Gardening with Pat Duke: The perfect plants to pot this Easter

Most people have some time off over Easter, even if it's just a long weekend.

If I'm honest I  enjoy a sunny Easter in the garden much more than doing something outside the house. I'm supposed to enjoy visiting people or going to the seaside whilst everyone else is doing exactly that. 

One thing you can get stuck into is planting up some pots or refreshing tired pots now that the spring bulbs have gone over. 

In the garden

Pots can sustain a wide variety of plants if fed and old compost removed from time to time and replaced with new substrate of your choosing. They can also very easily be controlled so that you can create the soil pH to grow whatever you like. 

It’s the optimum time to plant lilies and gladioli in pots now. It’s handy that they can go in deep, say around 10cm so they will avoid other more shallow bulbs that might already be in there. 

Cover the bulbs with fresh compost and firm it down better than you might with other plants. 

These bulbs are very susceptible to rotting off and air pockets are the main culprit for that. Ensure they are well drained and they will give you flamboyant blooms through summer. 

The garden centres are filled with lily varieties at the moment and there are some whoppers which might need an individual pot. They can flower for a second season but will need some feed and a layer of fresh compost to overwinter indoors or be left out if you are in a temperate or sheltered spot. 

Scented varieties are available, as are Oriental and Asiatic lilies. Double lilies and Tree lilies are also separate strains to experiment with. 

If you have bought too many, which seems inevitable, they can be planted outside in a bed near the front as they strike me as attention seeking blooms. Plant them with good drainage and in some fresh compost with access to the sun and they should surprise you in mid summer.

On the Plot

If you’ve planted peas or beans recently, try leaving a few holly branches over the seeded area to stop mice, birds and other mammals digging them up. 

I’ve found as soon as they see the holly, the look of disappointment on their face is palpable. 

It can be demoralising to see your efforts literally undermined by mice in particular at this time of year. 

It’s almost as if gardeners need to spend as much time protecting plants as they do planting, watering and creating the best environment to thrive. 

Another example of how raising children is very similar and possibly why gardening is enjoyed by so many empty nesters. 

Good Friday is the traditional day of the year to plant potatoes. As a rule, larger tubers make bigger plants so they'll need more space to develop. 

There is much overthinking about potatoes and chitting them and different varieties. They are such a formidable plant that you can’t really make mistakes with them. 

Their biggest threat is blight which is a wind borne virus and something you can do little about other than plant blight free ‘Sarpo’ varieties and don’t water the leaves if you can help it. 

Rotating crops will help as will giving them plenty of air circulation around each plant and maybe finding a windy corner of the plot. There are sprays you can get but blight can change its genetic make up which makes it harder in this respect. 

Even if you've not already bought and chitted seed potatoes you can put them in a deep trench and they will, in all likelihood, provide you with a decent crop in late summer/early autumn. Like most things these days the growing of the easiest crop on the plot has been overthought. Just do it.