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South Facing Garden
in the next few months I will be leaving the army and will have quite a bit of time in my garden. It is a decent sized South facing patio with plenty of tubs, pots and even some hanging baskets. I am wondering what types of plants are best because it is South facing and can get really hot in the summer. I really like showy flowers in all different colours but have had problems keeping them alive in the past. I'm also looking at getting a dog poo wormery to convert my two dogs 'waste'. Has anyone used one of these before and are they any good?
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There are lots of annuals that you can buy as plug plants or sow from seed that like sun and are showy and colourful. But the answer to summer sun is not to let the soil or compost dry out. I live in Dordogne where it can get very hot in summer and I grow a lot of flowers in pots, petunias, rudbeckias, salvias, snapdragons, verbena, diascia, French marigolds, pelargoniums etc, but I water them every day or two.
In the flower beds Dahlias, agastache, perennial salvias, gaillardias and penstemons are bright and showy and flower over some time.
I don't know about a dog poo wormery, not appealing for me!
Edd Many thanks. I only intend using the end product on flowers and I don't have any children just my 'fur babies' who will obviously be contributing greatly to this project!!
Busy-Lizzie. Thanks for your reply I have grown some of these plants before but you have given me some new ideas. Hopefully this year I will be able to keep my plants alive as I will be home all the time instead of just weekends!
You can't beat a bit of 4-legged help in the garden.
You know how annoying it is when you're working in the garden and you can't remember where you left that vital bit of gardening equipment - the ball.
No need to worry, your faithful friends will bring it to you, over and over again. No matter where you throw it, within seconds it'll be back.
A 10-minute weeding session can easily last an hour with this sort of help
Dogs also have their own views on plants. Any they like, they eat - any they don't like they dig up/pee on and let die in the hope you'll plant some more of the variety that they like to eat.
enjoy!
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Anything with a silver leaf will thrive in a South facing site. They will probably need gritty soil as well.
Hardy cyclamen neapolitanum love these conditions and do well in pots, they need a really hot bake to flower regularly. Mine seed themselves into the most inhospitable nooks and crannies, gravel beds etc., with no obvious soil around them.
PS. Poor soil so minimum feeding as well.