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.

When we talk about growing herbs, there is an entire history attached to it. Herbs are used since ages for preparing medicinal remedies; some of them even are proved to be working by medical science today. The human body can benefit from medicinal herbs in more then just a couple of ways such as cleansing the body and getting rid of all the toxins and bacteria that builds up inside us due to waste material getting stuck in our colons with time causing illnesses, many vital organs start getting strengthened having more resistance power to fix their own problems and also keeping the immune system in good shape and strong in order to stop the outside intruders (diseases) from making us a target.

There are several herbs that count as medicinal herbs today and are being used effectively as or in medicines by professionals and doctors such as Ginseng, Aloe, Eucalyptus, Chamomile, Gingko, Garlic, Ginger, Spearmint, and Peppermint. Besides these famous medicinal herbs comes a list of herbs never even heard of or people know very little about them such as Butcher’s Broom, Blood Root, Devil’s Claw, and Sassafras along with several others that only professionals are aware of. Do not think that herb is a cure to everything since each medicinal herb has its specific quality of curing something.

In the current medical world, most of the medicines carry dangerous side effects with them and this is where medicinal herbs come into play keeping you safe. What can be better then to grow more and more medicinal herbs and stay away from all the health diseases and disorders?

Above mentioned information clearly reveals the importance and advantages of growing medicinal herbs. I am sure that by now you must have got an idea that why medicinal herbs are important.

Soon you will see your neighbors curious about how you did all the arrangement and the smile on your face would be right through your heart. Just make sure that the time of the year matches with the types of flowers you are arranging in your garden. Season matching with flowers is very essential to enjoy the true beauty. It would not be only your home enjoying the beauty of flowers but the occasions coming along would benefit from it as well such as a party at your place or Christmas coming up or may be some long not seen relatives visiting you. Family and friends are left delighted with decoration done by flowers. It is very cost-effective along with providing natural beauty and a cleaner environment to breath in. Color preference is something your arrangement should be based upon. Make sure the existing displays or your house color matches the setup. Internet has a made the life lot easier for people, it was not easier before to shop for outdoor flowers so do a little surfing and pick up the ones matching your mood from the internet.

If you think you are getting confused or this task seems to be harder then you expected then remember that your florist awaits you with his expertise and advice to offer, ask him or her what to purchase and how and where to plant it. A good flower arrangement in your home & garden would give you a pleasant feeling and will set you in a mood whenever you glance at it so why not give life this positive change right now?

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.

Medlar

I am thinking now of the medlar, Mespilus germanica, an easily grown fruit of unusual taste and appearance borne on a tree with a quaint gnarled ‘old man’ look about it. With bright green foliage and white or pinkish tinged flowers, it is a considerable asset to the olde worlde garden. If one is a purist about these things, it can be treated as an apple in all respects, although I prefer to leave it alone except for the removal of untidy branches. The fruits form during summer and should be allowed to hang on the tree until late autumn, after which they can be spread out in a cool airy place until bletted. This really means that the fruits are starting to decay, and it is at this time that they are ready for eating or converting into wine or jelly. The taste for medlars is an acquired one, but if you are really interested in producing fruit rather than considering the tree purely as decorative, then get the cultivar ‘The Nottingham’. This is often available as a standard or half standard grafted on to a pear, hawthorn or quince rootstock.

Quince

The quince, Cydonia oblonga, and the med­lar are closely related and desire similar garden conditions, except that the fruits of the quince are used when ripe and should not be picked until they are fully mature. A number of kinds are in cultivation, all excel­lent decorative trees, but not always easy to come by. The Portugal quince is the most likely to be encountered and is the best sort for cooking and preserving. The apple and pear-shaped cultivars differ only in shape and keeping quality, while ‘Bereczki’ is well thought of by those with a delicate palate. The quince is a handsome spreading tree with broad green leaves, white spring blos­som, and lovely grey bark. An easy going character for which I have a strong affec­tion.

