Getting ready for summer.

I love the troughs of begonias! Begonias give such a wonderful show when planted on their own. I had some flower bags on either side of the front door a couple of years ago and they looked great.

Phew Scotg. I am totally exhausted now after reading all that you have done! You are amazing, all that hard work. Please sit down now and have a cuppa before you even think of doing anything else!! :~) Wonderful baskets and troughs, they should be beautiful come summer!

Scotsgran..I must agree with Grandmage...you are AMAZING! I love to see gardens like yours, where the gardener has put loads of work into baskets and containers! The attention to detail really pays off, so I hope you have a really great summer display :)

Gosh! That's a lot of baskets. I have nine in my wee garden and I thought that was a lot. Still late frost here, so I will have to wait a couple of weeks yet.
I do like baskets and yours are going to create some show come summer. I hope you will post us some pictures when they are in their full glory. Would like to see that.

Wow Scot you have been busy...I only do 4 baskets and i haven't gathered up the energy to do them yet!!..Great blog, you have spurred me on...:>)

Wow all them baskets! How long does it take to water them? Please post pictures when they are all flowering.

Gordon Bennett Scotsgran !!!!! that sure is a lot of pots, I bet its a gorgeous sight to look at when opening the curtains, you deserve two cuppas after doing that lot..
After years of struggling and frozen shoulders cos of lifting heavy watering cans up too high, I now use two chains on my baskets, it brings then down to my level, lol, mind you hubby moans if he hits his head on the ones near the driveway.
I`ll look forward to seeing pics of all your blooms in a few weeks time, in sunshine of course....

I think those Begonias are a good buy. They always do well in sun or shade, and are easy to overwinter.
I love your pergola.

Well done, Sg. You're nearly there and it's all worth the effort. I really like the way you have the hanging baskets on the pergola...and I really like your pergola. It's like a little grotto at the bottom of the garden.

You've done well Scotsgran.
The pergola is a lovely feature.

Mel, flower bags filled with begonias have that 'WOW' factor and are so cheering. I thought nobody would look at this because its just boring old begonias again. Bedding does not look out of place here because we live in a Victorian house. I would not want to plant them in the ground because of all the bending involved. Grandmage my OH is very good about supplying the gardener with a cuppa on a regular basis. I get my mid morning cuppa and mid afternoon cuppa. He makes a pot of tea at lunchtime and sandwiches so I can't complain. He made the trough holders which go along the wall and he built the pergola. That is only half of it the other half goes along the back (east side of the house). Puddleduck I'm not as quick as I used to be but I reckon 3 or 4 days spent filling these in Spring is well worthwhile because they do flower for months. Oji I normally bring these on in the greenhouse but weight has become a factor now so I will cover them up with old net curtains if frost is going to be a problem. Motintot to be truthful I used to fill wire baskets, struggling to fill the sides as well as the top. Having to plant only 5 begonias in each of these is not such a chore and takes a lot less time than filling wire baskets. I was going to buy some new ones this year because they are starting to show signs of wear. Because of the cost, I opted for fibre linings for the old wire baskets. If I have made a mistake I will try and find some at a reduced price later in the year. Willinilli, watering does not take long. I just use the hose on the long troughs in the morning when they need a drink. Begonias are quite happy to thrive even if you leave them until they are almost bone dry. I have put water reaining crystals in to the compost along with osmocote type granules so I don't need to worry about watering or feeding. The pots are mostly the self watering type there is a pipe through which you top up with water. It goes in to a reservoir at the bottom of the pot and the plants are watered using a watering mat which has a tongue that goes down in to the water and sucks it up as necessary. Linclass I think you get a better view of your plants at a lower level as well as the bonus of ease of access to them. I have most on double chains plus a few hooks. The pergola is 8ft high. I agree Hywel, the begonias are a good buy. I don't have a heated greenhouse or a conservatory where I could take them inside but some of the ones in last years pots against the house wall were still living so I transplanted them in to other pots. The Pergola started as a fence to hide the compost bins etc and then OH decided to make a Pergola out of it to give it stability in the fierce winds we get here. It also hides his Ham Radio aeriels. Having erected this bit he then agreed to make it a side by side pergola so I go to the bottom of the fence and behind it is an extension which reaches out to the wall along the east side of the garden. Then he decided to run it the whole length of the wall and it is a nice shelter at the back door from the east winds. The north end which is not shown here has pyracantha, clematis and all sorts growing up on plastic covered wire trellis. Its hard to photograph that part because there is a woodpile on the hard standing waiting to line out the garages, which he also built. He is slowing up a bit now being 83 in October but we're getting there. Thank you Kfrance I also have little wall pots on the pergola and I am having to search around for new ones. The trouble with plastic is that eventually it does deteriorate in the sun but as long as it lasts it is better at retaining moisture for the plants and it needs no maintenance. I was heartbroken last year when my solanum which I had trained up an upright died, it was spectacular. I have planted another elsewhere in the garden but its only tiny yet. I'll keep you posted on progress as the summer rolls on. Thank you Tt it does draw the eye away from the less than perfect bits.

