The message
from "Julie Clark" contains these words:

I am hoping to put my house on the market mid-April time and I want to make
a good first impression if I can. I live in a mid terraced house so no
front garden to speak of. I have put some decking down to keep it tidy but
now want some plant advice for a few containers. The area gets the
sun first thing in the morning but loses it by about 11am and doesn't get it
back at all.

I'd suggest a prickly evergreen - one of the Berberis clan perhaps,
undersown with spring bulbs. At this time of year you might get them a
bit cheaper too, and it's still not too late to plant them.

It isn't under any cover so will get the rain etc, but it is
also near enough for the young hooligans down the road to lean over the wall
and pull up anything that spreads within their reach.
I want something that will give a bit of colour but is likely to survive
without too much TLC since I'm new and a bit of a garden know-it-nothing.

A good garden centre will advise on continuity of colour, but a good
long-lasting and colourful flowering plant is the nasturtium. You can
eat the leaves in salad and pickle the seeds. You do have to be onn the
lookout for paterkillers though and as soon as you see holes appearing
in a leaf, turn it over and squish them, or pick the leaf and take it
out the back and give it to the birds.

Anemones also give a splash of colour, but they don't last for very
long. Pansies, violas, pot marigolds, white alyssum, lobelia and
begonias are all easy and colourful.

Oh, and wotsits.... trumpet-shaped flowers.... colourful, easy, but not
any good for bees, I'm told.... Can't remember their name.

When should I plant to see colour in mid-April time? Along the same lines,
is there a preferred compost, drainage system, watering regime that is
better for pots or is that dependent on the
type of plants you've used?

I tend to get a decent-sized planter and put some rubble in the bottom,
then some small stones, or something to stop the soil washing into the
spaces, then mix a seed compost with some soil and/or peat or compost,
and filling the planter with that.
ps. I'm also new to newsgroups so apologies in advance if I do something
wrong or break protocol in some way!

Plant - well, follow what it says on the seed packets, or if you're
buying plugs, ask your nurseryman, as some aren't fully frost-hardy.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
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