happy gardening November !

Autumn is now well underway with some beautiful leaf colour for everyone to enjoy – cool nights and sunny days are the recipe for the best autumnal shades, so let’s hope for a great display this year.

Raised planters can provide a beautiful display all year round so this is a good time to add some winter flowering plants to keep your outdoor space looking beautiful during the darker days.

Handy Monthly Tips

Plant heathers for a colourful winter display.  Heathers are easy to grow, manageable and long-flowering, and are the ideal low-maintenance plant.  Winter-flowering heathers have another great attribute – they are bee-friendly – they are a lifeline for bumblebees and solitary bees, which do not store food and emerge in mild spells in winter and early spring.  Don’t forget heathers need ericaceous compost – if you’re using our growing pockets then it’s easy to make sure you have the right compost for the right plant.

Ornamental grasses and more structured plants like hardy yuccas, can give shape and add height while pretty, trailing ivies will soften the edges of your container.   Add Heucheras for spots of colour and depth.

You can find ornamental kale and cabbages in the garden centres now with beautiful shades from deep purple to white, brilliant greens, mauves and pink. They make a wonderful addition to your raised planter.

For a Christmas display then plant up red and white cyclamens and mix with pretty winter-flowering pansies and violas for colour and for texture, evergreen ferns.

If you’ve grown perennials in your planter then now is a good time to cut back any yellowing foliage and lift and divide overcrowded clumps to maintain their vigour.

garden4me flower of the month

vegetables & fruit

Sow cut-and-come-again salads and hardy herbs – you can sow and then pick directly from these – so if your planter is outside your kitchen door then you’ll have an ongoing supply to hand whenever you need it.

Stake top-heavy brassicas and draw up some compost around the base of the stem to prevent any wind damage.

Lift parsnips after the first frosts when their flavour will have sweetened.

garden4me vegetable of the month

planning ahead

If you haven’t done so already, then there’s still time to plant bulbs for spring flowering. To make sure they flower year after year, plant them at a depth of two to three times the height of the bulb.

Narcissi can be particularly good for picking so now is a good time to get these bulbs planted.

garden4me – latest news…

Our raised planters make a wonderful Christmas present for the gardeners in your life – why not treat them to a present they can enjoy and use all year round.

And if you order before Christmas we’re giving away a free gift of a lovely Kent & Stowe hand tool set.

And don’t forget we now supply polytunnels for your raised planter – they’re not yet on our online shop so if you want to order one then please phone in on 0161 641 6859 to order.

customer featured planter of the month

Alan from Manchester is rediscovering his love of vegetable gardening … ‘After many years of not gardening it was a real thrill to realise I could grow my own vegetables again even though I only have a patio – and right from the first crops they’ve been fantastic”

Coming in the December calendar – more handy hints, news and flower and veg of the month