When to start and what size of pots?

Hi,

I've been interested in my garden for a few years now and last year I built a pond in it. My back garden is about 5m x 4m with bits down the side of the house. Its all blocked paved (I'm a wheelchair user) with a deck in 1 corner and the pond in the other. I do have a border on the other side of my fence, about 2m long which I look after but this year I'll need to clean out & redo, plus hanging baskets are put out in the summer.

As my back garden is paved, I invested in some decent wooden planters before Christmas, which I'm just painting. These and other pots, I'm going to use this summer and I am planning to have a bumper year with flowers. So I'm wondering a few things, which I'm hoping you'll help me with.

I'm sowing most of my bedding plants like Petunia, Busy Lizzies, Lobillia, Poppie, etc, but I've been watching Carol Klein, Life in a Cottage Garden and see that she uses gravel to cover her seeds, so I'm going try this this year.

But what I need advice on is, I've got Begonias bulbs and on order I have Dahlias, Gladiolis, Lilies, Cala Lilies. When do I start these off, as I've seen on Gardeners World and Carol Klein that they start them off now in trays and even cut some in pieces when they've sprouted. Should I start mine off now and straight away when I get the rest and will I need to use my propagator for this as I'll be using it for my seeds? I want to plant mine in pots and just put the pots into the planters when the plants are ready to go out, as I'd like to lift the pots out and store them for the following year. So what size of pots do I need to do this?

I've also got a few Fuchsias and Geraniums on order, so the idea is to put all in pots, fix trellis to my house wall and shed wall and hang/tie the pots from the trellis. At the moment I'm pondering using terracotta pots (which I can paint) or plastic pots. What size of pots should I consider in using, as I am thinking 5" or 6" but the depts of these pots seem to me as being shallow at 3" to 3.5"? Also, when I take delivery of these plants, should I pot them into 2" pots and should I put in bone meal or anything like that at this stage?

Cheers in advance and sorry for any spelling mistakes

Cal

 

Hello Clum
and welcome to GC . What a lot of questions ! Hopefully I can point you in the right direction on one or two. First your patio garden looks fantastic - and so does your pooch !
Your begonia tubers plant them late Feb , early March in trays or small pots. Plant them very shallow just covering the tuber in multipurpose compost ( best not to use peat free stuff ) . Make sure the tuber is planted the right way up . Just place these indoors in a warmish corner 16-20°c , they will take about 4 - 6 weeks to sprout. When you pot them on 6" pots will be OK for the first year.
When carol Klein covered her seeds was it gravel or vermiculite ? Worth checking on that one.
I am sure soemone will advise you on theh dahlia and lily planting. If not a good google will help.

 

Hi Clum

Welcome to the forum. There are plenty of more experienced members here that will advise you on the planting, so I will not comment on that aspect as I am still pretty much a novice myself.

What a nice garden you have. For someone in a wheelchair you have done very well and I like it. Something you maybe should consider when choosing your pots is the weight of them. Terracota pots look very nice but when filled with compost, a plant and they are watered, they will be quite heavy.

Couple of ideas for you to consider. The trellis that you have looks quite substantial in comparrison to some I have seen. Make sure it is very securely fixed to something solid. Once you have plants climbing over it, it will act like a kite when the wind blows. You could fix some shelves to the trellis and place your pots on them.

You mentioned that you can paint terracota pots. Yes you can, but you can also paint the better quality plastic pots. Use some 800 grit wet and dry paper and rub the sides of the pot until you have a dull satin finish. Easy to do. Use a small square of wet & dry, a bucket of warm water with a generous squirt of washing up liquid in it. Keep the paper wet. The finished surface will take most kinds of paint.

Good luck with your project, let us know how you get on. Pictures are always good.

Regards

Chopper

 

Hi Harry,

Sorry for the length of time to reply, as I was waiting for an email notification telling me someone had replied to my post. I just thought to check my post and found you had replied along with someone else.

Thanks for the welcome and the kind comments. The pooch called Hamish McDoodle as he's a Labradoodle. He can be a handful at times, but he's good company

I have no idea if Carol Klein uses gravel or vermiculite, but last night I watched her last program and she was sowing seeds again. It does look like gravel, I'd say. Although I'm not sure what vermiculite looks like. However, last weekend I started some of my seeds off and put a thin layer of 5mm gravel on top. This morning I've noticed that I've got some seedlings peeping through. So I'm happy.

I'll do the Begonias in trays as you've suggested. Should I put some fish, dry blood & bone meal in the bottome half of the pots when I transfer them?

Cheers,

Calum
[hr]

Hi Chopper,

Sorry for the length of time to reply, as I was waiting for an email notification telling me someone had replied to my post. I just thought to check my post and found you had replied along with someone else.

Thanks for those kind comments, but I can't take all credit as I get my father to do all the diy stuff like fixing the trellis up, installing the pond and decking. Although I do tell him how I want it done But I do do all my own planting, as I can do that without any help

The trellis is substantial as you stated and I know what you mean by in comparrison to some trellis. But I didn't think £21 was expensive for the 2 bits. Dad has nailed it on with nails every 2nd slat, so hopefully it will stay up for a few years.

I'm well aware of the weight that pops can be, so when I do big pots I put them in their place before filling them up. But for smaller terracotta pots I hadn't thought about putting shelves on the trellis at the back of the pond. Good idea... Dad will be so pleased I've got an Albertine rose planted on the other side of the fence and I'm hoping to train it through the fence & let it grow all over the trellis.

