Allotments 4 All

Hi all,

First off I can grow vegetables & chickens but haven't a clue about non-veg. Excuses out of the way we have a flowerbed that I'd like to fill next year and have a long flowering period from it's various varieties.

Trouble is that I don't know what flowers do what and when, I like the look of sweet peas for next year and this year we used the excess French Marigolds that I didn't companion plant with the brassicas but that was way to much orange. The bed is about 4 ft x12 ft and is east/south facing but is backed by the neighbours beech hedge so it doesn't receive sun all day.

Can anyone suggest a few easy going varieties of flowers that come into bloom at different times of the year, and that would also provide an opportunity for different 'levels' of flowers. I'm not after any particular sort of look ie cottage garden so anything pretty is fine for me. Sorry that this sounds very vague but then again so am I!

Cheers.

Jon

Jonny I think there are lots of factors. Do you want a permanent herbaceous border of perennials or a temporary one with annuals? Do you want plants or will you grow from seed? How high do you want the border to be? You can go for a one colour different heights and textures/shapes like the famous Gertrude Jeckyll one at Sissinghurst or the delightful mishmash of heights, colours etc that is the cottage garden, even mixing in the odd vegetable. You might find some ideas in Alan Titchmarsh's "How to be a gardener" although you'll know most of it already. http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/htbg/ It's fun experimenting and flower seeds are relatively cheap so you can try lots of different ones. Or get involved in a flower seed swap on A4A. Oh geoff Hamilton's bok on cottage gardens is pretty good too.
I have flowers and shrubs at home with the odd veg/fruit stuck in here and there and the reverse at my plot.

Good advice.

I am a great fan of lavender.Looks and smells wonderful,especially after rain.

now is the perfect time to plant spring flowering bulbs especially tulips and daffodils. the beauty of bulbs is that you can plant them quite deep which means you can plant out bedding plants or sow perrenials over them with out harm. bulbs are easy to grow really, all you need to do is choose the ones you like and pop them in. if your ground is heavy then pop a bit of grit under them for drainage.  you can get some lovely bulbs which will bring colour and joy to your beds early in the spring before anything else is up and (if you choose wisely) will be finished by the time other things in the bed come up.  :)

I agree and that reminds me too that you need to plan for colour over the whole season. Hellebores for example flower in my garden from now until March and snowdrops are gorgeous in the winter months, heralding the spring. Asters, dahlias, red hot pokers and sedums are some of those providing late summer and autumn colour. Verbena bonarienses seems to flower nonstop. It's all a question of what you prefer and a bit of planning.

Hi Jon. 

I think it's a bit of a tall order to get year round flower interest from such a small border.  Flowers are also a very personal thing so you might like to look at some blogs or websites to get a better idea of what would suit you.  On the books front The New Flower Expert by Dr D G Hessayon might be a good starting point.  As Sarah says bulbs can be invaluable and with careful planning it's possible to have some in flower for most of the year.  Alliums and Lilies are my particular favourites to follow the spring bulbs for instance.  Nor would I be without perennial herbs.  Betula has mentioned Lavender and I'd add Rosemary to name just one more (although in time it would be too large for your border).  Mine was flowering in January, in early summer, and is out again now!  Good luck and let us know what you decide.   :)

G x

How about a few hardy geraniums

An assortment of bulbs growing up through hardy geraniums and other ground cover would work well on the whole, though snowdrops,for instance, would be swamped by geraniums. If you use cyclamen in part of the bed, snowdrops and other low-growing bulbs go well with that.

Be carefull with things like snowdrops... we had to bring ours back as somebody was digging clumps out ever year... around Mother's day...  ::)

Sweet peas I like to grow on a fence because they get tall and you need to cut them daily to keep the display going.

If you put them at the back of a flower bed then you could end up walking over other plants to get to them.

If you are going to grow from seed:-

My suggestion for the first year is to go to the shop where seeds are sold get a selection of seeds. No need to pay a lot, just get the flowers you like the look of from the picture on the packet. Then go to one side, in the shop and  check the height they will grow to. Sort them into order of height so that when you plant them you have big ones at the back and smaller ones at the front.

You get quite a lot of information from seed packets.

If you are going to buy plants then go for perennials or bulbs which come up every year (hopefully), check out what you can take cuttings from too.

Like geraniums and fuchsias you can take loads of cuttings from, buy a little plant from the garden centre early in the year and you can have loads from it in time for summer. They do not all survive winter out doors.

There are a lot of plants for the flower garden which are actually used as herbs or you can eat fruit from. Bay, lavender, alpine strawberries.

Some people do themes, like colour, every thing one or two colours.

Some like to grow only plants which produce flowers for cutting.

There is a lot to think about over winter!!

Poached egg-plant looks good and attracts a lot of bees. It self seeds a lot too, in the surrounding area. I planted some cosmos and was astounded by them as i had not grown them before - they have only just been killed by snow - this was them 6 days a go:

Quote from: saddad on November 02, 2008, 16:08:58
Be carefull with things like snowdrops... we had to bring ours back as somebody was digging clumps out ever year... around Mother's day...  ::)

I know what you mean; at one point I had someone persistently taking bulbs from my plot. I ended up feeling that strangling would be too good for her!