New house, new garden - ideas for easy pots of flowers, veg and herbs!

[butterpieify]

So, we get the keys to our new house on the 2nd of april :)
It is rented, and has patio, gravel and decking front and back, but I want to festoon it with plants.

Last year we did carrots, salad leaves, tomatoes, blueberries, lavender, basil, thyme and parsley, all in pots. Most of the plants have died now, although the blueberry bush has been going a few years and always looks dead now, so I reckon it is fine really.

So, the same again, plus some lovely bright flowers, and some more food would be great as belts are tightening. Also, last year was mostly the free BBC seeds with the odd plant picked up here and there, so any recommendations for good varieties and places to buy them would be great. We are up north, so we need plants that are tough, especially as the new house doesn't have a conservatory/garden room to bring plants in to.

Flowers wise, I want ridiculous, colourful, brazen flowers. I don't care about classy, I just want cheerful and easy to grow, as I somehow manage to kill flowers usually. Anything that smells nice is a bonus, and nothing poisonous as I have a 1 year old and 4 year old who are far too used to foraging.

Homebase have some great stuff atm. I was there today and bought a tray of Bellis perennis ( flowers now to July ), stocks ( seem to flower all Spring/Summer/Autumn) and other bits.

Cosmos in pots are brilliant although they aren't hardy so either sow seeds now and bring on on a windowsill or wait til end May and buy ready grown. They come in bright pinks and flower all summer long.

I find scouring Homebase and DIY/supermarkets generally much better value than garden centres or nurseries, which are in turn better for more specialist plants.

Dianthus, Pinks with or without ivy. Perennial so you can leave them for a couple of years before needing to repot/divide. Thyme/s are evergreen, fragrant and you can use them in the kitchen. Chives look after themselves for a couple of years before you need to divide, all these are hardy. Corriander, chervil. Osteospurnums are everygreen and can be hardy. Hebes? Dwarf French beans in pots. Don't bother with tomatoes whatever you do.

Look at Freecycle for plants.

Rosemary is good and pretty bullet proof. Also mint is excellent. Dies over the winter but mine is already bounding back to life. Sage and chives also good.

One trick is to put them in big pots. Otherwise they dry out too quickly. I killed mint repeatedly until I put a small plant in a massive pot. Now it thrives.

I also have a cammelia, hydrangea, veronica, vinca minor in pots which are all doing excellently. The vinca is a particular success; evergreen over winter with lovely cascading runners and very pretty purple flowers which contine from now til the autumn. I am propogating a couple of runners (ie sticking some cut off shoots in a pot of soil and watering!) and will hopefully have a few more.