Sorry there was no August pot....I was too busy doing nothing. To compensate, here's two for the price of one:
It's all rather bulbous - but if you like gardening, then that's what autumn's all about.
This pot doesn't look like a huge amount of anything on top - in fact, what you see above is just an afterthought really. I had a pelargonium left over from loads of cuttings I took last year and thought I'd give it a chance to shine. What's really going on here is the bulbs...and for them, you'll have to wait. I utterly promise you, it'll be worth it. In addition to the scented leaved pelargonium, you're going to get a crop of delicious Mizuna leaves, then a March-April flowering of little daffodils, followed by an April-May flowering of delicate yellow and white dutch iris.
For this pot you will need:
A pack of dwarf daffodils (I used Narcissi 'Minnow')
A pack of Dwarf irises (my pack says 'Dutch Iris...no idea about them but they were on special offer)
A packet of Mizuna seeds (or any other oriental salad leaves that like to be sown in the late summer)
A small scented leaved pelargonium (You can find these languishing in dark corners of good garden centres at this time of year). This is really just to give you something to look at for now - if you can't find pelargoniums, then just substitute with a smattering of pansies, or anything else that looks good right now. Don't plant too densely though...you want to leave space for those bulbs to push through.
A large-ish pot - mine is 50 cm across at the top.
Multi-purpose compost
Method:
Fill the pot with compost until there's 10cm left to the top of the pot. Now put in your daffodil bulbs - quite close together but not touching.
Now cover the bulbs with another 5 cm of compost, shove in your chosen 'see me now' plant, and surround it with your iris bulbs.
Fill in all the rest of the space and water well but gently, with the fine rose of a watering can, until you're sure the water's coming out of the bottom of the pot.
Now sow your mizuna seed - thinly and carefully around your pelargonium, covering the seeds with a smattering of compost and patting down comfortingly, to make sure the seeds are in contact with the compost.
Keep it watered, and protected from naughty squirrels and this pot will give you delicious winter leaves, as well as joy well into summertime next year.
P.S. There are so many other bulbs out there - here's another pot I've done with dwarf tulips and muscari (and mizuna too)...take a look at your garden centre, note the flowering time and double, or triple up accordingly xx
