GARDENING: Style tips to create your PERFECT PATIO
Sunday Mirror, Jun 1, 2008 by ADRIENNE WILD
FOR a patio that still shines whatever the weather, go for a planting scheme in shades of mauve and pink enhanced by fresh green foliage and silver leaves.
MATCH PLANTING
COLOUR-match flowering plants in containers with flower beds. Group pots for impact, arranging plants according to height and shape. Ornamental grasses add movement.
CREATE THE LOOK: Give decking a facelift with Cuprinol’s cleaning products and treat it with Anti-Slip Decking Treatment. Cuprinol offer 23 paint shades, if you fancy a change.
HOW MUCH? Cuprinol products start from pounds 10.29 at B&Q; (www.diy.com, 0845 609 6688).
SMART PLANTERS
DECORATE your patio like a pro with brightly-coloured tall, tapered pots. Look for lightweight and frost-proof fibreglass designs, which can be colour-matched to paints, plants and fabrics.
CREATE THE LOOK: Part-fill pots with polystyrene chips if they need moving regularly. Gravel will make them more stable in exposed sites.
HOW MUCH? Prices including delivery start at pounds 129 per planter from Designer Composites (01761 410530).
POTS IN BEDS
USE containers to create focal points in flower beds. Tall, narrow pots are eye-catching crowned with a bushy plant such as petunia and surrounded by trailers like calibrachoa and dichondra.
CREATE THE LOOK: Adding orange to pink and mauve makes the display more exciting. Silver foliage like Dichondra Silver Falls adds glamour.
HOW MUCH? Specimen bedding plants cost from pounds 1.99 at garden centres.
CONTRAST
MAGENTA dahlias like Fascination and Piper’s Pink set against a large potted Paulownia or foxglove tree give a sheltered patio an exotic feel.
CREATE THE LOOK: Grow dahlias in heavy pots, – matching the size to the tuber and rootball. Line with gravel and use compost with water-retaining gel and controlled-release fertiliser.
HOW MUCH? Around pounds 3.99 at garden centres.
FOLIAGE
COLEUS give your garden a touch of tropical foliage. It comes in cheerful shades like red, yellow, green, purple-bronze, plus pink and brown.
CREATE THE LOOK: Grow in full sun and pinch out growing tips for bushy plants
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