A list of blogs from the home page David Domoney. David is a Chartered Horticulturalist with over 40 years of experience growing and caring for plants. David has also worked on UK national television for over 2 decades. As a garden designer, David has won over 30 RHS medals for his garden designs at leading UK gardening shows and events.
Nothing beats the rose and it’s always nice to have something in your garden that you can cut and bring indoors. Also, the fragrance is phenomenal. My favourites are Mountbatten (bright yellow), Iceberg (white) and Royal William (deep red).
Lupins are spectacular, inexpensive flowers that will brighten any border and add tons of personality. Every year they just get bigger and better! They die down in winter and returning in the summer with a bang!
This is a seaside plant – a little hairy clump of leaves sending out amazing lollipop spikes of pink or white flowers like fireworks. They grow almost anywhere and look great in rockeries. And they’re cheap to buy. They were one of my childhood plants and bring back fond memories.
This is a phenomenal semi-evergreen with all the Fs – flowers, fragrance and foliage. If you plant early and late varieties together, you’ll get flowers from May to September. They are also good for companion planting – two plants in the same hole.
This is famous for its chocolate scent! It has a striking burgundy flower borne on tall stems over dark green leaves. Once native to Mexico, it’ll look, and smell, very special in your garden.
Container gardening is fantastic. It lets you grow plants, including vegetables, where there is no soil – on a balcony, patio or even your garage roof.
They’re brilliant because they’re flexible and help make the most of your space. You can change them simply by shifting the pots around. If you’ve got pot stands on wheels, you can revamp the look of your garden in minutes.
And with a bit of planning and some clever planting, you can produce a container garden for every season.
Choose your container
You can choose anything, but the bigger the better. The more soil it holds, the more moisture and food it will hold and the more root space your plants will have. It will also be easier it is to maintain.
Move it into position before you fill it with soil, or it will get too heavy to shift. Check the pot has sufficient drainage. Waterlogging is a recipe for killing your plants. If there’s no drainage, get out your drill and put as many holes as you can in the bottom.
Then line the pot with crocks – broken pottery or a bit of gravel to stop the holes getting clogged with soil. Put chocks underneath the container to help stop it becoming waterlogged in the winter.
Plant it
The good news is that you can put almost anything in a container – flowering plants, ornamental shrubs and even fruit and veg.
You can also try primulas. They come in a huge range of colours, but they’re thirsty so keep them well-watered.
If you’re planting for summer, I’d recommend fuchsias, geraniums, marigolds and Busy lizzies.
Later in the year, replace with autumn and winter pansies. While ever the weather’s still cold, watch out for frost and cover the plants with garden fleece or old newspapers if the temperature really drops.
For edible crops, salad leaves and herbs are a great place to start. If you want to grow fruit and vegetables, stick to the same spacings and planting instructions as for a normal veg patch. If you can’t plant in rows, try concentric circles of crops.
To create a container garden, simply repeat the process with lots more containers! Put different sized containers on different levels to create a dynamic, visual space.
As a boy I played in the garden all the time. There were no computer games or mobile phones
I had a cap gun and ran around pretending I was in Starsky and Hutch. I climbed apple trees and made bows and arrows out of twigs and string.
When I wasn’t doing playing in the garden, I was working in it with my brother and sister. Both my parents were keen gardeners and we earned our pocket money by helping out.
We were lucky enough to have a medium-sized garden with a big lawn. Each of us kids had our own border to grow stuff in. I used to buy plants from the church fete for mine.
One of my favourites was Berginia Elephant-ear. The foliage is rubbery and, as the name suggests, the leaves look just like green elephant’s ears! They flower in spring and they’re as hard as nails.
Another was Stachys, which has soft, fluffy foliage that earned it the nickname Lamb’s Ears. It’s a ground-covering perennial with leaves that last into autumn or winter, though the plant is not properly evergreen.
I loved tactile plants like that. I’d walk around the garden appreciating the textures, marvelling at the colours and enjoying the fragrances. That’s how I started growing things. From school I went to horticultural college.
But I was lucky. I believe every child across Britain should have access to a garden and that’s why I’m a passionate supporter of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Campaign for School Gardens.
It aims to encourage all schools to get children growing, demonstrating the value of gardening in teaching life skills and contributing to good physical and mental health and helping kids to grow into adults who care about the environment. It also shows how gardens can contribute to a sustainable environment.
[/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”]Getting our hands dirty at an RHS school garden in Cardiff
So far, over 18,500 schools have signed up to the campaign. But there are still around 12,000 to go, so if you’re a teacher get online here for advice, resources and a free starter pack full of information.
Want to enter your school garden into our competition to win £2000 of National Garden Gift Vouchers? Order your free starter pack now!
And finally, if you’re interested in working in horticulture, check out growcareers.co.uk. It’s a great initiative set up by the horticultural industry to help attract new talent. You’ll find tons of information and advice about finding your feet – and a job. Best of luck!
Join our campaigns and let’s get children gardening!
