Dreaming of a garden bursting with colour and fresh produce? Shane Fairbairn, Ryman Healthcare’s Landscape Manager, shares his top tips to make it happen. You’ll be set to create a gorgeous, relaxing space in no time - grab your trowel, and let’s dig in.
It pays to carefully select the colours you plant in your garden – and the colours you’d like to spring up from underground next season. Did you know that looking at red and violet can be mentally stimulating, while orange and yellow are likely to energise your body, brighten your mood, and make you feel happier? In contrast, blue and green offer emotional calm which is partly why indoor plants are so popular. White makes indoor and outdoor living spaces feel larger and airy which makes it a great contrast for spaces with high activity and lots of colour. So, it’s worth taking a moment to think about which colours you want to see you in your garden.
Raised garden beds are a great idea for many reasons. First, they lift your garden to a convenient height for weeding, planting, and harvesting. With planters or raised garden beds, you can avoid kneeling or bending for long periods. Especially if you raise them to the wall. Wall planters are a great solution for herbs or strawberries. They’re also useful for controlling plant-eating bugs like slugs and snails.
Choosing a planter with wooden sides will keep your compost-rich garden soil where it belongs during rainfall – at the roots of your plants. Best of all, a raised garden can be positioned wherever you like and works perfectly on a deck or patio. This means that you can take a few steps from your kitchen to the planter and simply snip what you need.
Now is the time to plant your summer bulbs. Soon you could be enjoying gladioli, calla lilies, dahlias, and tuberous begonias. Easy to grow, bulbs can be put directly into the ground or planted in pots and raised garden bed planters. Have fun planning the colours and varieties that you’ll plant. For a stunning display, select plants with complementary colours and contrasting textures. Frilly shaped petals beside structured varieties can make for an engaging floral display.
A highlight of the warmer months is the variety of fresh fruit that comes available. Plucking fruit directly from a tree branch or bush is one of the most rewarding and relaxing activities you can do. Plus, fresh fruit always tastes better than store-bought. Nectarines, plums, blueberries, strawberries, apples, pears. If you don’t have fruit trees at home, keep an eye out for those in public spaces as you explore your neighbourhood or travel the countryside.
If you’re excited to grow fruit at home, consider planting miniature fruit trees in large pots on your patio or balcony at the same time as planting larger fruit tree varieties directly into your garden. The miniature varieties fruit sooner so they’ll give you a rewarding kick while you wait for the larger trees to reach fruiting maturity.
These powerful little superfoods may be small in size but they’re big on flavour and packed with nutrients. Essentially infant salad leaves, microgreens are great for your health. They also look fantastic sprinkled on top of dishes and tossed through salads. Cabbage rubies, watercress, radish, dill, celery, fennel, chicory, onion, and carrot are just a few.
Incredibly, these baby plants are even easier to grow indoors than outside. Simply sow the seeds into jars and pots using a rich vegetable growing mix, position them on a sunny windowsill or table, and keep them damp with sprayed water. In 7-14 days you’ll be harvesting your microgreen crop. Snip off some sprouts as you need them to liven up your dishes.
Calling all potato lovers! Spring is the time to plant seed potatoes if you’d like fresh new potatoes on your table for Christmas Day. Potatoes grow well in garden beds, potato bags, large pots, or even in a stack of old tyres. Come harvest time, they store well and are versatile in the kitchen. Baked jacket potatoes topped with sour cream are a fun dish for the whole family. Potato salad is a great option when you’re asked to bring a plate.
Top your salad with watercress micro greens and your dish will be fit for the most elegant of occasions. Creamy mashed potatoes complement most meat dishes. And don’t get us started on baked scalloped potatoes – crispy, cheesy, and creamy… yes please!
While gardening can fill your fridge and fruit bowl, it’s also a way to create a beautiful outdoor environment where you can unwind and relax. Planting scented flowers like roses can enliven all your senses when you step outdoor. While roses have traditionally been a challenge to grow, modern varieties are much easier to care for. They’re often hardier, have been bred to withstand specific environmental conditions, and can be disease and pest resistant. Standards will provide formal beauty and frame your outdoor space while climbing roses offer colour, texture, and add softness to walls, trellis, and guiding wires.
Great news – you don’t have to do the garden all by yourself. Get the kids or grandkids involved and make gardening a fun activity. By getting their hands dirty and tending to plants, they’ll learn where their food comes from and how easy it is to grow organic produce. It’s easy enough to set aside a pot or corner of the garden for the little ones to make their own. Get them started with some microgreens for rapid results that will retain their interest. Plant some strawberries plants and blueberry trees as well so they can watch them ripen before picking and eating them. Cherry tomatoes are also crowd-pleasers and sunflowers put on a show the kids are sure to love.
Spring gardening can feel busy, and it asks us to be industrious for a week or two. But with a little hard work now, you’ll be set for months of gardening success. While these tips are a great start, there’s no limit on what you can do with your garden. Once the planting is done, sow some secondary rows or take some time to sit back enjoy the birdsong.