Planting suggestions for troughs in difficult areas
By Cestina
South Bohemia,
Czech Republic 
After a winter absence in the UK I have now arrived back in the Czech Republic and can start gardening again!
I am looking for a bit of collective wisdom please - I have two large granite troughs which cannot be moved and sadly I chose their position badly. One gets almost no rain on it at all and at the moment has some feeble small conifers in it, together with some heather which dies off when I am away for six months in the winter. I really need to replant it but have no idea what to put in it. If I am around to water it, that's fine, but I go away for several days at a time in the very hot weather and that is bad news.
The second trough gets no rain at all; I usually have pelargoniums in it which seem to do ok with a bit of neglect. At the moment it's empty and I don't really want to replant with pelargoniums.
Both troughs only get the late afternoon sun.
I also need to plant up some large containers for an area in full sun that I tend not to water as it's outside the gate - am I right in thinking that pelargoniums will work there even if they are reliant on rainfall only?
Or any other suggestions? Nice to be back by the way :-)
9 May, 2011
Answers
Thanks Bamboo, I will try the Lamium. The other two troughs which do get the full range of weather on them do very well, one with miniature iris and some sort of Veronica and the other with several different Campanulas which flower at different times.
I hadn't wanted to put Pelargoniums outside in the tubs because that's what everyone does but I have tried other things for three years and am fed up with none of it taking properly apart from some of the lavender.
9 May, 2011
No easy answer to this one - shallow troughs in shade with no water is practically impossible. Pelargoniums in sun - they tolerate very dry conditions. Anything permanent won't survive for long I wouldn't have thought, though you could try Lamium maculatum varieties - they tolerate dry shade.
9 May, 2011