Planting for beginners
Introduction
Early flowering plants
Early flowering plants
If you are new to gardening it's a good idea to start with plants that are not fussy and will thrive even if the weather or soil conditions are challenging. In the following sections we make some suggestions for plants that are easy to grow . As with any aspect of the natural world, you won't have success every time, but these plants will help you build your confidence as a gardener and you will be able to achieve some fantastic effects with them.
Early flowering plants
Early flowering plants
Early flowering plants
Photo: Geum Stacey's Sunrise
To get your season off to a good start I would suggest you try some Geums. These are quite old fashioned plants which give you lots of very pretty flowers across a long period. They will tolerate wet soil, as well as dry and are not prone to diseases. They are completely hardy, so die away in winter and come back bigger and better each year. You can choose from ones with flowers on tall stems, low growing clump forming ones and even ones with delicate drooping heads.
Dramatic but easy
Early flowering plants
Plants that spread or self seed
Photo: Papaver Orientale (Oriental Poppy) Coral Reef
If you want to make a dramatic statement in your garden, this is perfectly possible with plants that are easy to grow. You could start with Papaver Orientale or Oriental Poppies. These form large clumps which after a year or so should be covered with huge hairy buds, and then large poppy flowers. They differ from traditional poppies in that they are hardy perennials and come back year after year.
Plants that spread or self seed
My favourite choices for beginners
Plants that spread or self seed
Photo: Pilosella Aurantiaca (Fox and Cubs)
You can choose plants that will spread to cover a larger area. This will help you to fill a space in your garden and also achieve a natural look. If a plant spreads too vigorously for your plans, you can always pull it up if it has spread too far, and even put the bits you pull out somewhere else in the garden to grow again. Pilosella Aurantica, or Fox and Cubs is a good example of a plant that is easy to grow that will spread over gravel pathways , for example. Some plants spread by self seeding. This can be another way to achieve a soft, natural look in your garden, though you may have to pull out some self seeded plants if you get too many. Centranthus Rubra, or Red Valerian is a great example of a easy plant that self seeds.
My favourite choices for beginners
My favourite choices for beginners
My favourite choices for beginners
Photo: Tellima Grandiflora
Other great plants to try to start your gardening journey
Campanula Lactifolia Pritchards - Milky Bellflower. Loads of milky purple cup shaped flowers on tall stems
Band of Nobles Lupins - Classic cottage garden plant with many spires of small brightly coloured flowers
Knautia Macedonica - This quickly forms a good clump covered with flat crimson flowers on stiff stems
Tellima Grandiflora - happy anywhere, sun or shade, wet or dry. Pretty shaped hairy leaves and many spires of pale yellow bell flowers
Give it a try
My favourite choices for beginners
My favourite choices for beginners
Photo: Campanula Lactiflora Pritchard's (Milky Bellflower)
The best way to learn about plants is to have a go at planting them. You don't need to start big and worry about wasting a lot of money. In fact it is often best to start with a small area and note what succeeds and then move on from there. In many cases you can make new plants from your existing plants for free.
If you are struggling to know where to start, we can put together a beginners selection of easy-to-grow varieties. Plants will vary depending on the season, but they will all be strong, grown here in Pembrokeshire and will give you the great start you need.
Achieving the Cottage Garden Look
Introduction
Planting layout
Plant choices
The cottage garden look is very popular and relatively easy to achieve. Key elements include using a variety of hardy perennials in different colours, planted to grow in soft clumps often mixing together in a natural style. Self seeding is encouraged especially into gravel paths, Hard lines are avoided and old fashioned plant varieties that are closely related to wild flowers are popular. Often the best look is achieved by avoiding too much anxiety over what goes where especially with regard to height and colour co-ordination. The relaxed nature of cottage garden planting is great for beginners as it allows you to plant what you love and then tweak it as you see the effect.
Plant choices
Planting layout
Plant choices
Photo: Hardy Geranium Reynardii
The best looking plant is always one that is happy in your garden. Trial and error will help you to find what you can grow really successfully . That said, there are some classic staples of a cottage garden that you might like to try. None are hard to grow, but make your choices depending on the specific conditions of your garden. Popular cottage garden plants include Lupins, Delphiniums, Hollyhocks, Geums, Campanula (Canterbury Bells), Centaurea (Cornflowers) and Hardy Geraniums. Some less well known ones that you might want to look out for are Astrantia, Perennial Osteospermum ( Cape Daisy), Gaura, Tellima Grandiflora, Sisyrinchium Striatum and Phlomis (Jerusalem Sage).
Planting layout
Planting layout
A word about Lupins
Fortunately a key way in which you can achieve a cottage garden look is to avoid too many formal decisions about what goes where! So if you are like me and see a space and simply add my latest purchase or plant that I have just propagated, that is just fine. If you are starting a bed from scratch it makes sense to think about the height of plants, and also how you can cover as much bare soil as possible. This helps in keeping down weeds.My usual mistake is to plant new plants too close together and then find they are fighting each other for space. This can produce a pleasing look, but you should not be anxious if after a year or so you need to dig up plants and put them somewhere else. Very few plants will mind this and several will actually benefit from it.
A word about Lupins
A word about Lupins
A word about Lupins
Photo: Pink Lupin
Lupins are on pretty much everyone's list of favourite cottage garden plants. This is not surprising as they are such striking plants, however they can be temperamental. They are easy to germinate, but they can be attacked by slugs and greenfly and can be susceptible to rotting over the winter. I would suggest there are a couple of ways to manage potential problems. Firstly you can consider growing your Lupins in a large pot and simply dropping that into your beds. You will need to remember to water it if it is dry, and you are not guaranteed slugs will leave it alone, but it stands a better chance. The other option is to choose a really large plant that has a big root ball, and then if it is attacked by slugs it should grow back from the roots.
