CONTAINERS and pots of plants are ideal for brightening up areas where there is little or no soil for permanent plantings. The shop courtyards at Brockhole are just such a place, essentially gloomy areas with few permanent plants to relieve the dull surface of black tarmac. We try to remedy the situation by adding benches, tables and plants in containers. Although these last, they are quite labour intensive in terms of both planting up and watering. But they go a long way towards lifting the atmosphere of the two courtyards.

Containers come in all shapes, sizes and materials, and can be filled with all manner of composts and plants. My preference is for terracotta; I like the warmth, texture and colour of the clay. Plants seem to like the growing conditions provided by clay pots, which heat up and cool down more slowly than other materials and, although they dry out more rapidly than plastic pots, there is less chance of waterlogging in wet weather. It is difficult to beat plain terracotta for setting off plants grown in containers and, even if, like mine, your pots are all different shapes and sizes, they still look good together because they are of the same material.

Our nicest terracotta pots came from a pottery workshop in Hexham called The Potting Shed and I went there this weekend to buy some more to add to our collection. I was shocked to discover that it is four years since my last visit, although this does highlight the fact that traditional, hand-made clay pots will stand the test of time better than cheap, factory-produced imports. Pots which we have bought in garden centre sales in the intervening years have cracked or flaked, while the Potting Shed pots look as good as the day they arrived. This time I chose a mixed selection of large, mostly plain pots, including two with a decorative sun motif to match the wall pots that I bought last time.

The plan for this year involves planting the pots and hanging baskets with single varieties of plants rather than the usual mixture. The plants I am going to use include begonias, impatiens and verbenas, which should produce solid mounds and balls of colour. Our planting medium is a peat-free compost from J. Arthur Bowers that we tried for the first time last year. Its only fault is that it is difficult to re-wet if it gets too dry; for more permanent plants in pots, such as the figs in the kitchen garden and the citrus plants in the Orangery, we are mixing it half-and-half with loam. This adds weight to the compost as well as helping to retain moisture.

May 22, 2003 11:00