If you’re lucky enough to have a garden that gets full sun, there’s a huge range of plants you can grow. Most flowering plants are happy in the sun, and here are some that love to soak up those rays.
Sun-loving herbs
Mediterranean herbs including rosemary, thyme, lavender and oregano all love the sun and will also grow in relatively poor soil, making them very easy to grow in any garden. As well as being useful in the kitchen, these herbs also have beautiful flowers that look good in the garden and are fantastic for bees and other pollinators.
Sun-loving plants
Some plants enjoy soaking up the sun and thrive throughout the Summer months. If you have a garden with full sun how about these sun-lovers:-
- Alpines - these are sun-loving, hardy plants suitable for rockeries, troughs, containers and wall gardens
- Lavender - being a Mediterranean plant, lavenders enjoy lots of sun and fast-draining soil - making them ideal for full-sun areas
- Sempervivum - these plants perform well in outdoor sunny spots but can actually survive in all kinds of weather!
How to be waterwise
Sunny gardens will need some watering, but it’s important to use it effectively, with water becoming a precious resource. Here are few simple ways to be more waterwise in your garden.
- Mulch beds annually with a thick layer of organic matter such as well-rotted farmyard manure or compost. This improves soil structure and helps the soil retain moisture, reducing water beds during dry periods. Ideally, do your mulching in autumn or early winter once all your perennials have been cut back and you have space to work in the bed. With a bit of luck, earthworms and other soil organisms will help work the mulch into the soil over winter. You can also mulch in spring.
- When watering in new shrubs and trees, please give them a thorough watering every few days. This encourages the roots to grow deep and is better for your plants than a little watering every day.
- Water in the morning or evening when it’s cooler and less water will be lost through evaporation.
- Install a water butt to collect rainwater for use in dry periods.
If you want to learn more about waterwise gardening, we recommend you to read our previous articles about this topic. It's important to know how precious water is, and how to use it wisely.
Get your garden looking great this summer with some sun-loving plants from our exciting range. Visit Lakeside soon to see what’s new!
