Outdoor pot plants - help!

[HamBagelNoCheese]

Hi,

We recently moved into a new home (rented so limited options wise!). The front garden under the living room window is small, rectangular, gravelled and barren.

I'd like to be able to stick a few pots with something in for some greenery/colour. Bonus points for bee friendly! Ideally low maintenance - we are not gardeners so something that can sit there requiring minimal input would be ideal. The front garden faces south-east.

Please can someone tell me what I should be looking at?! Thank you 😊

I've been gardening for 40 years.

Can someone please explain the complexity of lavender to me.

English lavender in a pot. It flowers. It's evergreen. You cut the flowers when they are past their best. Can dry them in the airing cupboard in an old pillowcase. Give the foliage a little trim after flowering and a tidy in spring. You don't cut it hard into the wood because it doesn't throw new shoots from old woody growth. It can get a bit leggy after three or four years but unless you have a formal lavender hedge, you just buy a new plant for £4.99.

It may depend where you live, @PostMenPatWithACat ... I'm in Lancashire and it doesn't seem very happy when I try to grow it here. (And yes, it's English not French).

@PostMenPatWithACat I think you have answered your own question. You mention that lavender needs at least a twice-yearly trim. For a complete beginner this can mean they spend a lot of money on a beautiful plant and very quickly end up with a bunch of ugly twigs.

Oh come on @heathspeedwell, it's one plant in a pot and a teeny trim. A rose needs spraying and deadheading throughout the year and pruning in late autumn, annuals need replacing every year, and removing and the pots renourished. Rhododendra and azaleas need acidic soil and feeding. Marigolds, calbracha, dahlia and hosts will be lost to slugs.

Lavender is robust and grows well with little specialist care. It is evergreen, attracts bees, attractive and has a glorious scent

A garden cannot give more than it is given.

I too was going to say that Morrisons garden centres have reasonably priced terracotta pots. B&M and home bargains have cheap, large, plastic pots you can put at the back of your display. I agree that the bigger the pot, the better as less likely to dry out and be more of giving if you forget to water or go away.

I've grown alot of edibles in pots. Radish, salad leaves you cut and they keep growing and spring onions are very easy. If you could make a tee-pee with some canes, you could grow a cucumber, mange tout, french beans and even runner beans. Other than continuing to pic the veg and water, there isn't much more you need to do.