seaside themed planter

[SarfEasticated]

Hi ladies,
I have a bag of seashells that I would like to use in a seaside themed planter. Can you give me some plant suggestions? Planter hasn't been bought yet, so any size, and it will be in full sun on our deck. I'm thinking Whitstable meets Dungeness, rather than anything flash, but planter will be in London so no sea air. Any ideas?
I use to go the BBC website for plant info but it seems to closed down - what sited do you use for inspiration and advice?
Thanks in advance :)

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Yes, or a living sculpture or an installation?

[UnrequitedSkink]

A focal point. That is what I believe will make all visitors look past the plastic tat and piles of undealt-with weeds/branches (I thought I was the only one that did that!). So I have a 'rose arbour' at one end of the garden, sadly it only leads to a tatty deck and my shed, but I'm living the dream people.

[SarfEasticated]

i do wonder how people manage to get any work done in the garden when they work, have children and want to watch telly too keep up with popular culture! My daughter is nearly 5 and this is the first time since she was born that I have even thought of spending time gardening. So all of my much loved plants are now running riot and we are being boarded by next doors convulvus . My mum mows the grass when she comes to visit! I like to thing of it as a riot of natural planting, and hope that DD's toys will one day compost down to something useful.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Your best chance, I think, is to shove a teeny trowel into their hand when they can barely toddle and get them gardening with you. It worked for my friend but not, alas, for me.

[UnrequitedSkink]

I'm keeping my grass long this year so that bees can feed on the clover. They need all the help they can get, poor things. (Well, that's my excuse anyway.)

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Excellent, Unrequitedskink. How ecologically-minded of you.

[SarfEasticated]

Sadly young Rugosa used to just pull out plants, lop the flowers off of my agapanthus and basically cause chaos - no fun for me at all. Now she makes mud pies which I don't mind, and bombs about the place with her wheel barrow, so I have some time to myself.
I love bees by the way, apparently they are starving in London because too many people have hives and not enough have gardens. Luckily my oregano is taking over everywhere, so they get a good feed at mine :) If I let the 'lawn' grow, we would just have a carpet of dandelions.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

That's fascinating, SarfEast. Is London reaching beehive saturation point?

[SarfEasticated]

Apparently so - too many hobby bee keepers. Here is the article by the Evening Standard's Crime Correspondent (!)

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Well I never. I thought the concern was the number of bees lost through loss of green space and varroa. I shall look at my bee-keeping friends in another light now.

[Grockle]

Ooo, my garden seems to be a bee haven. I am growing some long grass at the end of the garden for them. I need am installation. I saw some fabulous metal sculptures at Beaulieu this week but starting prices were about £300. I was hoping for something more like £30 or less

[SarfEasticated]

have you thought about a broken down car? very popular in our area, and also educational for the kiddiewinks - I believe they call it tinkering

How about one of the hazel twig thingies - you plant and weave and they sprout and look lovely

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

We must be near neighbours, SarfEast, although round our way a rotting mattress is also considered tres chic.

Grockle, I have three lilies which look rather like this but are not copper and were very cheap attractively priced. I got them at a local garden fair.

[SarfEasticated]

a compost heap in the making surely?

[SarfEasticated]

I live in the part of SE London that sounds like a brassica.
Grockle You might get something nice on an architectural salvage site?

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Eh? The mattress or the, ahem, up and coming neighbourhood? ::wink::

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Ah yes. The London Borough of Cauliflower.

[SarfEasticated]

That's right Maud. I like to think that the mattresses are compost heaps in the making - maybe I should throw some tomato seeds on top and see what happens!

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Ah, so you have the mattresses too? Because I am Hyacinth Bouquet, I generally ring the town hall and have them carted away, but you are right. Some tomato seeds, with perhaps a few calendula, would give them a jaunty Dig For Victory air.

[SarfEasticated]

Crikey - i think we have the concept now for our garden at Chelsea :)

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Indeed. We might also take inspiration from this urban gem of a garden.

[SarfEasticated]

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Why the sulk? Are you not inspired?

::anticipates winning Gold with SarfEast at Chelsea 2013::

[SarfEasticated]

They've done it already :( . They have omitted to use the ''mattress as urban grow bag' idea though - dragon's den may be interested

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Indeed. I think if we were to develop a range of mattress grow bags - cot bed size, say, for the balcony of a Clerkenwell loft, up to super king size for the leafier suburbs, such as Barnes - we could easily persuade Peter Jones to give us half a million pounds.