Pots of colour

First paint your pot
Porous terracotta is a great surface to paint, so long as it's clean and dry and any rough bits have been rubbed down until smooth with medium-grade sandpaper. You won't need an undercoat, but with light colours you may require two coats to get good coverage. Allow the first coat to dry thoroughly before applying the next

For most of the containers here, I used a 250ml pot of emulsion - you'll find a little goes a long way. A coat or two of emulsion on terracotta should last for several years and you can easily paint over any scrapes and scuffs. If you want to change the colour at some point, just give the container a good scrub with warm soapy water, leave it to dry, then rub it down lightly with sandpaper before repainting.

For the container on this page, I used Dulux emulsion in Portuguese Blue 1. Car spray paints work well, too, and, of course, there are plenty of specialist products, such as Plasti-kote paints.

Now plant up your pot
You can use multi-purpose compost for all of these container recipes, apart from 'Sunny side up' - this longer-term planting would be happier in a loam-based compost, such as John Innes No3.

1. Container-grown plants need good drainage, otherwise their roots will be left sitting in water and start to rot. Cover the holes in the bottom of the pot with broken terracotta pots or a 10cm layer of coarse gravel so they won't become blocked with compost.




2. Fill the pot with compost to within 7cm of the rim. Sprinkle over a measured amount of slow-release fertilizer and water-retaining gel and mix with your fingers. Gently firm the compost, taking care not to squash all the air spaces.





3. Position the tallest plant in the centre of the pot and firm compost around the rootball. Keep the top of the rootball about 2.5cm below the rim of the pot.



4. Position the smaller plants around the central plant, filling any gaps with compost as you go. Make sure the tops of their rootballs are also 2.5cm below the rim of the pot.