Tag Archive: containers
Lovelocks on a bridge in Amsterdam, a feature of many cities around the world- lovers engharve their names and add the padlock to the many others here
‘Lovelock Bridge’ looking along one of the fine canals
I couldn’t resist sharing some pictures I took on my recent trip to Amsterdam. Wandering the roads and taking a canal boat ride offered many opportunities to capture the beauty of this City’s distinctive architecture, canals and other features – especially in the low autumn sunshine that accompanied us. First the canals….
Next the cycles….
Finally, those ‘Coffee Shops’ that aren’t really that at all. Not to be confused with cafés, they have been a part of Amsterdam since the 1970s, when the Dutch government made a clear distinction in the law between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ drugs. Coffee shops have always existed in a legal grey area. They are allowed to operate with a set, non-transferable licence (shown by the display of an official, green and white sticker in the window). There are about 200 in Amsterdam, and most have a ‘menu’ of soft drugs for sale, but they are not allowed to sell alcohol! Then there are the fully legal ‘Smart Shops’, which sell herbal i.e. smart drugs, named because they are supposed to stimulate the mind and improve memory. They also sell magic mushrooms. In recent years there has been an explosion of smart shops in Amsterdam, many shops are selling mushrooms, vitamins, weed seeds, grown kits, pipes and various souvenirs and arts.
Inside a coffee shop- not guilty !
A coffee shop licence
Tolerance and intolerance…
A real Coffee Shop….sorry Cafe
Oh, and a bonus of a few odd pictures around and inside the Rijksmuseum- guess what the crowd are looking at?……………….. Rembrandt’s masterpiece ‘The Nightwatch’.
Old School Gardener
It’s the time to begin planting many bulbs for flowering next spring. Narcissus, Crocus, Tulips and many more are now available in the shops and online. This week’s topical question comes from Justine Potts who lives in Bath:
“I live in the middle of town and have no garden to speak of. Can I grow bulbs in grow – bags?”
Bulbs are ‘ready – packaged’ plants that are very adaptable and so they can be used in many different ways. Growing them in grow – bags is perfectly feasible. And just as you can have a double/treble layer of bulbs in a pot to give a longer floral effect, so you can do the same in grow-bags and other containers (though you migth be limited by the depth of the container). Among the Narcissi the old double yellow ‘Van Sion’ is early, cheerful and showy; ‘Armada’ is large, gold and scarlet; ‘Royal Orange’ is large, white and orange. among the tulips the Darwin hybrids in reds, yellows, oranges and white are very impressive.
Layering different types of bulb in a pot for long spring flowering
As with grow bags if you grow bulbs in pots and similar containers it is important to have good drainage. So long as surplus water can soak away, bulbs should grow well in them. If you have raised containers on pedestals the plants might be blown about, so you should choose those that can put up with the wind, However even lilies are a possibility here; sturdy-stemmed types that can be tried include ‘Enchantment’ (orange flowers), L. regale (white), L. ‘Destiny’ (yellow). Daffodils in early spring and tulips a little later will give colour for weeks; in particular a double layer of daffodil bulbs planted in the autumn will give you plenty of colour. There are many suitable varieties:
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‘Tete a Tete’
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‘February Gold’
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‘Foresight’
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‘Armada’
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‘Rembrandt’
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‘Thalia’
Tulips could include:
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‘Red Riding Hood’
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‘Giuseppe Verdi’
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‘Toronto’
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‘Red Emperor’, and
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early flowering doubles ”Electra’ and ‘Peachblossom’
Narcissus ‘Thalia’ 
Narcissus ‘Tete a Tete’ 
Tulip Darwin hybrid- with mutation!
Before you plant up bulbs in bowls think about what you will do with them afterwards. If you want to put them out in the garden it’s best to grow them in John Innes potting compost as this provides some nutrients that will feed the bulb and so increase their strength. If, however you discard the bulbs at the end of the flowering season you can grow them in bulb fibre which doesn’t contain these nutrients and will be cheaper. If you have your own supply of well – rotted leaf mould that would be just as good as bulb fibre – and even cheaper!
Hyacinths in pots
Further information:
Container gardening on Pinterest
Old School Gardener
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Topiarised Heather in a container
This week’s question is from Ivor Smallplot in Suffolk:
‘I have a small courtyard garden and wish to grow some shrubs in pots. What are the best varieties for this purpose, please?’
Heathers do well in pots, Ivor – even if your soil is rather limey (alkaline), you can provide an acid soil in the containers and so grow the summer flowering varieties. All the Hebes (shrubby Veronicas) are happy in pots, as are the less vigorous Berberis – but mind the thorns!
For winter colour plant the evergreen Euonymus, especially the delightfully variegated ones such as ‘Emerald Gaiety’, ‘Aureopictus’ and ‘Silver Queen’. New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax) is also a good looker with its long, narrow leaves in many colours, as are Yuccas, with their rosettes of long needle-pointed leaves.
Phormium
Euonymus trained as a standard
Further afield in the garden, you might want to grow shrubs that are especially attractive to bees. If so try flowering currants (Ribes) and goat willow (Salix caprea) for early flowering. Later in the year there are many shrubs to choose from including the ever popular ‘Butterfly Bush’ (Buddleja davidii), Californian Lilac (Ceanothus), Firethorn (Pyracantha), Lilac (Syringa), Gorse (Ulex) and Daisy Bush (Olearia).