Peaches, apricots and nectarines

I also like to see a peach or apricot in the cottage garden. Usually a hit and miss affair outdoors when it comes to fruit, they are very much a part of old cottage gardens where they can still be seen clothing south­erly or westerly walls. Fruit is anyway a secondary consideration when they are grown outside, it is for the sparkling pink blossoms that bedeck their naked branches in early spring that most cottagers grow them. If a peach or two can be secured this is an added bonus, but not a major consider­ation.

The number of cultivars available that have any prospect of flourishing outside are somewhat limited, especially amongst the apricots. ‘Moorpark’ is the easiest to get hold of, a large rounded, yellowish fruit with one side a reddish-brown colour. It is seldom ripe before early autumn, so if you hope for something earlier then try ‘Early Moorpark’. Peach cultivars are more abun­dant, the American ‘Amsden June’ being the earliest while the handsome large fruited ‘Duke of York’ runs it a close second. The best known of all though, is ‘Peregrine’, a late summer kind with medium-sized fruit of excellent quality. We must not forget nectarines, a sort of smooth skinned peach amongst which ‘Early Rivers’ and ‘Lord Napier’ are the most common.

The cultivation of peaches, nectarines and apricots in the cottage garden is very similar. Remember that if you seek fruit, and indeed flower, that apricots bear fruit on spurs as well as on young wood. This means that when pruning apricots, unwanted laterals should be cut back to two buds instead of being removed altogether. All three kinds enjoy life on a sunny wall in an alkaline soil.

Of course it would be easy to justify the inclusion of apples, pears, cherries, plums and other top fruits here because they often form an integral part of the cottage garden and have been traditionally planted in the ornamental part. However, I think that I have probably gone down the road as far as I can with fruits of culinary value, that is unless you include the nuts. There are in­numerable nuts that can be grown in the garden, but the most appropriate are the cobs and filberts.

Cob nuts and hazel nuts

The cob nut is the type in which the outer husk is very short, while the filbert has a longer outer husk which totally enfolds it. Several cultivars are available, amongst them ‘Cannon Ball’, ‘Cosford’ and ‘Kentish Cob’. Nuts will grow in almost any soil, but a free-draining loam is ideal. They grow well in the shade and can be interplanted with other shrubs in a border, but at least two different varieties should be grown to ensure adequate pollination. Nuts are rather different from other fruiting plants in that they produce both male and female catkins which are pollinated by the wind. These appear before the foliage, and onee their work is done, the bushes can be pruned so that just enough nut-bearing wood remains to give an acceptable crop.

The bushes should be encouraged to develop an urn-shaped framework, the lead­ing growths being shortened and thinned. Wood that carried a crop the previous year must be spurred back. Occasionally wands or suckers spring up from the roots and these should be torn away. Nuts are ready to harvest during early autumn, just as the foliage is turning a lovely butter-yellow. After picking, spread them out in trays in a cool, well-ventilated building. They will be ready for use during the winter.

The nuts also have amongst their number several varieties that are grown exclusively for foliage colour. The golden-leafed hazel nut, Corylus avellana ‘Aurea’ has golden leaves throughout the year, but I am afraid that I cannot get too excited about this as it needs very careful placing in partial shade if leaf scorch is to be avoided. This does not happen with C. maxima ‘Purpurea’ which sports handsome purplish leaves on an upright shrub of stately aspect. This is lovely next to the pendulous willow-leafed pear, Pyrus salicifolia ‘Pendula’ which forms a round topped small tree clothed in a tumbling cascade of silver-grey foliage. One of the best of the silver or grey-leaved sub­jects for the cottage garden and one of the few that is reliably hardy.

Wallflowers and other spring flowering sub­jects which are associated with cottage gar­dens are often also important formal bed­ding subjects. As intimated earlier, formal bedding schemes are definitely out, so re­gard these plants in a different way and treat them as our great grandparents did; merely as additional plants for the border. As long as you choose the standard wallflower culti­vars and avoid the true dwarfs, then this mental transition is not difficult to make. Use mixed strains like ‘Fair Lady’ or ‘Per­sian Carpet’ for making bold  drifts of colour, but utilize single colours such as ‘Blood Red’ and ‘Cloth of Gold, for filling gaps in mixed plantings.

