Wall pots

Take a lesson from the small courtyard, Greek- island garden. When planting, utilize every space, and that includes bare wall. Treat them as a kind of vertical flower bed. Attach pots to the surfaces, arranging them in rows, pots with trailing orange nasturtium, with lipstick-pink pelargoniums, with deep blue verbenas, and Bidens ferulifolia with spray of bright yellow, daisylike flowers. You can use anything from terracotta pots to painted containers, to ornamental tins, even a collection of watering cans. Equally important, wall pots are a good way of softening severe architectural features, and bringsthe garden to an end wall with plants means that you blur and upgrade the boundary. It is a clever trick that is well worth copying.

MERGING COLORS

ABOVE: Instead of going for the vibrant approach with contrasting bright colored flowers, try using soft blues and purples to create a gentler ambience.

CREATING SPRAYS

LEFT: It is easy to concentrate on color and forget about shape, but a wonderful spray of flowers opening from a tight conelike container can be a magical feature. Here, the star plants are felicias and swan river daisies.

                                                White and blue trailing lobelia with Convolvulus sabatius

                                                                           Helichrysum petiolare                                                                 Lobelia erinus “Fountain Select”

                                                                      Fuchsia “Jack Shahan”                                                                                Felicia amelloides