Thanks for advice on how to paint plastic pots. I'll have a go at this

Cheers,

Calum

 

Hello Clum
I have put a pic of vermiculite below , it looks like - well, small pebbles :D I use it when sowing surface seeds , as it helps to maintain a sterile humid microclimate . Wether it has any use when sowing seeds deeper , maybe. I would think small gravel may do the same job , but could be a little heavy for some seedlings. Anyway its not really essential for seed starting . It is a little expensive about £5 for 10 litres but that will last you for years if just covering seeds. Wilkos had 5 litre bags for about £1.50 last year.
When you pot on your begonias probably in late April , just mix a little B and B into the compost - make sure you mix it in. I would then start liquid feeding them starting July once every 2 weeks. I love begonias they will flower into November and take very little looking after , you dont even have to dead head them

Ps why not put a pic of Hamish in the pets section.

 

Hello Clum and welcome to the forum. Pot sizes are a bit of a problem but if you are growing on
from plugs, both Geraniums and particularly Fuschias like to be fairly tight in the pot so it may
be that you start to grow on in a 3" pot then repot before sinking the pots into your troughs.

I would not be too worried about the shallow pots if they have a well perforated base the roots will grow through or you could use those new 'sisal' pots which are porous and allow the roots to grow happily.

Best of luck......

 

Hi Clum and welcome to GC.

Sorry, I'm not knowledge enough to give you any advice about the things you're asking about, but just wanted to say, as others have said, how nice your garden is.

Also, you couldn't possibly have known this, but you've done me a massive favour and solved a conundrum for me. You see I'm not very creative, but I know I want a patio, and a water feature, but having a toddler means I can't have a pond. So, having seen your pics, I might pinch your idea and modify it slightly. Maybe build something that looks similar, but is only about an inch deep with glass or perspex or something as the bottom of the pond to give the illusion of depth. That way we get the calming effect of trickling water, without the risk of curious toddlers come to harm.

 

Hi Clum,

Just to pick up on a minor point, you mentioned you have been watching Carol Klein. That series has been superb, a real motivator to get out during the cold days!

In regard to what Carol uses on top of her seeds, she seems to have a general habit of putting a thin layer of grit on top of all of her seed trays, all plants that are potted on etc.

However, twice, she shown how you can grow new bulbs by twin scaling and standard scaling, which I wont go into now. To save on confusion though, she placed the bulb pieces that she cut up and placed them into a bag of vermiculite.

So to cut a long story short... grit on seeds and potted on plants... vermiculite for twin scaling.

To be fair though, either grit or vermiculit will generally work for seed sowing.

Oh... and... welcome to the forum

Regards

 

Hi Harry,

Thanks for the reply. I see what vermiculite is now, I have a feeling my gravel is a bit bigger. I think I will have to take it off a few seed trays, as the seeds a very fine like the petunia. The tomato seeds are doing well, as long with some others (I forgot that names).

I too like Begonias and have some that I bought a few years ago, which still grow. But I just bought some extra large ones as bulbs/tubers, so I just wanted to get the planting right. Thanks for this.

Regards,

Calum


Hi Barnaby,

Thanks for the pot sizes. I thought it would be start small and keep reporting the plants when root bound, but is there a size you can stop at that you want the plants to be? Does that make sense? I'll need to look at what 'sisal' are as I've never heard of them.

Regards,

Calum


Hi Clueless1,You’re very welcome pinching my idea and just modifying it your own taste. If you are going to use glass or perspex as a wall to your pond, why not lay a line of LED rope light underneath it? This should light up the glass or perspex at night and would be in-expensive to do. Bright idea, sick joke

Regards,

Calum


Hi lukenotts,

Carol Klein series has been great, but I had never realised she was born in 1945 as I found out on Facebook. If she is 66, then I hope I’m like her at 66 with the amount of go she has. Hope to meet her at Chelsea Flower Show.On her begonias, didn’t she use sulphate to seal cut ends to stop anything in? I’m sure it was green stuff.

Regards,

Calum


Hi Armandii,Thanks for your welcome and yes, I’m finding a lot of good people on here. I will only buy books when I need them and I can imagine there are a lot that have been written by gardeners, which is just a mockery of the whole thing. I’ve got some old gardening books which came from my grandfather who died 10 months before I was born, which is a pity but that’s life. I have bought Carol’s book ‘Grow You Own Garden’ and I have noticed a lot hasn’t changed over the years, just different ways of doing things to get a better result.

I wish I could start my dahlias off now, but I won’t receive them until the end of this month. It was when I came to repot the dahlias to their final pots that I was wondering whether to put B and B in the bottom half of the compost, so when the roots start getting longer and get deeper they will find the B and B. I know new compost has nutrients in it, but it was just to add something extra so when the roots transform they’ll get the extra food. Would this idea work or would I be wasting my time?[/font][/size]

[size=medium]Regards,[/size]

[size=medium]Calum[/size]

 

Hello Calum

The final pot size may be dependent on how deep your troughs are. In open ground I've used up to82 diameter but I have sometimes also made more drainage slots in the base to encourage the roots to come through.

By the way I did not see the Carol Klein series but I guess she was using 'Flowers of Sulphur' on the cut faces of her Begonia tubers, also use on Dahlia tubers and Canna Lilies, etc...

 

The only suggestion I would make in addition to the good advice you have had already, is don't cover Petunia or Lobelia seed at all as they are light sensitive, you can addd some fine Vermiculite after they have germinated to help anchor them but not before.
Do ask if you are not sure about anything, that's what this site is all about.

 

Hi everyone,

As its time comsuming to reply to everyone, I just want to say thanks for your help and suggestions

Calum