Wallflowers are the gilliflowers of old, not only providing rich colour for the late spring garden, but filling the air with a sweet fragrance. If they remain in good health following flowering allow them to remain, for strictly perennials, they will develop a woody framework and take on the venerable look that wallflowers in cottage gardens should have. Do not forget that other wallflower Cheiranthus allionii, which the botanists now tell us is not a wallflower at all, but which will remain with me as the Siberian wallflower for ever. I have men­tioned elsewhere how useful this bright or­ange, sweetly scented perennial plant can be when associated with the lovely white Iris florentina. However, that is not its only great association for it can be mixed with the azure hummocks of forget-me-not with tremendous effect.

Forget-me-nots are great traditional plants of the cottage garden, but ones which deteriorate quickly if not properly main­tained. Always grow fresh plants each year if you wish to maintain quality as most culti­vars are truly biennial. If they seem to persist it is unlikely that the same plants are flowering each year. Usually it is seed that has dropped into the centre of the crown that germinates and produces what appears to be a perennial plant that the gardener believes is ‘reverting’. Individual forget-me-not plants do not revert, but strains deteriorate with each succeeding generation if not rigorously reselected and nowadays a number of the cultivars popularly grown are of F, origin.

The only forget-me-not that is truly per­ennial and likely to find a place in the cottage garden is the moisture-loving Myo-sotis scorpioides. Sometimes its selected form ‘Semperflorens’ is grown as a perennial in the mixed border on heavy soil or where there is a damp or waterlogged patch. Otherwise the named kinds should be rep­laced each year after flowering. At present there is little to choose in popularity between ‘Blue Ball’ and ‘Royal Blue’, and if you need a white form there is a variety referred to as alba offered by one or two seedsmen. Myosotis are best produced as boxed plants for transplanting during the autumn. Open ground plants are very diffi­cult to manage and almost impossible to get established unless you remove them to their permanent quarters very early in their life. Apart from their value as low growing plants for the front of the border, all the forget-me-nots mix well visually with old fashioned tulips of various kinds and offset the bright colours of wallflowers. Alone they are a little frothy and misty, but as a foil or contrast they are superb.

Polyanthus and pansies

You could not say the same about the polyanthus, for these are available in a wide range of brilliant colours which can be used to highlight particular garden features. They need using with an element of caution, for some of the more recent hybrids tend to have an iridescence that gives a certain brashness that is not in keeping with our concept. Some of the older, smaller flowered and cheaper strains are the most appropri­ate. Avoid any of the ‘Pacific Giants’, the blue-flowered hybrids and those derived from the ‘Cowichan Strain’. Admirable though all of these are, none are really compatible with the spring garden as I see it. If you can get hold of a few of the old named varieties that can only be increased by division after flowering, then do so. These were the true inhabitants of the cot­tage garden, along with fairly mediocre seed raised plants. I am not suggesting that mediocrity be brought into the garden, but where a lot of plants are needed or economy is the order of the day, then select a popular mixture of a seed-house strain. Good colour forms can always be selected and divided to bulk up stocks of desirable plants.

Most pansies have now become so far removed from the little heartsease Viola tricolor, that it is difficult to include them in the cottage garden. I much prefer the face­less violas, for these are of smaller size and equal diversity with a flowering period that often outlasts its cousins. Most are derived from V. cornuta, a most useful blue-flow­ered plant itself which can be raised from cuttings as well as seed. There are separate colours available, but I much prefer a rus­tic-looking mixture like ‘Toyland’. Seed raising is perfectly adequate for this, but do replace the plants each year and weed out any self-sown seedlings. Violas grown well are a great asset, when repeat flowering or growing as second generation accidents they are a disaster. If you must grow pansies, and on reflection perhaps you should, then do not be any more ambitious than trying ‘Swiss Giants’. This strain has all the col­ours that you are likely to require in accep­table shades and the flowers are weather­proof and of sensible dimensions. A new cultivar that I have recently tried in which the flower size is modest and the varying colouration pleasing is called ‘Duet’. Splen­did little plants of similar stature to the bedding violas provided a scintillating show of restful colour from late spring until the first sharp autumn frost.

