, was long since superseded by that old cot­tage garden favourite ‘Loveliness’. In general garden terms the Fleuroselect award winning varieties ‘Silver Cup’ and ‘Mount Blanc’, which are pink and white flowered respectively, recently ousted ‘Loveliness’ from many seed catalogues. It is still avail­able though, and I believe should be the mallow of our cottage garden. The seed of mallows is quite large and can be sown where the plants are intended to flower. If you have an excess of seedlings, then these are one of the few hardy annual types that will respond to transplanting.

These are held on hairy stems above coarse bristly foliage. The flowers are followed by handsome, pepper-pot seed heads which can be cut and dried for winter decoration. Cultivars of P. orientale are legion, but the double ‘Salmon Glow’, orange-scarlet ‘Marcus Perry’ and the single-flowered ‘Perry’s White’ are all reliable. ‘Allegro Vivace’ is a dwarf red flowered kind with a dark centre that rarely grows more than 75 cm (2-1/2 ft) high and one of the few pop­pies that comes absolutely true from seed. Unless you want mixed colours, seed raising is not a good idea. Root cuttings taken during the winter are the only way of suc­cessfully increasing named kinds.

Phlox can be increased in a similar way. Truly moisture-loving perennials, the vari­ous cultivars of the border phlox, Phlox paniculata, do best in a cool summer, but must be grown in the open if they are to flourish. Dependable sorts are ‘Balmoral’, lavender, ‘Brigadier’, red and ‘White Ad­miral’. These all produce magnificent scented flower heads, unlike ‘Norah Leigh’ which is mostly cultivated for its variegated foliage; bright contrasting leaves on rather skinny stems, a plant that clearly does not belong in the cottage garden but which would like to suggest otherwise.

Daylilies certainly belong in the tangled informality of the mixed border, providing an excellent contrast to the later flowering phlox, but enjoying the same situation and soil conditions. These provide a marvellous display for much of the summer. Even though each individual blossom only lasts for a single day, there are so many that the show is continuous. Trumpet-shaped and carried amongst clumps of strap-shaped leaves, colours vary according to cultivar from deep purple-red through orange and yellow to pink. Try the old-fashioned Hemerocallis lilio-asphodelus, better known now as H. flava, with its clear yellow scented blossoms on wiry stems and carried amongst neat tufts of bright green foliage. Together with the richly fragrant citron-yellow, H. citrina, it makes a duo which for elegance and simplicity are unsurpassed by any of the modern cultivars.

There are certainly plenty amongst the mimulus, popularly referred to as monkey musks. Especially the various strains and cultivars derived from the complex inter­crossing of M. luteus, M. guttatus and M. cupreus. These are numerous, and a detailed account of all that is available would be tedious. However, four selections are out­standing and deserve special mention. The vivid red ‘Bonfire’ and boldly spotted ‘Queen’s Prize’ strains, together with the recently introduced hybrids ‘Royal Velvet’ and ‘Yellow Velvet’. Both M. luteus and the closely allied M. guttatus are old friends, straggling stoloniferous perennials that are never more happy than when spreading around in wet soil at the poolside. Both have bright yellow blossoms, those of M. guttatus being spotted with red, while M. luteus sports golden flowers which are promi­nently etched with reddish-purple.

Mimulus cupreus is a smaller and more restrained character with orange-red flowers. A stunning contrast, and the parent of the most outstanding mimulus of all, the tiny ‘Whitecroft Scarlet’. This is a little gem with neat mats of bright green foliage and small hooded blossoms of the brightest red.

Perennial weeds with deep roots such as thistles, dock and bindweed should be pulled out where practicable and subse­quently burned. Where infestation is bad, the worst should be removed and the emerging shoots killed in the spring with a suitable weedkiller, or else the plants grown on that area spaced far enough apart to allow regular hoeing to remove the weeds as they appear. Few weeds survive for long if their shoots are regularly decapitated.

On the other hand though, the use of a rotavator amongst weeds of this type can lead unwittingly to proliferation, the rotors chopping the roots into tiny pieces which will then shoot and grow into separate enti­ties. No method of initial weed control is perfect, but much can be achieved by sen­sible digging.

Most textbooks on gardening reveal a lot of nonsense and non-practice by their expo­nents on the digging operation. Double dig­ging, single digging, bastard trenching and several other kinds are all described, together with complicated diagrams show­ing plot A and plot B and how the soil from the trench on plot A should be wheeled to the far end of plot B for replacement at the end of digging operations. Gardeners are generally practical people, and while erring on the side of caution when anything new is revealed, usually pick out the best bits of both old and new methods and come to a compromise. It is my opinion that few gar­deners do not realize the folly of double digging (i.e. the digging and breaking up of soil two spades deep), but most do appre­ciate the value that single digging and trenching can have if applied sensibly.

