Revamp your Garden in 4 Simple Steps!
Summer annuals are unrivalled for the colour they can bring to the garden – it’s no wonder they are so popular for bedding schemes.
Here petunias and marigolds have been planted in a rainbow fan of brilliant colour. Plant them early in summer when all danger of frost is past. The bed should flower throughout the summer. Set aside most of a day for planting – there are a lot of baby plants to put in.
This regimented type of planting may work especially well for many modern houses, particularly in the front garden where space is often limited.
Colourful Rainbow Fan
What you need:
Plants Buy bedding strips of purple and blue petunias, yellow and orange Afro-French and French marigolds and variegated-leaf salvias – enough to cover the area you have in mind. Here there are at least 30-40 yellow marigold plants and the same number of orange ones; 20 or so of each colour of petunia; and 20-25 salvias.
Equipment
- Fork
- Spade
- Rake
- Trowel
- General-purpose compost
Instructions
- Bedding schemes like this do best in full sun, so choose your site carefully. The soil does not have to be particularly rich, but it still needs to be dug over thoroughly. Remove any weeds, roots or stones as you dig. Incorporate a general-purpose compost into the top 8-10cm (3-4in) of soil and rake smooth.
- Start planting the deep orange marigolds at the wide end of the fan. Remove the baby plants from their bedding strip and lay them out in three rows, spacing them about 20cm (8in) apart. Use the trowel to dig small planting holes, setting in and firming each pant methodically in three arcs.
- Moving forwards, plant the bright yellow marigolds in the same way, again in three curving rows. Follow up with the salvias.
- Finish with the two bands of blue and purple petunias, using the same procedure as before to plant them. Water the whole bed thoroughly, using a fine rose on your watering can so you don’t dislodge the newly bedded plants.
Tip
To keep the plants producing flowers for as long a period as possible, feed with a high potash liquid fertiliser every couple of weeks.
Note
The salvias are not yet in flower in this bed. They will come into bloom later in the season.
Aftercare
Keep the bed well watered in dry weather. Deadhead faded and withered flowers as often as you can to encourage new ones to appear – and to keep the bedding scheme looking good. Clear the bed in autumn, dig over the ground again and replant the following year.
We hope you enjoyed planting this colourful rainbow fan in your garden!
If you'd like to share how it looks in your garden or any other of your gardening projects, feel free to tag or message us on Facebook or Instagram.
