Homes and Gardens / Gardening
The frosts are over, time to get planting
Gardening is generally not a pastime for those with short attention spans. There is no such thing as an instant garden, unless you have several thousand pounds to splash. However if any group of plants can lay claim to providing close-to-instant colour, it is the bedding plants. Even they take a few months to get going but plant them now and you will be the proud owner of those tumbling window boxes and hanging baskets of colour that grace the loveliest front gardens in summer.
If you go to the garden centre now you will see rows and rows of them. They will grow quickly and strongly into colourful plants that will flower all summer, to be thrown away at the end of the season. Early May is a tiny bit early to plant them out – they are frost tender which means they will be killed by any cheeky late cold patch – but by mid- to late May we can slowly become more confident that frosts are definitely over and get planting.
They are also a lovely way to play with plants and to mess about with their textures and colours, and so particularly great for new, unconfident gardeners. Because they are so temporary, there are no mistakes. You can choose something chunky and colourful such as a begonia or geranium, or something delicate and fizzy such as lobelia. You might go fill your containers with all one plant (classy, by the way) or a riot of many, for delicate pastels or a rainbow. It will all grow quickly and be over almost as fast, but you will create a dazzling and not-quite-but-nearly-instant summer display in the meantime.
Image: Shutterstock
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