Vegetables in your planters
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Choose your plants and planters wisely and you will be surprised how easy it is to raise a crop of summer vegetables in planters.
All vegetables need a good, general-purpose compost with plenty of nutrients if they, are to produce a tempting harvest.
Most also need room in the planter for deep roots or plenty of space to spread sideways.
You could try growing root vegetables, 'Red Ace' beetroots and main crop 'Senior' carrots,
under-planted with beans. To give them a good root run they are need to be planted in a deep planter.
Their harvest may be buried, but the beetroots and carrots give foliage interest as they grow. The crimson-tinted broad leaves of the beetroots mingle with the feathery green ones of the carrots behind the abundant and dominant bean foliage. Try the dwarf runner bean 'Flamenco' they will flow gracefully down the sides of the planter.
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Plants for your Planters
| To help you select the best plants for your planters. Here is a list of two hundred plants, with pictures, for planters listed by colour & season
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Vegetables in your planters
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In early summer, orange and white flowers dot the foliage before the beans appear. The beans can be picked over a period of several weeks. By the time they are over, in early autumn, and it is time to dismantle the planter, the carrots and beetroots will be ready to harvest. Sow, your seeds straight into the
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Vegetables in your planters
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planter in early spring or raise them in individual planters and put the arrangement together once they are established. The beans should be started off under glass, and planted out after the first frost.
If a Mediterranean flavour is more to your taste, and you have a sunny spot to site a planter you could grow the aubergine, peppers and tomatoes.
The variety of tomato to grow is trailing 'Tumbler' cherry. The tomatoes will spill over the side of the planter heavy with their fruit, while the 'Fruit 'n' Spice' dwarf pepper will stand upright above them.
With this variety, ripe red and yellow peppers grow on the same plant and add a spicy kick to any dish. To complete a ratatouille mix, a purple and white aubergine, 'Mr Stripey', would be worth squeezing into the planter add just that little bit extra to the planter display.
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