Come on then what are you putting in your pots,troughs,tubs and hanging baskets....this year.

Not got them yet but I love the big begonias. The give along display and dont seem to mind if I neglect them a bit. Not sure what else I tend to wander about the nursery to see what takes my eye.

just order over £100 on four fruit trees.two hanging basket for tomatoes,and other plant off the the tv channel this morning.

we got lots on vegiess pots troughs an baskets
love lilles.sweet peas.hosters.

but i hate gardening it down to andrew

This year i am putting veggies in every pot , hanging basket and container that i have -  cucumbers , tomatoes , peppers , peas and  strawberries . Then the pumpkin , melon , potatoes and carrots are going in the new veg plot .

I normally put a lovely display of plants around the tree in the front , but this year i have put some free seeds that i got from Blue Peter to encourage bees .

A quick question - am i right in thinking that you need a male and female cucumber plant to get fruit ?

I'm giving the trailing begonias a go in my hay racks. Last year pigeons got to my petunias and bizzie lizzie's so will have to be vigilant with the juicy begonias. What did work well as a trailing plant (non flowering) was a silver Dichondra. Looks really pretty, small disc shaped leaves on stalks that ended up about 18" long. For smaller baskets I've started off some blue & white verbena & pink arabis for a change & pink trailing begonias. Have also planted up a ginger lily in a bigger pot & have a new bed of different grasses but we are also over-run with rabbits so they might not last. Last year I decided to do a lavender hedge - came unstuck as the variety I got was only slightly frost tolerant & lost all 20 plants.

i know someone told me that what you got to have for kwiwe fruit male and a female.

not shore on cucumbers

We didn't have two cucumber plants last year  - just one and we got cucumbers.  We only got two cucumbers on the plant though and the rest of the flowers didint develop any further, since then we have been told you have to remove the first two cucumbers when they are only wee and then you will get a lot more on the plant so we will try that this year and see if it works.

If you like some nice green contrast in your hanging basket put a few seedlings of parsely in, they fill out nicely and can be cut for the kitchen too :)

> This year i am putting veggies in every pot ,

Only just glanced through this thread and saw your comment about veggies in every pot, I'm going loopy at it.

I've got veggies all over the place.

In big plant pots, in raised beds made from delivery frames, in large buckets, in decorators plaster mixing buckets, old speaker surrounds from my neighbours old disco kit even the dogs have lost their plastic beds, don't panic they now have the cushions off the sofa as we're getting a new one.

I've got a tyre mountain up the garden growing spuds, we've picked the tyres up from the roadside where slob types have just dumped them, OH and I must look like saddo's going round looking for dumped tyres. I've got tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, lettuce, mangetout, beans, potatoes, carrots, beetroot, radish, spring onion, and even more potatoes and if I don't get enough veg to feed us this year I'm going to stalk Alan Titchmarsh and send him my sweaty undies :-D

am i right in thinking that you need a male and female cucumber plant to get fruit

It depends on the variety of cucumber. Some are male/female and some are self fertile. It should say on the packet or on the seed catalog or website what type you have.

:-)

Can anyone advise flowering plants that are hardy and low maintenance?

I manage to kill pretty much everything :(

For the summer bizzy lizzys are very easy to grow

Iris's get some bulbs for next yr, mine come up every yr .....

I have about 60 large pots to fill

Counted to day

Though some of my grasses in as the dogs were using them as nice head rests in the garden
Tomato plants (bush) Strawberrires
Salad leave

And lots and lots of plants

I go very mad at the summer doing  my garden

2 hrs to water in the summer

LOVE IT

and the dogs love trying to dig them all up

> I manage to kill pretty much everything :-(

Now that I don't believe, with your velvet tongue you could talk anything into life :-D

> I manage to kill pretty much everything :-(

I used to be like that lol, my sister said I should try getting some Hardy Fuchsia's, I have four of these in my garden they are all different types, the prettiest one I think (and it's the biggest) is the Tom West one. They have grown back every year and have lots of lovely flowers.
As mentioned Iris' they are hardy,repeat growers, easy to look after and nice flowering too. :-)

At least another 6 weeks before we can even think about it up here - probably end up with a frost at the end of May :-o

Don't say that Marion, I've spent all afternoon doing my pots! Lobelia, busy lizzie, petunias and something called verdena(?) mostly, all pretty purple and whites.

> It should say on the packet or on the seed catalog or website what type you have.
>

On the plant tag it says 'female'  , this is what made me think it might need a boyfriend !   Now i can't find a male plant and it is a plant one of my kids bought to grow . I may have to get a self-fertile one and replace the original .

Thanks .

> Don't say that Marion, I've spent all afternoon doing my pots! Lobelia, busy lizzie, petunias and something called verdena(?) mostly, all pretty purple and whites.

LOL Watch the forecast for frost and put them somewhere sheltered until the end of may then :-D The big DIY places and garden centre chains always put their bedding on sale too early in scotland, they seem to think we all have the climate of the south of england! I watch for the wee local places putting theirs on sale then its usually ok to put them out - of course by then all the cheap offers at the big places have sold out usually - can't win!  I'm sure yours will look fab Jane, its only me that has the deadly 'black fingers of doom' when it comes to plants :-D
marion

> A quick question - am i right in thinking that you need a male and female cucumber plant to get fruit ?

It can depend on the variety, some gardeners pinch out the male flowers to stop pollination as they believe this produces bitter fruits. If growing fruit and veg one of the best books on the subject I have ever found is the Readers Digest book called Food From Your Garden. It is divided by fruit or veg not by seasons so you don't have to go through the whole book looking for information. I bought my copy years ago and it fell to bits it was used so much. So I had to search the junk shops for another copy.

We have the pleasure of moving out our place in four weeks time as the place has to be gutted due to under floor pipe leaks so we are doing hanging baskets this year so hoping the winter pansy's survive.

you can even get another variety which is male....the fruit will still be that of the female cucumber but the seeds will be affected.
As long as it is a male cucumber plant. Maybe if you post gardening sites or phone around to garden centres you can get one about the same level of development as the lady cuke...:-)

Cross-pollinated cucumbers are virtually inedible. (Voice of experience)

Ive got about 25 to do I go down the garden centre and buy online. Its begonias, fucshias (sp), marigolds (to get bugs away from my fig tree!) lobelia, alpine ones, um I have hyasinths under the top things so they come up in the winter. Um and I do a red one, yellow one, white one ect..  Some stuff I have no idea what it is OH and geramiums lovely.

Then watch Whistler pooh in the occasional one (why?), plus a patio type tomatoe as a bit of fun and a tom and herb one outside my kitchen door. Oh Oh and a couple of sweetpea one up the wigwam (in metal) type thing. Its all primroses and blue bells now but the lenten rose's are stiull going strong.

verbena ?

I've gor strawberry plants in the hanging baskets :-)  They've got buds already.  I've got a blackberry plant in a big tub, against the fence.  A little rose bush in a tub. Some other plants in tubs that OH's mum and granny bought.  I've planted some dutch iris and gladeoli, plus a few other things that I don't remember.  Basically, I've grabbed a handful of plants and shoved them into containers :-)  I'm pretty new at this so there is no theme at all lol.  Once I know what plants have survived then I can start to arrange them properly.