Hanging baskets ready to go out

Good idea, having pots with no side holes. I agree about the watering bit. I only have one hanging basket these days as they are a lot of trouble when they need watering twice a day. Likewise I don't want to be a slave to it, I want to enjoy it too

These are a lot less fiddly to plant up too. Some of them have a reservoir in the bottom 2" and a pipe which comes to the surface.There is a bit of water retaining fabric on a platform under the compost and a piece of that dips in to the reservoir to keep the fabric wet. I just fill the reservoir with a hose through the pipe, now and again, and that works really well. I like to see the colour hanging along the pergola.

not started mine yet, still waiting for the begonias to get larger, your baskets are going to be lovely

We get such a lot of wind here that I gave up on most trailing plants like fuschias and geraniums because they were forever being battered to oblivion. With the small bedding begonias they are fairly sturdy and the lobelia is quite happy blowing around.

its very windy down here also, just planted up a huge planter in the front lawn but far to cold in the wind,

I have retreated indoors to have a coffee and a heat up. I might pop along to the shops in the hope that the wind dies down and I can go out again in the early evening.

I have fuschias, geraniums and lobelia's all potted up ready to be planted but as I say, its far to cold, going to Morrisons tomorrow to see what other plants they have, the daffodils are taking that long to die back we are thinking of cutting them all down, will never get the front border planted at this rate,

Ours are naturalised in the grass and OH gets very frustrated having to wait to cut the foliage back. They did not even last all that long this year. The leaves go all slimy if we get too much rain.

I was told if you cut them back they grow blind, any truth in that do you know,we really are getting desperate, ours did not last so long this year, maybe lack of rain,

I blamed our diminished crop of daffs this year on the fact that OH cut them back before they even collapsed last year. It probably is true. Could you not dig them up and pop them in pots and put them out of the way until they die back.

we have hundreds of them, the entire border is full up,

Oh dear! Any chance of planting your annuals in between them.

think thats what we will have to do,

That is the trouble with daffs they do take a long time to die back which is why I thought I would be very clever and naturalise them in the lawn. OH helped but neither of us realised how long 6 weeks are. I wonder what the council put on theirs they seem to be going back a lot quicker than ours.

Very useful advice thank you scotsgran, I have put it in my favourites so I won't forget!

Moongrower recommended giving Daffs a weekly feed of half strength tomato food. We did that and they seemed to die back quite quickly and we did not have the usual mess of straggly slimy foliage to contend with. Whether that was down to the tomato food or just the weather I'm not sure. In front of the new raised bed I am lifting off the turf where the naturalised daffs are and I have put down newspaper to stop the weeds coming through with chipped bark on top. I can use it as a path to reach the beds for most of the year and after the daffs flower in the spring it will not be a nuisance to keep the foliage until it dies down. I can allow it to die right back before removing it. That is my theory anyway. I'll have to wait till next year to see if it works.