It’s time to brighten the patio with colourful pots, says Ruth
This past winter felt like a horrendously long slog, seemingly endless days of dreary grey accessorised by gusting winds and a mizzly dampness that seemed to soak right through to the bones. But now we’re almost at the end of March, a quarter of the year is done, and Easter is here. Whether you celebrate or not, the bank holiday always feels like the ‘proper’ start of the gardening year to me, the portal to longer days and increasing warmth helping our gardens to turn into the verdant paradises we work so hard to create.
One of the jobs I’ll be doing this weekend is finishing planting up a couple of patio containers, maybe a hanging basket too, of late spring flowers. Good weather still isn’t guaranteed but even on the drabbest day, patio planters bring us colourful pops of joy to lift the spirits and also, if you choose your plants carefully, nectar and shelter to the garden’s stillemerging pollinators.
I am re-using a couple of pots I stashed behind the shed last autumn, washing them out first to get rid of any lingering traces of pests and disease. Garden centre shelves are groaning under the weight of plants for pots and baskets, and I like to mix mine up by including grasses, herbs and trailing varieties as well as anything that has eye-catching foliage.
Bulbs are also worthwhile additions as you can slip them in to fill gaps and they poke their way up and flower when others are dying back or are ready for deadheading before their second flourish.
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