Perk up your patio with new containers

However, think carefully before buying and consider the style of your property and garden. If you don’t, you could end up with a disastrous mish-mash of colours and designs.

If you have an old, traditional house and matching garden, it makes sense to stick with classic materials such as stone or terracotta, while a modern setting may require stainless steel, coloured concrete, zinc or aluminium.

Dramatic black-glazed pots, with stand-alone specimens such as a cordyline or date palm, can look stunning in a contemporary setting and are widely available, while troughs and pots made of metal can also look good in minimalist gardens.

You can get away with a variety of brightly-coloured glazed pots (check out B&Q’s range of rainbow-glazed pots, starting at £1.98 – www.diy.com) in a modern setting to brighten up a corner, but generally it’s better to stick to one style and finish if you don’t want the patio to look messy.

Don’t buy pots on a whim, as there simply may not be a natural place to put them.

You may actually find they look better without any plants in them.

Small gardens don’t restrict you to small pots. In fact, large pots and plants in a small garden will create much more drama and impact than having everything below eye level.

There are pros and cons with whatever you choose. Terracotta pots, even if they are frost-proof, have a tendency to crack and chip and are porous, which means you will need to water the plants regularly to stop them drying out.

However, terracotta pots can achieve that weathered look quickly because algae and moss soon grow on the outer surface.

Glazed ceramic containers come in a huge range of colours and are not porous, so you’ll need to stand them on pot feet to ensure adequate drainage.

Galvanised metal containers, which look great in modern settings, are poor insulators, so compost and roots may be baked in hot weather and frozen in winter. This is where glass fibre pots, which look like metal, may be a better bet.

Wooden troughs and tubs are widely available (for best value look at the Argos wooden trough planter for £12.99) and have a natural look, which enables them to blend into most informal garden schemes. They are of moderate durability and do better if you line them with a thick plastic sheet such as a pond liner, puncturing it to allow for drainage.

Alternatively, treat the container with a preservative that doesn’t harm plants and stand the tub on bricks or feet to help drainage.

Wood is also frost-resistant and insulates plants from extreme heat and cold.

If you have trouble lifting heavy pots and are on a tight budget, plastic is the obvious choice. Sankey’s Verona pot range comes in royal blue and wine red (available in two sizes, from £16.99 – tel 0115-927-7335 or visit www.rsankey.com) and has a five-year UV-resistant guarantee.

However, a more stylish choice can be found in a range of other materials, including fibreglass and resin, which aren’t too heavy but can create a stunning look.

Contemporary square-top plant pots are available in a variety of colours and, being made from resin, they are lightweight, weather-resistant and shatterproof (www.greenfingers.com, £14.99, 0845-345-0728).

If blue is your colour, look out for a bell jar (from £129.99 at crocus.co.uk) designed by sculptor Bill Harling, which looks like weather-beaten copper, but is made from fibre-glass and resin.

Consider where you are going to put your pots before you choose the containers. Plastic is light, easy to move and can be easily disguised with metallic paint or hidden by trailing plants.

Wood, terracotta and stone are good root insulators and so are perfect for plantings in full sun or exposed settings.

Metal doesn’t do so well in sunny spots as it will quickly heat up the compost and roots inside, although you can put the plant in a different, smaller container and plunge this into your metal pot lined with damp compost to help protect it.

Best of the bunch – Tulips

THERE are so many different varieties of tulip in a myriad of colours, from whites and yellows to orange, red and deep purple – no garden should be without them. If you like fussy and frilly, go for the parrot types, while the classic single, large, strongstemmed varieties are dominated by the Darwin hybrids.

I love the dwarf types, such as Red Riding Hood, a Greigii hybrid with striped green and purple leaves, and the single late variety Queen of Night, which produces deep maroon blooms in late spring.

Tulips need well-drained, fertile soil in a sunny site. Bulbs should be planted 10- 15cm (4-6in) deep in late autumn and protected from excessive wet. Most should be lifted when the foliage has died after flowering, although some, such as the Kaufmanniana hybrids and the species can be left in the ground for several years to flower again.

WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK

● Continue to plant vegetables directly into the ground and under glass for a succession of crops.

● Earth up early potatoes.

● Prune spring-flowering shrubs over three years old as they finish flowering.

● Feed blackcurrants, blackberries and hybrid berries with a high nitrogen feed.

● Plant container-grown fruit trees.

● Thin out overcrowded shoots on perennials such as delphiniums, lupins and phlox.

● Sow and plant sweet peas outside.

NICE ENOUGH TO EAT

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum)

I LIKE chives as much for their decorative purposes as their flavour. The pretty, soft purple globes of flowers brightening up the herb garden, the container or the front of the border.

Their hollow stems, which have an onion-like flavour, can be snipped and added to dips, while the flowers can add colour to salads. Sow the seeds outdoors in spring in groups of three or four, 1.5cm deep – thin them out to leave one plant every 15cm.

Keep the soil moist and harvest the stems as needed, from June onwards.

You can also sow seed from July to September to provide fresh windowsill chives in autumn and winter.

They are herbaceous perennials, so will come up year after year. Clumps should be lifted and divided every couple of years.

THREE WAYS TO ... Create slick city pots

1 In summer, vibrant pelargoniums such as lipstick pink ‘Disco’ against an evergreen background make for an eye-catching urban windowbox.

2 Use standard or pyramid bay trees or clipped box as stand-by sentries from smart town front doors.

3 For cool corners in city gardens, plant white-flowering or silver foliage plants for a touch of elegance.