Green Fingers: We need flowers and lots of them
The variety of containers and flowers available is huge.
The spring season usually includes some of the most exciting months for gardeners as there is so much happening in the plant world. Growth, which had slowly emerged, is now growing away strongly and there is an abundance of flowers in most groups of plants.
We are now in the middle of May and while there is much to keep us busy in the garden, there is also enough time to be able to enjoy your plants and surroundings. This enjoyment can be extended into treats like visiting some gardens open to the public and flower shows like Bloom but they can also be enjoyed from the comfort of your television too.
Sowing seeds, creating or improving new growing areas, obtaining some new plants and generally making your garden a more pleasant place to spend time will all help stimulate an ongoing interest.
Many of us have an idea of what diversity means. In gardening it will encompass all of the natural living world and not just the plants we grow but all the things that are associated with growing, such as the soil and insects too. Those involved in gardening can diversify within the range of plants they grow and many do have many divergent interests, which makes for interesting conversation.
On our holding, we have livestock, including chickens, and grow organically a wide range of fruit, vegetables and flowers for admiring outside and also for picking for indoor decoration.
The nice thing about most flowers is that you can enjoy them in many ways, as well as give some to friends and other people who might not manage to go outdoors anymore.
One of the easiest and quickest growing flowers are those that you plant now, which will flower after a few weeks and keep going until the frosts arrive in the autumn. The old traditional method was to plant flowers into prepared beds and have massive colourful displays but those days are long gone and the fashion now is to plant a number of containers around the house, including the patio or seating area.
The variety of containers and flowers available is huge and the difficulty is what to leave out as they all are beautiful. The lucky thing is that containers are usually filled with a variety of plants together and they seem to enjoy the company and provide colour and interest until the frosts come in late autumn. Once planted all that needs to be done is water them regularly and feed twice a month with a weak liquid feed.
For a variety of exciting colours to plant, consider geraniums, osteospermums (daisy), Begonias (double and trailing), Fuchsia (upright and trailing), trailing petunias, including million bells, and scented dianthus (dwarf carnations).
More people are joining the ranks of growing vegetables and some fruit, especially strawberries. Enthusiastic people like “Paddy Butterhead” from Déise Men’s Sheds are good ambassadors with a mine of information, which is gladly given out to anyone interested.
If you have any comments or queries you are welcome to share them with me on 051-3894273 or orchardstowngardencentre@hotmail.com and if of general interest I will include them in a future article.
