Pots and Baskets

I spent some time on Saturday morning browsing around our local plant nursery for suitable candidates for our summer baskets and pots.  I wanted some of the usual suspects: bright red geraniums (more correctly pelargoniums) and various fuchsias.  There was a fair range to choose from but not as good as in previous years and the plants were larger and more expensive than I would normally pay.  This is due to me being well behind on the basket front this year.  I did manage to find a bargain or two at the supermarket to add to the fray!

I normally buy my pot and basket plants as plug plants and grow them on in the greenhouse from April.  This year it's the end of May and I'm just getting around to thinking of summer containers, so I've paid the price quite literally! 

The Handyman and I have agreed to cut down on the number of hanging baskets this year as the watering every evening takes up such a lot of time.  So until we work out an automatic watering system we'll restrict the number of baskets and plant a few more flowers in the borders where watering is less of an issue.

The afternoon was spent potting up the containers and phaffing around to get them in the right position.  It normally takes me two or three attempts to be happy with the positioning of the pots.  After that I can sit back and wait for the summer show, as long as I keep watering, feeding and deadheading they should go on until the first frosts.  Look out for updates on progress in future posts.