Other biennials

Another plant that gives value for money, but of which I am always rather nervous, is the double daisy, Bellis perennis, a form of our native wild daisy. Technically a peren­nial, this is another case where it should be treated as a biennial, for if left to seed, a host of undesirable weedy seedlings will become established not only in the border, but in the lawn as well. The majority of popular strains are in shades of pink, red and white and are derived from the full double form of the daisy called monstrosum. There are also a few separate named cultivars about like the red flowered ‘Etna’ and soft pink ‘Alice’.

Named varieties are also making an ap­pearance amongst the sweet williams, although none have acquired great popular­ity. Every gardener that I have spoken to regards the mixed auricula-eyed strains of sweet williams as unbeatable. I have to admit that, for vigour and reliability, I have to agree. Treated as wallflowers they can go on for ever. Well almost, for they are truly perennials and if looked after as such and regularly fed will come up with a good show for a few years.

Relatives of the pinks and therefore within the embrace of the dianthus, they revel in a well-drained, alkaline soil in full sun. I think that they are excellent as mem­bers of the mixed or herbaceous border, but many gardeners grow them for their top quality cut flowers. Whatever your justifica­tion, they are important members of the cottage garden, providing colour and char­acter at that in-between time after the spring flush has finished but before summer blossoming has commenced. Apart from conventional sweet williams there are some annual ones available from certain nurseries that can be sown in early spring for flower­ing the same year.

The stagshorn sumach, Rhus typhina, is a splendid example of what we should look for. An easy going small tree or shrub with large pinnate leaves which turn vivid orange and red in the autumn, each branch crowned with contrasting conical deep red-brown clusters of fruits. A suckering sub­ject, this should be planted on poor soil in an out of the way place where it can sucker freely and provide a colourful background for choicer subjects.

The elderberries are similar propositions; for although highly decorative, they are a bit coarse for the more intimate garden and make a better background than focal point. Most of the green-leaved kinds turn yellow during the autumn, but the purple-leaved Sambucus nigra ‘Purpurea’ and much-divided fern-leaved elder, S. n. ‘Laciniata’ are excellent throughout the summer as well.

Crab apples can also provide useful sum­mer leaf colour, although traditionally thought of as autumn foliage and fruiting subjects. The hybrid Malus purpurea is one of the best all round kinds with dark pur­plish-green foliage and during spring, rosy-crimson flowers. The small apple-like fruits are light crimson-purple and very similar to those of the well known ‘Profusion’. In many ways this remarkable cultivar is superior to the straightforward hybrid, sporting coppery-crimson leaves and wine-red flowers. Be careful how you use it though, as in some gardens it could look a little brash. I would also be cautious about the use of other first class kinds like ‘Golden Hornet’ and ‘Red Sentinel’. They are so good that in the cottage garden they appear too good to be true and then are out of keeping.

Few early cottagers would have expected a third of the yield of fruits provided by ‘Golden Hornet’. But it would not have been this crab that they would have favoured. The crab apples of cottage gar­dens always had to yield useful fruits as well as provide decoration and in many cases this would have been that old stalwart ‘John Downie’, a lovely little tree that is as popu­lar now as it was at the end of the last century. Of small neat habit, it has typical apple foliage, white blossoms and gorgeous, large, conical, orange and red fruits that make a fine jelly.

Lilacs and forsythia

Lilacs were amongst the most successful, particularly cultivars of the common Syr-inga vulgaris. The named progeny of this rather mundane species runs into hundreds, varying in colour from white, through pale pink and mauve to deep rose and purple, with either single or double blossoms. ‘Sou­venir de Louis Spaeth’ is probably the best loved of the single kinds. A bold fellow with blossoms of deep port wine in dense conical panicles. The snow-white ‘Maud Notcutt’ is one of the best recent introductions and ‘Primrose’ one of the most unusual.

