Spring projects for the garden

Crops for Pots

Few things beat being able to go outside and pick your own homegrown ingredients and you don't need a lot of space to get a useful crop. You can grow a wide range of edible plants in pots, window boxes and hanging baskets and many of them are as good to look at as they are to eat. A large shallow container is ideal for 'cut-and-come-again' salad leaves. Buy a packet of mixed salad leaves or choose your own, making sure you have good contrast of texture and colour in the foliage. Mizuna, rocket and giant red mustard make a good, tasty combination.

In a hanging basket, a 'Tumbler' cherry tomato partnered with a parsley plant and a mix of marjorams will look and taste delicious. Fruits are possible too. Try Alpine strawberry plants with salad burnet for adding to summer drinks or a strawberry variety such as 'Elan' kept well away from the slugs in a hanging basket. Try the following for some unusual, colourful varieties, many of them suitable for container growing:

• www.realseeds.co.uk
• www.seedsofitaly.com
• www.simpsonsseeds.co.uk
• www.suffolkherbs.com

• See also: Growing your own veg

Flower Power

For easy-to-grow flowers in a superb range of colours through the summer, try some hardy geraniums or cranesbills. There's at least one for your garden, whether it's small, large, dry, damp or shady, and they mix well with all kinds of plants. They range from tall, upright ones to low-growers for the front of the border. In shade, try Geranium Phaeum and G. Nodosum.

Tolerant almost anywhere is G. Macrorrhizum and it's evergreen too, with aromatic leaves that turn a good autumn colour. One of the best in sun is G. 'Ann Folkard' (left). It starts the year from quite a small clump. A mass of golden-yellow finely cut leaves emerge and spread through and over its neighbours. It flowers in mid-summer, displaying rich, dusky purple flowers with black veins, which continue until the first frost. G. renardii makes neat clumps of crinkly, sage-like leaves with white veined flowers emerging in early summer. This is just a small sample of many wonderful varieties. Look out for the ones that have been awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's AGM (Award of Garden Merit).