What to do and plant with garden planters in winter months
Struggling with what to do with your planters during the winter months?
In this blog, I am going to be discussing different types of flowers, plants and vegetables that can be planted during the winter months. Plus some helpful tips on what to do with your planters. As a keen gardener myself, I am hoping that you can take something from this and use it for your garden during the up and coming winter months.
Quick Tips On How To Prep Your Garden, Planter and Greenhouse For Winter
With the holiday season now over, this is the time of year we can start looking at planning our garden. The best advice I have taken from gardening is pre-planning your plants and when to plant them through the year. This is vital! Perhaps even look at getting new planters? They can give your garden an aesthetically pleasing look and can be very handy for plant potting. Why not try our range of handmade, luxury planters?
As a quick side note, I would really recommended using sulphur candles this time of year ready for the green house. These will help clear out all the fungus, spores and pests in your greenhouse (make sure you empty out your greenhouse first though).
Winter Flower Plants To Try Out In Your Planters
One of the most popular flower plants used for this time of year is the snowdrop. This is one of my favourite flower plants during winter. It has a beautiful white flower and grows perfectly this time of year. During the late stages of January and early stages of February, these flowers really start to come out.
Another brilliant flower plant for this time of year is the Pansy flower. This is a brilliant plant for growing during the cold and can really bring your garden to life. The flowers on these really do look incredible. As well as bringing bright colours to the garden, interestingly some of these plants are also edible! (Please check label on seed packet or plant label to make sure, as some can be VERY toxic).
Finally the last flower plant I'll be showing you is the sweetpea. And if you are looking for something to plant next month that will flower all summer, what about sweetpeas? They love containers like these and because they are self-clinging they will climb up a wigwam you can easily make from canes or twiggy branches. The more you pick, the more they flower. The surest way to get good results is to start with autumn sown sweetpea seedlings.
With these plants combined, it can really look good for your garden. Each year I have these planted for winter and they look brilliant in the small, premium, handmade planter, in the corners of your garden.
Top 5 vegetables to start growing this time of year.
For the next part of the blog I am going to be looking at vegetables that can be planted during the winter. For this, I would recommend putting the planters in your greenhouses. Putting enough soil in and making sure the seeds and bulbs are brought in. As an easy way of doing this I am going to narrow it down to my top 5 favourite vegetables to start growing during January, in your planters for the start of the year.
1. Garlic - These are very easy to plant. Each bulb can be broken up and placed about 13cm into the soil within your planter. As long as your greenhouse isn't covered in snow and freezing, this should be a good time of year to start growing these and will come out around June or July time. When the year starts get less cold, these can be taken outside and no need to take up the space in the greenhouse. Once these are ready, they will go taste amazing with your cooking!
2. Sweet Onion - Sweet onion is something I love growing. They can be grown outside throughout the year. Even during the winter months I have started growing these outside. These also taste great! I cannot express how much better the flavour of these are when home grown compared to supermarket brought. For this I would recommend buying a handmade, rustic and cheaper planter and putting this outside in your garden to help the onions grow. Again, when these come out they're brilliant to use for cooking.
3. Broad Beans - With this vegetable I would recommend leaving it until as late as possible in the winter, late January or February is ideal. Make sure you keep these in the planters in the greenhouse for winter months. The seedlings should be buried about 10cm into the soil and can take up to 100 days before harvest. Broad beans are extremely healthy and from my experience kids love them!
4. Peas - I would recommend using the greenhouse planters for this vegetable as well. Again, planting this in late January or February time. Planting this about 5cm into the ground will be perfect. Once it gets to Autumn time, these will be ready for harvest and of course, to be eaten! These are extremely tasty vegetable and goes well with many meals, or even on their own, within seconds of picking.
5. Brussell Sprouts - A very controversial vegetable when it comes to eating, to say the least. However, this is perfect vegetable for planting in the winter. I would plant these about 2cm deep into the soil. Even with a bit of frost these can grow well, I would plant these in mid January and should be ready for harvest around July time.
That is my top 5 vegetables to grow in winter complete! I hope this can give you an insight into want to plant this time of year in your planters. For these vegetables I would highly recommend our cheaper, handmade rustic planter. These can be put into greenhouses or kept outside and will keep your vegetables safe, warmer and look nice!
Please leave any comments on your opinions, tips or advice! I am always looking to learn more about gardening and seeing what others would recommend. For any further information on gardening or our range of planters please do not hesitate to contact us further on 01409 231763.