Of the double lilacs ‘Charles Joly’ reigns supreme, an excellent dark purple cultivar which flowers slightly later than most other kinds. The creamy-white ‘Madame Lemoine’ is equally well known and together with the soft lilac-pink ‘Belle de Nancy’ completes a trio of really depend­able garden shrubs. As I intimated earlier, the ordinary S. vulgaris is rather gloomy, but its white form alba is still encountered in older gardens and has a special charm of its own. It may not be quite so floriferous as the modern cultivars, but it is a solid and dependable character.

There is another important group of lilacs that are not strictly speaking cottage garden shrubs, but which are ideal for the cottage garden. These are popularly called Cana­dian hybrids following their development at a research station in Ottawa in the 1920s by a Miss Isabella Preston. They are amazingly resilient plants, growing into sizeable bushes which during early summer froth and foam with pendent panicles of colourful blossoms. There are so many hybrids that you are spoiled for choice, but I like the deep pink ‘Audrey’ and immense purplish-pink ‘Isabella’.

The forsythia, its boughs laden with deli­cate golden bells is a regular harbinger of spring and as inextricably tied up with the cottage garden as the lilac. Forsythia inter­media ‘Spectabilis’ is the one usually grown and most frequently sold prepacked by the chain stores. That is not to imply that it is in any way inferior, but more recent introduc­tions like ‘Beatrix Farrand’ and ‘Lynwood Gold’ do produce larger blossoms of a more intense hue. For those with limited space, F. ovata can be recommended. A neat bush no more than 1-5 m (5 ft) high, its naked branches are sprinkled evenly with bright yellow blossoms.

The most prolific of the species is F. suspensa, a large pendulous shrub of lax and untidy growth which is seen at its best when grown against a wall, although some gar­deners use it as ground cover. If you have an awkward bank to disguise it is especially useful. Plant it towards the top and peg its main branches down and it will soon become an impenetrable mass, turning into a tumbling cascade of gold during early spring. Forsythias illuminate the spring garden. Give them a dark background of evergreens or plant them in association with bright red flowering currants like Ribes san-guineum ‘King Edward VII’. The shorter growing kinds can be interplanted with the lilac-purple Rhododendron ‘Praecox’, while those that are used for ground cover benefit from a generous sprinkling of blue grape hyacinths or muscari in their midst.

Potentillas, hypericums and periwinkles

What the forsythias do for the spring, the potentillas do for the summer, especially the shrubby types like Potentilla dahurica and P. fruticosa. It is not the parents that are of great interest, but their progeny, like the pure white ‘Abbotswood’ and its contem­porary ‘Mount Everest’, both derived from the short compact P. dahurica. Cultivars of P. fruticosa tend to be larger and more rangy, witness the two popular yellow culti­vars ‘Katherine Dykes’ and ‘Moonlight’. ‘Tangerine’ is an excellent orange-yellow which stands alone, together with the rich yellow ‘Elizabeth’. No mention of potentil­las would be complete without ‘Red Ace’, a controversial plant which has gained tremendous publicity for potentillas both favourable and ill. When growing in a situa­tion to its liking it is quite outstanding, but I have equally seen it looking washed out and sad. However, the lovely rich carmine-pink ‘Royal Flush’ looks to be stealing its thunder and is likely to be the potentilla of the future.

Alongside potentillas I would place hypericums as plants for the summer. Not only the common rose of sharon, Hypericum calycinum, but many lesser known kinds, especially the named varieties. One of the best of these is ‘Elstead’, a cultivar derived from H. inodorum with small flowers and spectacular fruits. The soft yellow blossoms are produced in terminal clusters and fol­lowed by the most brilliant salmon-red ber­ries. Hypericum androsaemum is of similar habit with golden flowers and glossy black fruits. The cultivar ‘Hidcote’ provides the largest flowers of any of the hypericums. Of indeterminate origin, this has spreading saucer-shaped blossoms of rich golden-yel­low which smother the plant from late sum­mer until early autumn. Unlike most hy­pericums it forms a compact bush scarcely 1-5 m (5 ft) high. Hypericum moseranum is smaller still, a compact ground hugging plant with attractive fresh green leaves and myriad bright yellow flowers.