Ceanothus jepsonii
Old School Gardener
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I’m quite pleased with the way some planters I made are currently looking in Old School Garden. I made two of these planters for our Courtyard Garden and last autumn replanted them.
Made from a combination of decking planks screwed to corner posts and topped off with cheap trellis frames, I painted them black and half- filled them with broken up polystyrene and then soil/compost on top.
They are currently sporting two varieties of Tulip (one a sort of ‘raspberry blush’ colour the other more ‘strawberries and cream’!), which I think look good against the black paintwork and especially in early morning sun.
One of two wooden planters made from decking planks and four corner posts with a cheap trellis top
Two varieties of Tulip currently looking good
Last year I had a surfeit of Nepeta which had grown like topsy and was sprawling over large parts of our main mixed borders. Don’t get me wrong, I quite like the way plants like Nepeta (and Geraniums) sprawl over the edges of borders, softening up the straight lines of the lawn or the mowing strip of a path we have alongside the borders. But these Nepeta were seriously taking over large parts of the border, so I divided (and hopefully now rule) them, replanting several pieces of root in the black planters.
This was after I’d seen a wonderful example of how you can use such plants in a Devon garden near my mother in law’s house. Here, the neighbour had used them as a wall topper alongside a path. This had the effect of raising the flowers (and all the insects they attract) closer to eye level and also allowed their sprawling habit to cascade down the side of the wall and provide a wonderful minty, fragrant burst as you brushed up against them.
So, I’m hoping that my replanting in the black planters will bring me some summer colour, fragrance and insect interest to follow on from the Tulips – the plants seem to have taken successfully and are looking promising. I’ll plant some climbing Nasturtiums behind them to add a yellow-orange backdrop on the trellis, which should complement the purply- lavender flowers of the Nepeta well. I’ll post some more pictures of the summer show later in the year.
Nepeta coming into growth
The planter in the wider courtyard setting, with Hostas and Sweet Williams starting to fill pots and troughs
Old School Gardener
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16th March 2013
Hi!
Thanks for the tips… have pretty much done everything now!
Bought some seeds and have planted them in a compartmentalized seed tray… went for basil, coriander , parsley , sage, oregano and piripiri chillies.
Also got some raspberry plants – maybe they’ll work this year!!
Now to wait and see if they sprout!
To be continued…. do youn have any tips about growing fruit and veg in containers? Please let me know!
Previous post: Dear Dad ….15th March 2013
Old School Gardener
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Sunflowers were planted by a local playgroup at the May opening of the garden – with the wet summer they grew to over 2.5 metres tall!
A renovated garden is moving towards maturity in what were once exercise yards for tramps and unmarried mothers at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Museum, Norfolk.
The garden occupies what were once two exercise/work yards for inmates of the Victorian Workhouse. The footings of what was once the dividing wall between these two yards can still be seen, emerging as the lawn above is worn away. In Victorian times these yards joined two blocks of accommodation:
- for so-called ‘casuals’ or tramps who used to travel between workhouses earning ‘a night’s board for 2 days hard labour’ – possibly crushing stones for use in road building
- for unmarried mothers nursing their babies – they wore distinctive uniforms to mark them out from the other workhouse inmates.
The refurbished ‘Education Garden’
These buildings today provide the Museum’s Learning Centre and space for occasional groups and events. Until last year the garden area between the two buildings was kept maintained as grass and a range of mixed borders which is an important picnic/ rest spot as well as being used by school and pre school groups for art and learning activities. In 2012 funding from the Friends of the Museum as well as the Museum itself and donations from a range of local businesses were secured to refurbish and redesign it. A number of design issues were tackled, including:
- Providing further paved terrace space with new picnic tables and some renovated paving
- Introducing a number of planting containers to add interest to the paved terraces
- Realigning paths to follow ‘desire lines’ and make access easier
- Deepening borders to provide more visual interest and unified planting
- Creating a new ‘curiosity corner’ to provide a space designed for under 5’s which contains a range of features to encourage children to explore.
Mary and Derek Manning plant a tree to mark the opening of the garden
The newly renovated garden was formally opened on 6th May 2012, and two of the original gardening volunteers, Mary and Derek Manning, planted a ‘Paper Handkerchief Tree‘ to mark the occasion. Local children also played their part and cut ribbons to open ‘Curiosity Corner’.
One of the new residents of the Garden!
The Curiosity Corner proved to be very popular in its first season last year and included some giant sunflowers planted by a local play group as well as a turf seat; a willow tunnel and arches; hazel wigwam; mirror; ‘fossil slab’; various ‘animals’ hidden away in the planting and a range of different path surfaces and planting. There is also a half barrel filled with stones,water and pond plants, so that youngsters can ‘get up close’ to this watery habitat.
‘Curiosity Corner’
The coming year will see the garden mature further and hopefully there will be sunny days so that visitors can really enjoy this lovely picnic area at its best.
New planters with sweet peas on conical obelisks
Quizzicals:
Two more cryptic clues to the names of plants, fruit or veg…
- The scourge of female chickens
- Cheap goods in a pile of dung
Old School Gardener
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Old School Garden 