• About Alison
  • Wellbeing
Gardening by Design
  • 01892 511719/ 07803 045327

    alison.marsden@gardeningbydesign.co.uk

  • Home
  • About
  • Advice
  • Wellbeing
  • Online
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Learn
Gardening by Design
  • Home
  • About
  • Advice
  • Wellbeing
  • Online
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Learn

GARDENING BLOG

Sign up to my newsletter for blogs, video tips & a good gardening read

Packing away summer bedding

apat19-hog-admin2017-10-05T14:59:36+01:00

By October it really is time to pack away your summer bedding and prepare a couple of pots of winter colour to sit beside your front door. But whereas summer planting schemes were once exclusively made up from half hardy annual plants that were simply composted in autumn, I have noticed in recent years a move to mixed planting even in seasonal containers. So it is well worth knowing exactly what you can save for future use.Street planter photo

Of course there we still use plenty of annual plants and these will die in the autumn even if kept away from frost. The name tells you all you need to know: the plant completes its entire lifecycle within a year and then dies, relying on the seeds to produce new plants next year. Also there are some favourites like Petunias that may live for several years in their native habitat but are best grown as annuals in the UK. These are the plants that will feed your compost heap!

Grasses and herbaceous perennials are finding their way into summer planters too, like the Pennisetum in the photograph with its caterpillar like flower spikes and Heuchera, loved for their coloured leaves. Perennials can be planted out into a permanent space the garden in autumn, but cut the top growth off first to focus their energy on establishing strong roots.

Evergreens can give great structure to otherwise ephemeral planting. Small conifers and shrubs and trailing ivy are frequently used in containers and can simply be retained and the gaps filled with winter colour.

Finally, you might have half hardy shrubs and perennials including Pelargonium, Fuchsia and Verbena. These will live for several years but not survive frost so I take mine into the greenhouse, cut the soft growth off the top and keep them fairly dry through the winter. Come spring they will start into growth again ready to provide flowers again for another year.

f you like this blog post, please follow me on Twitter or Facebook for more hints and musings or join my mailing list for in depth articles and video tips

Happy Gardening, Alison

Share this post

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email

Latest Posts

  • Time to sow the seeds of success
  • The rise of Succulents
  • A Gardening New Year

Categories

  • Garden design (61)
  • Gardening for Wellbeing (26)
  • Grow Your Own (22)
  • In The Media (6)
  • Practical gardening (63)
  • Wildlife gardening (15)

STH training

Follow On Twitter

Tweets by @GardenInKent

Dementia Friend

Dementia Friend logo

Watch Online

RHS Listed Speaker

RHS logo

Support Wildlife

KWT logo

GMG Member

Garden media Guild logo

Newsletter

Receive Seven steps to less effort gardening free to your in box when you join my monthly newsletter

SIGN UP
© Copyright 2020. Alison Marsden at Gardening by Design. All Rights Reserved.
All Terms & Policy Information

Web Design and SEO by Hogtronix for Cornwall