I am not sure whether periwinkles are shrubs or not, but they are of a persistent nature and more or less evergreen. They are also exceedingly useful, flourishing in dark dry corners where nothing else will grow. Here they produce starry blossoms of blue, white or maroon with a frequency that seems to be directly proportional to the harshness of the conditions that they are compelled to endure. The lesser periwinkle, Vinca minor, and greater periwinkle, V. major, are those that adorned cottage gar­dens in years gone by, together with culti­vars like ‘Alba’ and ‘Burgundy’, and the double flowered ‘Multiplex’. All flower from late spring until mid-summer amongst handsome dark green foliage.

However, it is not one of these that I favour, but the soft blue V. difformis, a well behaved native of southern Europe which, if given a little shelter, will flower continu­ously from late autumn until early summer. The inward glow and feeling of wonder engendered by just a glimpse of its starry blossoms peeping through the winter snow would be ample justification for its inclusion in my garden.

Daphne and Rubus

So would the scent of the daphnes, for these are amongst the finest fragrant shrubs for the small garden. Few cottage gardens do not accommodate at least one plant of our native mezereon, Daphne mezereum. During late winter and early spring the naked branches of this elegant little shrub are wreathed in blossoms of rich reddish-purple, followed by vivid scarlet berries. Unfortunately it is not a long-lived shrub and therefore requires regular replacement. Luckily it produces viable seed in abun­dance which, if sown immediately it ripens, germinates freely. Seedlings must be pot grown as they resent root disturbance and do not transplant successfully from open ground.

Some of the decorative brambles will tolerate a bit of shade, but usually fare better in the open. Brambles are not usually thought of as desirable garden plants as the wild thorny species have given them a bad name. This is unfortunate, for the genus Rubus as a whole embraces some of the most interesting shrubs for the informal garden. Of course some are conventional and thorny, like the white-washed brambles. These are species of modest growth with stems of glistening white. Where space can be found they present a picture of stark beauty, their naked white stems sparkling in the winter sunshine against a backdrop of dark evergreens. Rubus bijlorus and R. cock-burnianus are the usual ones grown, easy­going characters that ask for little more than an open position and the annual removal of canes.

Other flowering shrubs

There are so many other shrubs that 1 could describe that would enhance a cottage gar­den. Mock oranges or philadelphus with their fragrant summer blossoms of cream and white. Various brooms in every shape, size and hue imaginable. Some like the Mount Etna broom, Genista aetnensis erupt into a great fountain of gold, others like Cytisus kewensis create tumbling creamy cascades. There are the winter flowering viburnums, V. farreri and V. bodnantense, with fragrant flowers of cream and pink. The common laurustinus, V. tinus, sporting pinkish-white clusters of tiny blossoms amongst handsome dark evergreen foliage. The witch hazel, Hamamelis mollis, its branches outstretched and revealing fra­grant red and gold blossoms during mid­winter.

Every season has its possibilities and some of these I have noted. Get out into the countryside and see what other gardeners are doing. It is even better to visit private gardens that are open to the public for charity, especially those belonging to small suburban gardeners.

The range of containers available is almost inexhaustible. There are ornamental and plain, informal and formal ones, and it should not be difficult to find a suitable container for any position that is required. The material of the container is relatively unimportant except as an aesthetic consideration, although some types of terracotta are susceptible to damage from frost and this should be borne in mind in cold areas. If the containers are to be on a balcony or roof garden then those of fibreglass or plastic will be much lighter than stone, terracotta or metal, and will reduce the load on the structure.

Containers can be placed on their own or used in groups; larger ones look better in isolation while smaller ones look best collected together, especially if they are all different shapes and sizes. The appearance of a lone container is important, while in a group, it is possible to hide one or two that are not so attractive.

