What types of flowers and plants could I put in 8 foot planter if planting now in April?

dave_1982

I was gifted a planter last year which is in my back garden and I'm trying to figure out what I should put in it. See image attached. Its 8ft long and 1ft wide. It is layered with plastic but currently has nothing else in it. What type of soil should I put in and do I need to add something to help drainage?

Also what type so plants of flowers would work well if I were to plant them now in the next few weeks? I'm happy to put some work into it and spend a few quid on flowers and I'm trying to figure out how best to go about filling it.

Any help or advice would be very welcome.

looksee

Are there drainage holes in both the timber base and the plastic? No harm to put a couple of inches of gravel in the bottom. Then fill it with a John Innes compost - look for compost that mentions John Innes, it will have a proportion of soil and will help prevent the compost drying into a solid lump that is impossible to wet. You could also mix in a bit of water retaining crystals.

You don't have a huge amount of space to plant in it but provided you chose carefully you should be fine. I would consider some wallflowers, they will give all year-round colour and come in yellow, purple/yellow and purple. The larger ones would make a mass of colour that would fill the trough, you just have to give them a haircut in early spring to stop them becoming straggly. There are a lot of double daisies around at the moment in white, pink and red, they would also give a nice show thought they are not as long lasting. Maybe Pieris would suit - about 3 would fill the trough and are attractive small shrubs with sprays of white bell flowers. You could put a few bulbs in between, small daffodils would be good.

MacDanger

If you've any interest in cooking, planting a few herbs (parsley, rosemary, thyme, oregano, chives) might be worthwhile? Could stick in a bit of lettuce and onions too.