Make the most of your city garden with container planting

Container gardening has undergone a revival in recent times, especially if our outdoor space is often at a premium. It is space-efficient and mobile, so it can be arranged to fit in a small urban garden. Even the tiniest plot can be transformed into an elegant outdoor haven that will help us relax from the daily stresses of working life.

But what’s the secret to creating a brilliantly unique display of summer pots that will suit your city garden? We take a look.

Pick the right container

The journey of your city garden begins with choosing the right plants, foliage and position to showcase your outdoor space to its maximum potential Terracotta is the ideal material to consider, the higher the firing temperature, the more robust and durable the pot will be. Low maintenance materials such as fibreclay have become popular due to their light weight, allowing you to move your planters around, creating a dynamic space in your garden where you can alter the look as you wish. Wooden, glazed or metal planters can also change up the style of your outdoor space, altering the persona of a garden from traditional, classical feel to a contemporary, urban area.

Texture

A cottage garden evokes a romantic, almost dreamy feel with its soft lines, blooms gently swaying in the breeze with bees and butterflies drifting delicately from planter to planter. To create this chocolate box, feel, pair different sizes of our terracotta range with marguerites, verbenas and malvastrums for a subtle but graceful white and pink planting scheme that will emit dazzling beauty and freshness in your city garden.

For a beautiful, standout displays and textures, why not try mixing the heights of your containers, filling them with architectural plants such as wispy grasses or statuesque alliums, surrounded by spilling varieties such as trailing pink and red fuchsias, contrasting with silver leaved helichrysums and purple lobelias. This simple planting will evoke a homely feel and will provide grace and charm to your urban space.

Encourage wildlife

Container gardening is also a great way of introducing wildlife into your city garden or onto your balcony. As urban living continues to sprawl, there is less and less natural habitat for wildlife. By providing nectar rich plants, bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects will frequent in your garden, raise your spirits and inspire you. Consider planting lavender, sedums, scabious, agastache and salvias for bloom-filled choices for bees and butterflies.

Wildflowers can look really stunning in container pots, bringing their kaleidoscope of colour to your yard. Cornflowers, wild pansies, poppies, marigolds and buttercups will not only make a stunning focal point but provide a much-needed boost to pollinators too.

Planting berries for birds is beneficial and also an important food source for many birds during the winter. Not only do they provide jewel like qualities to your container plants, holly berries, cotoneaster, pyracantha and crab apples will provide garden birds with nutritious treats when other food may be scarce.

Lighten and heighten

In city gardens, space is at a premium so containers are a great way of adding the option to grow vertically too. Growing plants up softens walls, fences and provides a riot of colour and interest in a small area.

A simple, concrete backyard or balcony can come alive with the contemporary style of our Loudon Planters, filled with floriferous blooms and foliage. The classic modern shapes with a sophisticated glazed finish suit the urban style perfectly when adorned with statement plants like conifers, bay and cordylines, or sumptuous summer scent.

If you have a small yard, a brightly planted container can bring life to a neglected corners or drab nooks, especially when planted with colour rich dahlias, hydrangeas, anemones and asters which will light up an area of shade. Balcony walls can flush with vertical climbing plants such as honeysuckle, clematis, Passiflora, and jasmine, trained on wall mounted trellises to grow upwards where the footprint is sparse.

Enhance the senses

Being in a garden, amongst beautiful plants, is incredibly stimulating to all our senses and spirit lifting. It invokes feelings of joy, happiness, serenity, fun and helps escape the stresses of life. Perfect for any size plot, a sensory garden is so beneficial to our wellbeing and results in increased sensations and relaxation from the connection with plants and nature.

Plants that entice the senses could include grasses and bamboo stems that make a pleasant sound as the wind passes through, lamb’s ear and moss for interesting textures and touch. Honeysuckle, jasmine or herbs and spices provide breathtaking aromas that will secure their place in our memory banks, whilst incorporating plants with different foliage, stem colours and bright flowers will provide colourful visual appeal outdoors as well.

Kitchen garden

There’s nothing like the smell of freshly picked herbs or taste of homegrown vegetables and these can be easily grown in a city garden. You will find a good selection of dwarf and baby vegetable plants or seeds like carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and leeks in garden centres.

Our Kitchen Herb Planter (RRP £24.99) can be both thrilling and spilling with colourful nasturtiums, alpine strawberries or the pleasing fragrance of delicate scents of rosemary, thyme or basil.