Velvet Magazine April 2016

Gardening
Chloe, from The Suffolk Window Box Co., reveals how
we can all take a little green fingered delight,
whatever our space
Thinking Outside
Planters can put on a delightful show all
year round. There is so much to be said for
having greenery in some form or another,
and the obvious solution is to go vertical.
Well-planted window boxes will make your
home look more inviting from the street,
especially where the front garden has been
sacrificed for parking! Window boxes at
the back of your house will also enhance
your outside leisure areas.
If you don’t have deep windowsills,
matching wall brackets can be used.
Hanging baskets in trees are another
alternative. Find an attractive rope, and
you can move them from branch to branch
as the mood suits. Bear in mind that the
The Suffolk Window Box Co.
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plants in these baskets will often be in
shade, so don’t forget to water them!
In the world of container gardening, April is
the month to be making the most of spring
plants. Firstly, if you don’t have anything
planted up yet, then do buy and enjoy the
late-spring classics such as primroses,
bellis perennis, tulips and muscari. For
structure, and to avoid a composition
that looks frumpy, I always add a shapely
evergreen shrub. A small box ball or two is
fashionable, if a little ubiquitous. Why not
try a small hebe or sarcococca instead?
Secondly, buy your summer bedding plants
now, while they are small and relatively
inexpensive. By the time the weather is
ready for them, they’ll have grown well and
your new planter will already look lovely.
You’ll be able to swap it out with your
spring planters, which you can store and
bring back to centre stage next spring!
If you do have some outside planting
space, then spare a little for the oldfashioned
charm of sweet peas, and sow
some seeds this month. My grandmother
grew them in abundance, and visitors to
her house always left with a posy of these
fragrant flowers. They do need a lot of
water and space for the roots, so, where
possible, it’s better to plant straight into
the ground. I’ve learned over the years that
they almost always seem to grow taller
than the seed packet says, so make sure
your supports are going to be high enough.
Once they get going, the more flowers you
pick, the more you’ll get. So keep picking,
and, as my grandmother did, you’ll keep
your house and your friends in deliciouslyscented
cut flowers all summer.
Velvet Magazine | Apr 2016 79