Tag Archives: Garden Plants

Planting In Large Containers – What You Must Know

Should you are planting a significant container in autumn to offer a spring display, you have a extensive option of medium to tall daffodils, hyacinths and tulips, which can be under planted with polyanthus, violas, pansies, forget-me-not or wallflowers. Combine any of these with bronze or bright golden foliage and you’ll possess a masterpiece.

It’s critical to plan before you plant. Think from the general form you want to attain and contemplate the height and spread on the plants in relation towards the depth of the container.

Dwarf daffodils or tulips are best for a hanging basket, but a large 1 / 2 barrel will accommodate taller plants, including the mid season tulips and daffodils, which grow to 30-40cm or 12-16in.

If there’s room, consist of a shrub or conifer in the center to give additional structure, or use Hedera or ivy or Vinca or periwinkle to soften the edges with the container and make a pleasing shape as they trail.

Take into account also whenever you would like the container to appear its greatest. Should you want an explosion of colour in mid spring, use daffodils or tulips with pansies. To get a later splash of color, use late flowering tulips with pansies, forget-me-nots or wallflowers, that are accessible in a wide assortment of colours that complement nearly any alternative of tulip.

Even though they won’t commence flowering until mid spring, they’ll supply greenery, and once they begin to flower the present will last for quite a few weeks. Drill six drainage holes within the base on the 50 % barrel.

Line the base and sides having a bin liner or trash bag or black plastic. Cut slits within the liner to match the drainage holes. Add a 7.5cm layer of drainage materials, such as pieces of polystyrene or Styrofoam. Fill to about two thirds full with potting compost or soil mix.

 

Foundation Planting Rules

Probably no feature on the average American home grounds is more abused by being over-planted than the so called “foundation planting.” There is one reason, and only one, for such a planting: to soften the architectural features of the building by using plant material at strategic locations and thus help blend the house into its natural surroundings.

Basic Rule

There is one fundamental guiding rule for every foundation planting, whether for a small cottage, a large pretentious home, or a huge industrial building. That rule is:

“Plant material shall be placed at those points where the strong vertical architectural lines meet the ground. Of course this broad statement is subject to minor qualifications under certain conditions. Put in still simpler language, it says, “Use plants at the corners of the building and at either side of doorways.”

Causes of Over-Planting

The owner of a home or of a large industrial building, or the authorities in charge of civic buildings and their grounds, are naturally tempted to seek an immediate effect when planning the landscape planting around the foundation of the building they control. That is probably the main reason for extensive over-planting.

Another reason is the fact that in millions of homes of all kinds, in every section of our country, the foundation planting problem has been handled in much the same manner. So it is only natural that a new homeowner will look around, see what so many others have done, and reason that that is the correct and only way to handle the foundation planting. Actually, only one house in a hundred, or in certain areas one in a thousand, has its foundation planting handled correctly!

The Long View

As it may help you to consider this problem first from the psychological angle, try to convince yourself that anything really good is worth waiting for. Have a stout heart if, after putting in your foundation planting in accordance with the suggestions offered in this book, you find your neighbors looking askance at you as if they thought you just a little off balance because you have planted specimens no more than 12 inches high, and have spaced them 6 or 7 feet apart. Of course that looks scanty; and it is easy to see how the uninitiated might consider it ridiculous. But if the sketches succeed in showing you what your planting will eventually look like, then you can face your critics with a smile of contentment, safe in your knowledge that, in four to six years, the foundation planting around your home will very likely be the finest in the neighborhood. You may even point out to them how much money you have saved by planting the foundation according to good landscape principles.

Location of Vertical Lines

Referring again to the placing of plants where the strong vertical lines of the architecture meet the ground, we find that both sides of any door fit this description, thus giving us two points where plants should be used. Other strong vertical lines are at inside or outside corners of buildings. Even a small break in the wall of a building can be considered a corner, and these locations should also be treated as points that call for planting. It is not vitally essential but it will look better in the long run.