Got a bit of outdoor space? A paved area perhaps?… some steps leading up to your door?

Pot-gardening is my first love, and just because I now have a garden doesn’t mean I’m giving it up. This is my monthly pot-diary, in which I take a medium-sized terracotta pot, and plant it up with a different combination of plants that catch my eye each month as I loiter in the nursery aisles.

This is complete and utter, un-ashamed and un-abashed instant gratification. Of course most plants often happily last for longer than a month in a pot, and the last thing I expect anyone to do is rip out happy growing plants and replace them with different ones just for the sake of it – I’m just doing it monthly because I want you to be able to hitch your wagon to mine and plant up your pot whenever YOU feel like it, rather than having to wait for the appropriate time.

Have fun – and please remember these are only ideas – if you feel like copying that’s great, but it’s only really meant to be a suggestion… please yourself… always.

A swamp for George

Soleirolia soleirolii – the perfect bathroom plant.

I’ve been using these lovely creeping emerald droplet-leaves for years now, both indoors and out.

Outside, they do this tight-knit, softening thing – the leaves are slightly tougher and darker, and none the worse for that. I long to take a machete to the cement between my paving stones and let it do its thing.

Some people regard it as a nuisance, but (as I’ve said many times before) nuisance plants are my kind of deal, for obvious reasons.

Indoors, it’s a very different proposition. You can put this plant in almost any sort of container and it will thrive. The warmer it is, the longer the creeping stems will become, and the softer the cushioning.

I have this hideous window in my bathroom, and found a tray thingy in one of the big sheds. I thought I’d make a place for George the crocodile (Schleich toy of the moment) to hang out, and decorate this desolate window-sill (although I’m not sure you can even call it that).

You need:

1 x Soleirolia soleirolii plant – available at good garden centres in little pots. Sometimes it’s sold under the name ‘Helxine‘, sometimes ‘Mother of thousands’, sometimes ‘Baby’s tears’ (ahhhhhh). I’ve never seen it sold in any of the big shed ones (silly billys, because it would fly off the shelves)

A container – anything you want, but you’ll need drainage holes, which is why I had to drill some in my tray. I drilled three large holes with a fat drill bit that had a point on the end of it. It took a grand total of ten seconds…but if you hate stuff like that, then just use an ordinary pot or pots – terracotta is nice.

Some multi-purpose compost – try to find one without too many huge bits of bark in it. But if you can’t, then just remove them when you come to fill your pot. This is simply to create the best environment for the creeping stems to attach themselves and put down roots.

A drill, to make holes (if you need them)

Method.

Fill your container with compost, right up to to the top. You don’t want to be leaving a gap between the top of the compost and the rim of the pot because this plant’s M.O is to ‘spill’ over the edge – it’s very very pretty.

Now remove your plant from its plastic and divide it gently into little pieces. How many depends on the number of containers you have to fill, but know that it only takes the merest suggestion of leaf and roots, planted with care and attention (or not) to get this plant started and within weeks it will have covered the surface of the compost.

Of course, you could just buy enough to fill your entire container and have the finished product right there and then…no harm in that, except watching things grow is more fun.

Plant your pieces, making sure that the roots go in your compost, and the leaves remain above it, but generally you can be quite slap-dash and just squish it in.

Water well from above with a watering can that has a rose attached to give you a gentle shower of water, and from below also, by putting your container into another one, filled with water, and leaving it there to soak.

Keep the compost damp at all times (which isn’t hard, in a bathroom, is it?)

Comforts

This lovely thing is soothing my heartstrings right now. I made it in October last year, having bought rather too many hellebores.

I wish I had made more – it’s one of those all-year-round pots to which you do precisely nothing, and it sits around looking gorgeous in spite of that.

Bruised, sober, ever so slightly funereal…but with bulbs in it, symbolising hope (?)…okay, I’ll shut up now – suffice to say, we are one year on from this. Tricky.

Here’s how you do it:

So here’s the thing -

I love cyclamen and pansies as much as the next person

…and I have buckets of them everywhere…

…but right now I’m in the mood for something that’ll go the distance with me…

Here’s a lovely pot that will remain lovely all year round. I’ve been growing hellebores in pots and window-boxes ever since I began gardening and they are completely low-maintenance and trouble-free. I’ve added some bulbs to this pot for spring zing, but a hellebore and some pretty ivy is enough for me…enjoy.

You need:

1 gorgeous hellebore…they’re on sale now and there are a squillion different permutations
3 little ivy plants
5 dwarf daffodil bulbs
A pot (mine is 30 cm diameter)
Some multi-purpose compost, mixed half and half with John Innes no. 2, because this pot is not a flash-in-the-pan part-time lover…it’s a keeper.

Simply fill the pot with compost half full and put a circle of bulbs around the edge. Place your hellebore in the centre and fill in the gaps, squidging your ivy into the sides as you go. Don’t worry about the bulbs getting through…they always manage somehow.
Water it thoroughly and enjoy x

Post-party paperwhites

More bulbs, I know, but hey, this is seasonal stuff…and I’m not going to argue with that.

