So, you take a trip out to your local garden centre. You walk past the houseplants, through the giftware department, and out to the summer bedding plants. You need some bedding plants because at home you have patio pots to plant, hanging baskets to hang, and you want to win over your neighbours with some windowboxes.
With so many plants to choose. literally from A (ageratum) to Z (zinnia), you eventually make your choice – and you’re happy with it.
Then you walk along to the garden centre compost area and, wham! You’re assaulted with dozens of different types of bagged compost. They have some mystifying names, too, like John Innes No 1, 2 and 3, or Ericaceous. Then there are specific composts for salad vegetables or cacti. Multipurpose and seed sowing. Peat-free and reduced peat. And so it goes on.
But cutting through all of this…for patio pots, tubs, urns, baskets and boxes, there is just one compost you need to bother with: Gro-Sure Easy Containers Compost. It has everything you need, all wrapped up into one easily manageable bag. There is the West+ ingredient (natural fibres to encourage good rooting), enough nutrient-rich feed to feed summer plants for six months, and water storage granules to make watering less of a chore in summer.
Although I’m a trained gardener, and my compost heap of recycled garden waste is a joy to behold, when it comes to potting up patio containers I want simplicity and convenience. And this variety of bagged compost has it – in spades!
As soon as you get the Gro-Sure Easy Containers Compost home, put on some gloves and break up the compost (it can get compressed when piled up in the garden centre). Then choose your container, with drainage holes, and fill it with the compost. Add your plants, spacing them at least 6in (15cm) apart so that they have room to grow. Water them to settle them in – this also wets the compost to activate the feed granules. Then just sit back and wait for a glorious and colourful summer.
Final tip: Gro-Sure Easy Containers Compost comes is 20 litre and 35 litre bag sizes. And don’t forget that this compost mixture is also perfect for most houseplants – the useful ingredients in the compost are just as relevant to indoor plants.
