Like this year’s Chelsea gardens, my garden has always been a green garden. It’s relaxing, kind to wildlife and probably easier to maintain. But I love colour. So I make up pots and containers full of bright hues that I keep within my eye-line and within reach of my watering can.
For the past couple of years, I’ve been obsessed with bedding plants: brilliant coleus, striking osteospermums, bright nemesias and heliotropes – all tender summer glories that are at risk of frost, but with lashings of leftover washing up water mixed with seaweed feed offer a wild dash of colour all summer long. Many will overwinter in the house or greenhouse, but they lose their charms if kept too long.
Choice of container is nearly as important as the plants themselves. My weekly car boot trawls have netted old kitchen utensils, commercial containers and unlovely pots that can be redeemed with a spray of neutral coloured car paint. Group plants together or group single variety pots – easier to water and fun to organise.
Thank you all 760 visitors who made our Whitstable Open Gardens such a good day. We raised over £5000 for the NGS and several local enterprises. Next year will be even more exciting as we’ll have doubled our gardens to 20.