Classical urns tend to look more appropriate in formal settings, while wooden containers are more informal in design, although an arrangement of carefully-planted, painted Versailles tubs can look very smart.

Wherever it is positioned, a container should always have a firm base as a pot full of moist compost is very heavy. In most cases, particularly with very large tubs, it is best to put the container in the final position first and then fill it with compost and plants to save having to move it when it is full.

Virtually any plants, including vegetables, can be grown in containers, but all will need more care than those grown in the open garden. The key to success is not to let the containers dry out, but at the same time never to allow them to become too wet. They will need constant watering, which will leach nutrients out of the compost, so the plants will also need regular feeding during the growing season.

To facilitate drainage, all containers should have holes in the bottom, preferably covered with a layer of stones, shards or coarse gravel to prevent them from clogging-up and to provide an easy passage for excess water. The compost should be free-draining but capable of retaining sufficient moisture for the plants’ needs from one watering to the next.

They are comparatively cheap to buy, easy to plant and available in many different forms: quick or slow to increase; suitable for sun or shade; thriving in freely draining or moisture retentive soils; appropriate to formal or informal schemes, according to species or cultivar. Ground cover plants can be prostrate conifers, shrubs or herbaceous plants, evergreen or deciduous: something to satisfy every need, taste and planting plan.

Ground cover plants quickly colonize sizeable areas and build up a thick thatch of vegetation that suppresses most weeds. The one exception is woody weeds, but these usually appear singly and are easily removed. The perennial quality of most ground cover plants ensures that, with a minimum of pruning and splitting during the winter months, maintenance during the growing season is negligible. Once they are established, there is no longer any necessity to dig and hoe the areas of the garden that are planted with them. The chances of success are maximized if the ground is cleared of perennial weeds before planting. This can be a time-consuming task but it pays dividends.

The art of ground cover lies in spacing the plants correctly to ensure that the ground is covered quickly but without the plants competing for space or losing their characteristic habits from having to spread too far. The estimated spread of a plant can be used as a guide, taking into consideration the means by which it spreads. Those plants that spread by underground or overground runners are, as a rule, the most vigorous. They can be useful when a large area needs to be covered, but the larger plants, in particular, tend to suffocate and choke everything in sight. Clump forming plants are much more containable and there are a number that self-seed as well. These days, when a plant becomes a pest it is possible to eradicate it by painting it out with a glyphosate-based translocated herbicide that is deactivated as soon as it comes into contact with the ground; this should be used sparingly, over limited areas. However, most plants can be kept at bay by digging them up regularly.

The value of leaves cannot be overemphasized when looking at ground cover plants, the different textures and colours being so closely juxtaposed that they create an intricate tapestry. There are greens in every hue, yellow-flushed plants and white-variegated cultivars that prefer shade (for example, Hosta fortunei ‘Aurea’, Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’ and Lamium maculatum); while silvery, yellow-variegated, purple and glaucous foliage perform best in sunshine (Heuchera ‘Palace Purple’, Stachys byzan-tina, Ruta graveolens). Flowers must be woven into the whole scheme, bringing seasonal interest to the composition (Geranium endressii ‘Wargrave Pink’, Helleborus orientalis, Phlox subulata).

Ground cover plants can be used in great informal drifts, covering large areas of the garden. A suitable scheme for a moist shady position would include hos-tas in variety, pulmonarias, hellebores, bergenias, Solomon’s seal and epimediums; in direct sunlight catmints, pinks, thrifts, snow-in-summer, Jerusalem sage and thymes thrive. A steep bank, where it may be difficult to grow grass, can be successfully clothed in a thick mat of St John’s wort (Hypericum calycinum) which carries bright yellow flowers throughout the summer, or periwinkle (Vinca) that raises starry blue eyes over a dense carpet of green leaves in spring -both require pruning in late winter.

In formal designs, where labour-intensive bedding plants might have been used in the past, it is possible to associate neatly clipped cotton lavenders, coloured leaved sages, blue leaved festuca, ivies and chamomile for a pleasing effect.