GARDENING ARTICLE

ANNUAL TIME IS HERE AGAIN

By Clodagh and Dick Handscombe*

Summer annuals are generally wonderfully coloured profuse flowering plants but unfortunately are only one or two season plants as they grow from seed, flower and die within six to nine months – less if not looked after. They therefore require replacing each year by sowing seeds or buying new plants in the spring and early summer. And with fantastic displays in local markets and garden centres now is the time to buy and replace the over wintered stocks, wallflowers and pansies. The choice is wide as illustrated in Section 4.1 of our best selling book Gardening in Spain – From planning to planting and maintenance. Everyone has their own particular favourites tempered to some extent by whether you have only window boxes on the front of a village house, a central patio garden, a  terraced town house, a free standing villa or an apartment terrace garden. Our favourites are as below.

Our ten favourite annuals

Although not enthusiastic about beds of annuals in hot dry Spanish gardens we do grow some annuals on our vegetable plot for cutting for the house and for attracting insects, and we do use annuals in pots/containers for specific dull semi shaded and north facing corners of the garden. Especially to brighten up semi shaded corners under trees, a north facing porch, the inner shade of a south facing naya and the ballastrade of a terrace. We list below our ten favourites and give some essential growing tips based on our experience of long hot summers and  winter frosts.

1.ZINNIAS which we grow on our vegetable plot as the soil is richer than in our flower garden and we flood the plot every 6 to 10 days from April to September depending on whether it has rained.

We grow both small and large flowered  multi coloured varieties for cutting. Normally they will flower  from June to the end of September, even through into October.

2. SWEET PEAS are also grown for cutting and again mostly on the vegetable plot on the vegetable plot where we can grow a ten to twenty metre row without compromising other crops. We plant seeds from the previous years plants and possibly a few newly introduced varieties both in the greenhouse and directly in the ground  in November/December.

3. SUNFLOWERS are sown in corners, in pots and as a long windbreak on the vegetable plot. Seeds are saved from one year to another and used as a supplementary chicken feed and tapas for ourselves.

4. TRAILING PETUNIAS we grow in large pots and window boxes in full sun  and in a couple of hanging baskets in semi shady places.

5. PORTULACAS fill seasonally empty pots on a sunny terrace.

6. BUZY LIZZIES are good in pots in semi shaded situations

7. VINCAS are used in the same way as busy lizzies.

8. PANSIES are a winter favourite for various containers and winter boxes both in full sun and partial shade.

9. MARIGOLDS colour corners of the vegetable plot and new vegetable raised beds  to attract black flies from vegetables, to brighten up the vegetable plot and as a medicinal herb.

10. NASTURTIUMS we grow both on the vegetable plot and in the flower garden in semi-shaded pots and in the semi-shade under a hedge. They give good colour in the spring and summer , leaves and flowers are useful in adding taste and bight to salads and the plants attract black fly off other plants.

The above selection gives us some continuity of colour throughout the year, are not often susceptible to diseases, and are reasonably drought resistant if we do forget to water for a day or the water supply is cut unexpectedly.

Care of annuals

Annuals do need more watering than many other plants, regular deadheading and a fortnightly  nitrogen/ potassium feed to maintain healthy growth and maximise both the number and continuity of flowering.

*Clodagh and Dicks books can be ordered in Spain from bookshops or direct from the publisher on info@santanabooks.com or 952-485838. If you are still living part of the year in the UK the three books are most easily obtained from the Royal Horticultural Society Bookshop at Wisley by a visit or on 0845-2604505 or from Orca Books on 01202-785714.

The titles of the books are as follows:

• Your garden in Spain – ISBN 978-84-89954-670
• Growing healthy fruit in Spain – ISBN 978-84-89954-62-3
• Growing healthy vegetables in Spain – ISBN 978-84-89954-53-3

© Clodagh and Dick Handscombe May 2008