Milliways Mail order shop: Advice, tips and tricks.
Express Patio Makeover
This is the perfect time of year to give the garden a quick scrubbing up. As the garden is being used more and more as an outdoor room - somewhere to relax, eat, play and generally enjoy, the patio or terrace area becomes the place to concentrate most of your efforts. with both people nthe house workign often the only time to enjoy the garden is in the sumer evenings (link night gardening article)
Whether it just needs filling a few planting gaps or something a bit more drastic it's worth doing it now so it can be used to its maximum potential throughout the summer months.
Root out your power washer or hire one they are cheap enough. clean down furniture and desk blast off slim efrom the patio and scub the BBQ. Weed the Pots and containers and beds around the patio and brush up any leaves.
As the fear of frosts is now over although we have just had nsow this April. You can get in some bedding plants and more tender summer plants into the garden. Rather than the Predestrian choices, why not try something a bit different? Cornflowers packed in to a fruirt box (lined and filled) with trailing lobeila on the edge, or Osteospermum 'whirlygig' (cape daisy) is one of the funkiest bedding plants around. The powder blue centres are perfectly set off by the white and mauve paddle-shaped petals and the white is really white. Again they can go pretty much anywhere as a filler and if you're in a mild area or are really lucky they'll come back again next year. Plant with Lampranthus, or do up some containers with Pereneial Lobeila or many other choices email us for input if you like.
I'm a firm believer that fewer large plants in large pots look better than lots of small ones randomly dotted on a small terrace. With lots of water the bamboos such as the black bamboo (phyllostachys 'nigra') or the golden bamboo (phyllostachys 'aurea') do well in pots (add some supergel granules to stop them drying out). They will add real height without spreading too far and look fantastic in small modern gardens they can also help hide other windows in estates. some Acer palmatum in a large pot with black grasses or blue festuce can be stunning.
Try brights coloured containers (blue, jade green, golds, reds and burgundies) or a really, effective and simple trick is to paint existing terracotta pots with a masonry paint. I've seen people cover some with tin foil.
Other big plants, which make an instant impact and also look great in small space are banana palms (musa basjoo)- perfect for the shady garden and Canary Island date plam (phoenix canariensis) or try Trachycarpus fortunei one tough plant.
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