I usually put a load of paperwhites (little daffodils, highly scented and prepared to flower indoors over the winter) into containers in late October for Christmas blooming, but, as with the rest of what I’ve been doing this year, everything went a bit squiffy this autumn because I’ve been finishing my book…c’est la vie.

The last paperwhites are available right now in the shops. You can put them in ordinary compost or bulb fibre, but I like growing them in deep vases which reduces the need for twiggy support (indoor stuff tends to flop over eventually because we live in the warm).

You need:

Some paperwhite narcissi bulbs

Some glass vases

Some sort of ‘mulch’ (stones or marbles or gravel) I’ve used slate, which is…yeah, ‘interesting’ and not the prettiest thing on the planet, but I happened to have it to hand.

Method:

First, wash your mulch (my slate chippings were covered in dust, which would turn the water brown (no thanks)

Fill your vases with a layer of your chosen mulch (6-8cm is ample) and then fill with water so that the water comes just level with the top of the mulch.

Now place your bulbs a-top your stones or whatever. Soon, their clever roots will ‘feel’ that there is water below, and start growing downwards. The long stems will grow upwards, supported by the sides of your chosen container…..and then there will be those blooms….and that scent…Delish

Take back your mint…

…Take back your pearls….

It just turned chilly enough for me to wish I was on the beach wearing a bikini.

…and mint is THE thing to evoke the freshness of summer.

Here’s how to have it over the winter.

You need:

1 mint plant (do you already have one? You probably think it’s died…It hasn’t…It’s just having a bad hair day, because it’s winter).

1 pot, with holes in the bottom

A bit of multi-purpose compost (peat-free please)

Some horticultural grit, or pea gravel.

Method:

Take your plant and knock it out of its pot, or yank it out of the ground (whatevs, just get a nice bit of root…long and squirly).

Cut the root into small bits, about 2cm long.

Now fill your pot with compost, just a couple of centimetres shy of the rim, and lay the root pieces, 2-3cm apart, on the surface.

Cover the root cuttings (for that is what they are) with grit or gravel, water the whole thing, and leave it inside your kitchen windowsill.

Magic will happen…and soon (the above photo and the one below were taken exactly 14 days apart) There is nothing quite so lovely as seeing those pale green hairy leaves peeping up at you – just keep the thing watered and you’ll have mojitos for Christmas.

Violet’s Spoon

I never knew anything called ‘stir-up Sunday’ existed until I saw it on Twitter.

Is it an American thing? Why have I missed it? Possibly because my mother (very sensibly) buys her Christmas Cake from a SHOP.

Anyhow, I’m a sucker for family stuff like this (well, I’m in the first bloom of motherhood aren’t I)…so I did the cake thing, and we stirred….

and wished with eyes tightly closed…

And because it is a CEREMONIAL type of stirring, I dug out Violet’s spoon.

Violet’s spoon was given to me by my cousin Paula when I got married. It belonged to her grandmother (Violet) and is more a weapon than a spoon really.

It is vast and long-handled and great for doling out food when you’ve got friends round, because you can serve someone at the opposite end of the table without getting up from you chair….(very lazy).

I love it.

…so as I was stirring and wishing, I knew I had to celebrate the spoon a bit more…

You need:

A spoon like Violet’s (or, obviously, any shallow bowl-like thing). See here for more suggestions

Some sempervivums or other succulents. I have babies a-plenty from this project, but you can find them in the better garden centres (the ones that haven’t removed every single plant and replaced them with yawny christmas things).

Multi-purpose compost

Horticultural grit or gravel

Method:

Carefully select a few choice rosettes, nipping them from your plant with your fingernails – (the babies shooting outwards from the main mother rosette are perfect for this, but if your plant doesn’t have any then just carefully pull a whole rosette off your plant, remove the bottom two layers of leaves so you get a ‘stalk’ and use that.)

Put a small amount of compost in the spoon or whatever you are using, dampen it slightly with water so that it’s moist but not wet (turn the whole thing upside down and squeeze any excess water out through your fingers if you add too much).

Now just poke your rosette or rosettes into the compost, and finally fill in the gaps with gravel.

Display. (I will be displaying Violet’s spoon indoors in a bright place over the winter, and then re-planting the semps outside in the spring).

Watering. I’ll be watering Violet’s spoon with a tiny smidgin of water every couple of weeks, but only because they’re indoors. My outdoor ones get nothing at all…ever.

My thanks to English Mum for posting about stir-up Sunday…Her cake recipe is here and looks fabulous. I used my favourite cake book of the moment, Pam Corbin’s River Cottage Cakes, because I happened to have it in my handbag when I was a the supermarket (yes, you read that right…it is hand-bag size). Her Christmas cake recipe is called ‘The Mother Cake’ – brilliant name.