I agree, the weather since the brief warm spell has been awful, here we sit this week, unable to get over the river for the floods and resultant traffic jams, a sharp frost overnight......and a very wet bank holday to look forwards too........all my bedding plants are cowering in the greenhouse..

Pamq I've just read your blog on plug plants. I usually buy mine in Lidl or Aldi (10 for £1.79 this year). Ready to plant in to baskets etc. This year I have a mixture of B&M,s 20 for £2.99 and B&Q 24 for £5.00 or 3 x 24 (72) for £12. With my OAP Diamond card they cost £10.80 on Wednesday. I can see what I'm buying and I can get them when I have time to deal with them. I've not bought plug plants but other things bought by post have not always been very good and although they allow you to keep the products and refund your money it is not what you want. All three of the above come with the instruction to plant outside from April but cover if frost is expected. We have been luckier in Scotland than the rest of the UK. A cold North easterly has kept us well wrapped up but we have not had the excessive rain you are experiencing. Part of your problem seems to be that the dry weather has left the ground too hard to accept the rainwater that is coming down and it is pouring in to rivers and causing flooding lower down. I think neglecting ditches along the verges is also a contributory factor. Rain water would have gone in to the ditches and been absorbed by the surrounding areas before causing floods like you have seen in recent years. I hope the weather improves soon.

OMG! How do you find time with all these pots - they are going to look great in the summer. Love your pergola.
Was in Aldis, Livingston today (got a tip from Pimpernel) for Lysimachia, they had lots of lobelia in stock and it all looked pretty decent.

love the pergola will have to show OH I've been hinting for years with no success ............look forward to
seeing it in full glory :)))

I know how you felt, Sg. I lost a huge and amazing solanum for no apparent reason. It just died after six glorious years.

Scottish as explained above once planted they are no bother to look after. They do cover a multitude of sins because who will see my weedy borders when they are blinded by a show of begonias. Neverdeen we are lucky to have a local sawmill where we were able to source the timber uprights and top crossing pieces and Wickes supplied the crossover pieces to keep the uprights square and give me a place to put in hooks for hanging baskets. Before the Garden Centre in Kinross sold out to Dobbies they were selling lots of stuff at ridiculously low prices. I bought enough met posts to do a lot of what you see for only £1 each. We got a shock when we went to buy some extra ones and found they were £6.99 each. The garden is one big recycling project and we developed it as we found something we liked and could find a use for it.
Karen mine was a solanum Glasnevin which is supposed to be the hardiest of solanums but it just died. I did not plant another where it had been in case it was something in the soil which had attacked it. It too had been there for years. We did cut back the clematis on the pergola and maybe that allowed it to be frosted.

Looking again at your lovely photos! I'm quite jealous at all the work you've done - I always plant up loads of containers, but I haven't started yet. It's the halfway stage that always gets me, when I realise how much I've still got left to do! But aren't they so worth it, even with all the watering?

I'm too old to do lots of watering so I go for begonias which are very long suffering if I neglect them. I never used to plant them up this early but I will not have time or the money for the larger plants at the end of May. Last year I brought some of them on in the cold greenhouse but the ones under the pergola are sheltered by the foliage of the clematis which is about to burst in to flower and the ones outside the kitchen window in the long pots get the benefit of the sun warming the wall behind them which takes a long time to cool down during the night. I do keep an eye on the weather and will cover them with fleece if I think it is going to be frosty. So far so good. Yes I agree they are definitely worth doing. I hope you will post photos of yours later on.