Plant combinations

Now, I'm an avid gardener, and i love growing things from seeds, all sorts of things, in fact anything!...but my problem comes when trying to find room to plant these things out.

I do try to think where they'd look best, i.e. right conditions etc, and what they'd go with, but more often than not it's a case of just finding that tiny gap in the bed that they'll fit into, hence my garden tends to be a bit chaotic, more shall we say on the cottagy garden style than the well-designed border..

But strangely enough, when all starts growing I come ccross plant combinations that have worked really well, completely by accident of course!!...

Do other people do this sort of gardening, or are you more organised and organised.

Lets see some of those plant combos that you love.

OOpps ,sorry, wrong photo..

This is a Salvia that i bought,and squeezed it in on the edge of one of the beds, when it started to flower against the Geranium I was really plesed with the effect.

This is my Cerinthe, and some love-in-the -mist that had self-seeded

A clematis and Abutilon, that were both grown from seeds.The Abutilons have flowered for Britain this year, both the white and the mauve ones.
The centres of the Abutilons mirrors the colour of the Clematis.

This message was edited Jun 13, 2006 6:36 AM

This is an odd one, and the photo doesn't seem to pick up the colour as I can see it.

I have a Chinese gooseberry vine that part of has wrapped itself around a Peucedanum verticulaire (spelling?) and the two together look oddly co-ordinated, though it doesn't show so much in the photo, the seeds and stems have a reddish tinge to them that goes with the red hairs on the vine.

This message was edited Jun 13, 2006 6:34 AM

We garden with gay abandon too, we try to fit the plant to the place but often it's just a case of there's a gap and hope for the bet.

I really like how yours have grown all together, particularly the Salvia and Geranium, those strong colours when they work, really work well together. Nothing has really stood out this year although we've been concentrating on the front garden so far, so who knows what will turn up later but in 2004 we grew a Digitalis ferruginea in a large pot with some Cerinthe 'Blue Kiwi' which made a (to me at least) striking combination.

Love in a Mist is such a great cottagey plant isn't it!

Sueone, my gardening "technique" is just like yours, with loads of plants still in pots waiting for me to find a place to put them....sometimes the clusters of pots even look quite attractive,(or I like to think so), but that is entirely accidental too!
Maggi xxxx (Definitely congenitally disorganised).

I've tried to grow different coloured clematis with plants that should complement their colours, but it hasn't been as successful as I planned. The Niobe - deep maroon growing through the golden leaves of a Cornus Mas has decided to grow up the centre of the tree so you can't see it at all unless you part the branches to look for it. The Elsa Spath - rich blue, has already finished before the Penny Lane rose - creamy pink - has got going and also the Laurestern striped blue - through the Gertrude Jekyll rose - deep pink. I think the roses are later this year, so the combinations might work next year.

I agree the best ones are usually just by chance. This stray Phacelia next to the courgette in the greenhouse border looks lovely and is a great insect attractant.

I love that Phacelia, I've not seen that before...is it an annual?

Do your courgettes do well in the greenhouse?We've planted some up the lotty,(will be checking to see if they've survived when it stops raining) have tried to find places to put a couple in the garden too, where I have more control over their fates..never thought of the greenhouse, I have one side, under the staging, a soil border , but it only gets sun, from miday onwards, would that do?

The Phacelia is lovely, it is an annual, often used as a green manure, but I always leave plenty in to flower as it looks so beautiful and is a brilliant insect attractant.

I plant most of the courgettes outside, but if I have space put one or two in the border of the greenhouse to get an early crop. I don't think it would mind the shade so long as it gets polinated and enough water. Give it a try.

As I've said before I'm trying to make much better use of the greenhouse all the year round and it seems to be working this year. I've got a tray full of mixed lettuce to plant in all the gaps between the peppers and aubergines and in front of the tomatoes. These will replace all the ones I've already harvested and follow on when I've eaten the ones I planted between the summer cabbages outisde. I've just got to remember to keep on sowing things, I usually forget by mid summer. I also usually forget to sow the spring cabbages in August, so I'll make myself a reminder now.

Sounds familiar to me, I can never remember to keep sowing things for sucession, I did say that this year I was going to do a sowing chart with when and what to sow, ...but as of yet I've not even managed to do that either.

I'll put a couple of the squashes in the greenhouse t5his afternoon, putting lettuoices between the toms sounds good too, I've got some coming on in a pot .