Gardening for balconies is a gift - 19/03/09

If you love fast-paced city living but hate your tiny back yard, a new gardening initiative could be just what you need to jazz up your surroundings.

Urban Gardens Week has been devised to encourage people to transform their urban gardens into wildlife havens using simple planting schemes.

TV gardening expert Charlie Dimmock is supporting the week and has some ideas to give your concrete apartment block or roof-top terrace the wow factor - and attract wildlife too.

"Wildlife wants flowers all year round, just as we do," she said. "Go for plants which give you a continuous amount of flowers. Some of the bedding plants are great and the more simple single flowers are better because they tend to have more nectar and pollen in them. Some petunias are quite good, as are marigolds, osteospermums and other daisy-plants like marguerites.

"If you go for plants with double flowers they tend to be less pollen-rich. Lavender and thyme are also good because they have a long flowering season."

The Ronseal initiative runs from March 30 to April 5.

Gardening for balconies is a gift - 19/03/09

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