Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil C
Hello,
We're not good gardeners. We have a courtyard/town garden which we recently
had block paved (with full drainage).
We're planning on putting in a large wooden planter (2.5m long, 40cm wide
and 50cm deep.
I went on one site and it said we would need 1 ton of topsoil to fill it!
Can we put stuff at the bottom of it so we need less soil? Does it need to
be top soil or is multipurpose compost ok?
We are thinking of having a couple of lavenders in it and a hardy perennial
(?) and perhaps something else ... but nothing that grows more than say
...... 75cm wide and 75cm high.
We want things that are low/zero maintenance, provide all year round colour
and flower sometime in the year.
Ideally we'd like to do it in the next month or so .... but is it something
we should leave to do next spring??
Your expert advice appreciated.
Phil
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I had charge of a similar sized planter, built in brick. The bottom third was filled with rubble to provide good drainage. A drainage outlet is essential. The remainder was filled with a mixture of John Innes no 3 soil based compost, composted wood bark, and a little composted manure. It was allowed to settle, then topped up with more John Innes before final planting.
It was planted with a prostrate rosemary, a Temple bamboo, a small black phormium, Bergenia, and bulbs to come up through the other things in the spring. The owner subsequently also planted a shrubby convulvulus. Until last year, when the house was sold, everything survived and flourished.
Watering was only carried out when there had been more than three consecutive days of dry,hot weather.