Single digging is merely the turning over or completely inverting a lump of soil so that the surface covered with plant growth is at the bottom of the spit. This is only performed on well-cultivated ground, being unsuitable for use when rough land is involved. This needs trenching in order to knock it into shape, the first row being inverted as with single digging, and the second row inverted on top of the first. An open trench is now revealed which will accept each row of digging as the soil is turned over. Turned over is the operative word, for weeds will not die if the spadeful is merely tipped on one side, reversal must be complete. My slightly unconventional method of starting trenching leads to a raised first row and a trench at the end of the bed, but this is of no account as the trench facilitates drainage during the winter and is easily filled when the soil is knocked down and raked level. This latter inconvenience is nothing compared with the interminable harrowing of soil which the purists would have us do.

A bare border or bed waiting to be dug is a formidable and disheartening spectacle even for the most ardent gardener, and breaking with convention once more, I have found that a little personal psychology can ease the somewhat distressing state of mind that a newcomer in particular may suffer. First of all do not tackle the job all at once, take it in stages building each day’s digging upon the next so that the neat brown rows seem to grow, or as one old gardener told me: ‘When digging always keep your back to the ground you have yet to dig!’ This latter remark although seemingly frivolous, has a moral, and that is not to look at the bed in its entirety, but concentrate on the piece you can manage that day. I find it a big help to kid yourself that you are actually digging faster than you are by taking narrow strips a metre (yard) or so wide and digging the full length of the bed. Obviously the ground is not covered any faster, but the illusion is that this is so.

All that is required for planting is a hole of sufficient size to accommodate all the roots without cramping them. It should also be of sufficient depth to allow the shrub or tree to settle to where it was in the nursery row. This can be quite clearly determined by looking for the stain at the base of the trunk or main stem caused by the previous soil level. Any damaged or broken roots should be trimmed back with seca­teurs and the plant stood in the hole. If it is a tree that will require a stake, then this is knocked in before the hole is filled so that damage to the roots does not occur. The hole is filled with crumbly soil, the tree or shrub being worked up and down so that all the nooks and crannies between the roots are filled with particles and no troublesome air pockets occur.

The soil surface is then firmed down and if it is a tree that has been planted, then this is attached to a stake with proper tree ties, or else with a short length of garden hose through which twine is threaded, the hose preventing the stake, tree and twine from rubbing one another when tied. In country districts where rabbits may be troublesome, wire netting, sacking or specially manufac­tured tape can be wrapped around the trunks to prevent the bark being stripped.

All the popular kinds are easily raised from seed sown under glass during early spring, although I have raised the dwarf Indian pink Dianthus chinensis and its var­iety heddewigii from seed sown in free-draining soil in the open during late spring and flowered them with great success. Given an alkaline soil and a bright sunny situation they are amongst the most reliable of annual flowers.

Indeed, I would say that they could only be equalled in reliability by the Victorian verbenas. Those lovely plants of a bygone era derived from the plant known as Ver­bena venosa, but now itself irreverently changed by botanists to V. rigida. I recall as a student taking cuttings of these lovely creatures in later summer for over-winter­ing in an unheated greenhouse, to be potted in the spring for the following season’s bedding display. Truly the verbenas are perennials, but in days gone by it was not possible to raise plants, other than the true species, satisfactorily from seed. In recent years development work has continued apace so that now there are a number of very good straight colours as well as mixed strains. Most of these have been developed in the United States and are increasingly finding their way into our seed catalogues. I feel that few of the individual colours are as subdued as their Victorian forebears and therefore are perhaps dubious propositions for the cottage garden. However, a mixed strain like ‘Showtime’ should provide all that we seek.

If a good colour is spotted in a particular batch of plants there is no reason why we cannot revert to the old practice of taking cuttings if only a few plants are going to be required. Although the parentage of modern verbenas is somewhat more compli­cated than hitherto and botanists even deem the progeny as V. hortensis, I feel that they are essentials of the cottage garden.

Not so the petunias, salvias, nemesias and lobelias of the present day. These do not truly belong here, even though by careful integration with appropriate plants it is possible to make a pleasing overall picture. Nor really do the modern stocks, even though stocks of one kind or another have occurred in the literature of country gardens for centuries. Modern varieties of stock are extremely attractive and can be utilized without much effort. They are especially valuable as they are of similar appearance to their grandparents, but now we can ensure that every plant produces double flowers in selected races. Traditionally stocks have been grown for their scent and it was just hoped that most of the seedlings trans­planted would be double and provide an added visual attraction.

Plant breeders have worked extensively on stocks during recent years and it is now possible to select double flowered plants at the seedling stage. To do this, seed should be sown during early spring in a tempera­ture of 15°C (59°F). Once all the seedlings have germinated and their seed leaves have unfurled the temperature should be lowered to about 7°C (45°F) for two or three days. The seedlings will alter their colour, the single ones becoming darker and the double ones being pale green. It is the lighter col­oured seedlings that are obviously desirable and the ones to be pricked out and grown on. Reselection is done at the four leaf stage and any seedlings that are developing weakly are also discarded as these are likely to be odd singles missed during the initial rogueing. It is vital for stocks to have an open sunny situation in a well drained soil. All recent varieties could be considered to be suitable for the cottage garden as the blossoms are still all in attractive pastel hues and the flower spikes well proportioned. The only caution that I would add is to your expectations from these traditional plants. That term ‘ten weeks’ when applied to a stock is very open to question. Very rarely can stocks raised from seed be seen in flower within ten weeks.