Colours
A word about Lupins
Plant substitutes
Photo: Crocosmia Lucifer
The cottage garden look is often associated with soft pastel coloured flowers, but there are lots of options to achieve more depth in your planting. Foliage is a great way to enhance the look, and has the benefit that leaves last longer than flowers. Red or burgundy leaves are one of my favourites and can be found in Heucheras, Polemoniums and Verbascum for example. You can use grasses that have seed heads that last all season to give you interest. I also like to include pops of vibrant colour which set off the more pastel shades - perhaps the orange and red palate of Crocosmia.
Plant substitutes
A word about Lupins
Plant substitutes
Photo: Sidalcea Sussex Beauty
You may find that some of your cottage garden favourites are just impossible to grow because of the location, soil or weather conditions of your garden. I cannot grow Hollyhocks in my garden because it is simple too windy. Do not despair. One of the great joys of sourcing plants is that you can almost always find a substitute that will grow in your soil and give you a similar effect. So although I can't grow Hollyhocks I can grow Sidalceas which are a close cousin of the Hollyhock and have the same saucer shaped flowers and attractive leaves. They are lower growing and form a strong clump which gives them much more protection from the wind.
So if a beautiful cottage garden look is what you want, why not give it a go wherever you live.
Planting for Pembrokeshire Weather
Pembrokeshire weather
Pembrokeshire weather
Pembrokeshire weather
It can often feel as though it is impossible to garden in Pembrokeshire weather. At Cold Comfort Farm the biggest problem is wind, particularly summer storms and winds laden with salt from the sea. A close second comes relentless rain followed by frequent frosts which are a recent feature of the weather which is sent to try us. Last year the very wet summer led to an invasion of enormous slugs intent on eating everything in their way. Every Pembrokeshire gardener knows the pain of admiring a beautiful plant one day only to find it has been decimated by a storm the day after. Of course we can never promise our plants will withstand what the weather throws at us, but here are some suggestions to give you a fighting chance.
Blowing in the wind
Pembrokeshire weather
Pembrokeshire weather
Photo: Linaria Canon Went
There are several ways of thinking about plant choices for really windy areas. Of course you can plant low growing plants to keep out of the way of the wind, but most of us do want some height in beds. Here you have a couple of choices. You can choose something very flexible that will move with the wind but not break. Linaria Canon Went or Linaria Brown's White fit this bill or you could try Galega Officianalis (Goat's Rue). I also use Diascia Personata Hopley's. Sometimes its stems break in the wind, but it has so many that you can just cut off anything that breaks and you will not notice. Another option is to pick something with really stiff stems that will withstand wind such as Angelica Archangelis or a Cardoon.
Supporting plants
Pembrokeshire weather
Heavy rain and saturated soil
We do use a few plant supports as our garden is really windy. We use two sorts. Firstly we use ones that are a half moon shape on legs. You can use two of these to make a full circle. Our ground is also very stony, so we often cut down the legs on these supports to make them easier to get into the ground. We also use circular supports that have a grid within the circle. These are put on plants that form large clumps such as lupins or sidalceas early in the season and the plants grow up through the supports. Very quickly they are invisible, but they give a great support to prevent heavy clumps collapsing. Of course, if you are aiming for a relaxed look in your garden a few plants that are not completely upright may add to the natural impression.
Heavy rain and saturated soil
Heavy rain and saturated soil
Heavy rain and saturated soil
Photo: Erysimum Mutabile
Pembrokeshire can be very wet. A surprising number of hardy perennials can tolerate very wet soil over long periods, but some do have a tendency to rot over winter. Plants that are really tolerant of all weathers in my garden include all the geums, potentilla, centaurea, euphorbia and erysimum. If you want to grow plants that prefer a drier situation you could consider a rockery or a gravel bed or even a large shallow pot. Plants will still get rained on but the rain will tend to drain more quickly where soil is stony. A few plants such as sempervivum really dislike a lot of rain. If you have them in a sink or similar you can site it next to a wall to minimise rainfall on it or even construct a cover.
Recent frosts
Heavy rain and saturated soil
Pleasant surprises
Recently we have had really regular frosts at Cold Comfort. Previously we had been used to growing plants that were borderline hardy, but we can no longer do this. However this does not mean tender or half hardy perennials need to be ruled out. We grow tender pelargoniums, geraniums and echiums in large pots which we put in the greenhouse over winter. Many gardeners in Pembrokeshire will be less troubled by frost than us and tender perennials are well worth a try out all year round. That said we do grow dahlias in the ground, but we cover them with grass clippings and semi permeable membrane in the winter to keep the worst of the rain off.
Pleasant surprises
Heavy rain and saturated soil
Pleasant surprises
Photo: Trifolium Rubens - Ruddy Clover
If you garden in Pembrokeshire as with any location, there will be disappointments where beautiful plants are spoiled by inclement weather. However there will also be some plants that survive unexpectedly against the odds. Plants that are closely related to wild flowers can be very tolerant of our weather. For example Trifolium Rubens is closely related to clover and is similarly robust, but a very pretty garden plant too. Pulsatilla also grow in the wild in mountainous areas so can tolerate cold and wind if they are in stony soil. In many cases if you really love a plant it is worth trying to grow it whatever the weather as you might be pleasantly surprised.