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Apr. 26, 2012
By Cathy Adams
Cathy is a long-time writer and novelist with an avid interest in gardening. She has served as an editor at Southern Living and Portico magazines, a creative writing instructor, among other achievements.
Whether you farm-at-home a three foot wide third floor balcony downtown or three acres in the country, anyone with access to the outdoors can enjoy container gardening.
CONTAINER OPTIONS INCLUDE:
–Traditional terra cotta and decorative pots, including faux stone materials that are light weight and easily moveable, to creative and whimsical repurposing of ordinary house and garden objects.
–Windowboxes and hayracks
–Hanging baskets
A rusted iron bed frame becomes a container flowerbed.A tall urn adds vertical interest to a patio.Wooden flower boxes should have metal liners to protect the wood.
When choosing plants to fill containers, keep eye level in mind. Will you be looking down on it, up at it, or straight across it?
Upper story window boxes call for more dramatic groupings than pots on a small front stoop.
Metal hay racks with coconut liners are easy to install on porch railings.
DESIGN RULE OF THUMB FOR FILLING A CONTAINER:
–Thriller, filler and spiller-or “reach for the stars and the ground”
Thriller-a taller, vertical element rising from the center as a focal point
Good options include fountain grass, plumbago, large caladium
Filler-lower growing, massing anchoring the body of the pot or box
Depending on light conditions, group seasonal bedding plants such as impatiens, marigolds, geraniums, annual salvias, petunias, lantana
Spiller-plants that weep or spread over perimeter
‘Marguerite’ and ‘Blackie’ sweet potato vines, Swedish ivy, bacopa, calibrachoa, trailing lantana
Marguerite sweet potato vine and lantana spill over the edges of an urn.
THE BIG THREE-SOIL, SUN AND WATER:
–Around Birmingham, where heavy red clay prevails, a container can be a gardener’s best shot at achieving perfect soil
For healthy container planting, avoid using garden soil and instead invest in an inexpensive bag of commercial potting soil, amending with a few handfuls of peat moss, moisture saver polymer pellets for locations receiving full sun, and time release fertilizer such as Osmocote
–Read sun or shade requirements on tags when selecting plants
Full sun=6 hours direct sun (morning preferred) necessary for most flowering plants
Partial sun=3-6 hours morning or early afternoon sun, protected from hot late afternoon sun
Full shade=less than 3 hours direct sun per day, suitable for impatiens and foliage plants such as hostas, ferns and sedums
–As a general rule, containers need a good drink of water every day
Good drainage is essential-make sure that containers have adequate holes in the base and layer bottom of pot with small pebbles or broken pieces of terra cotta before adding soil
DIY irrigation is easy to install with inexpensive tubing and mister heads, available at home improvement centers, attached to a faucet with a battery powered timer. Before leaving town for extended vacations in summer, invest in new batteries!
Be water wise-water early mornings or evenings rather than mid-day to minimize evaporation
CHOOSING CONTAINER PLANTS:
–Study plant tags and take advantage of professional advice from local nursery and plant shop personnel to assemble plants with similar light and water requirements
–Measure containers and take pictures to help garden shop personnel in making recommendations
At the plant shop, group the plants on the ground to evaluate configuration
–Come up with a color scheme and a theme
Primary colors sizzle-particularly pleasing around a swimming pool and magnets for birds and butterflies
Bright primary colors say summer.
Monochromatic colors soothe-pastels, whites and neutral greens and gray create a cooling mood
Use varying textures and colors of foliage for interest
English cottage garden-an exuberant mixture of soft and bright colored blossoms
A grouping of terra cotta and stone pots creates an English garden.
Formal-small shrubs underplanted with one color flower, especially white
–Consider the times of day and seasons you are most often outdoors
Pastels perform in early morning and twilight and popular as spring bloomers
Strong colors such as red or orange perform best in mid-day sun and reach full potential mid-summer
White blossoms and silvery foliage reflect moonlight for after dark drama
Gold, bronze, rust, and purple react well in autumn sunlight
Jewel toned colors perform in autumn light.
Transition with the seasons–misty colors in springhotter hues mid-summerjewel tones for fallintensely colored pansies paired with parsley, lavender or rosemary for color throughout winter
–Annuals, perennials, shrubs, herbs and vegetables
Annuals (plants with a single season life cycle) include flowers marketed as bedding plants
Consider replacing and supplementing annuals as the growing season progresses-when lovely-in-spring petunias limp in July heat, pop lantanas in their places
An urn in summer.
The same urn in fall.
Planted with rosemary, pansies and parsley for winter.
Perennials such as small shrubs (miniature boxwoods, Fatsia japonica, dwarf conifers), ferns, or perennials such as lambs ears serve as “permanent” plantings, accessorized with seasonal fillers
Herbs and tomatoes planted in pots are functional for culinary use as well as decorative.
Some herbs, such as parsley and thyme, make attractive fillers when combined with flowers. Mints are marauders when planted in a bed and should always be confined to pots.
Pots of herbs placed by the kitchen door are handy for cooking.
MAINTAINING CONTAINERS:
–Fertilize on a regular basis with a balanced 20-20-20 or blossom booster plant food
–For continued bloom, dead head spent blossoms of flowers such as geraniums and marigolds.
Trailing plants such as sweet potato vines need occasional trimming to reduce weight on stems.
Impatiens and begonias can start to look leggy by late summer–shear them early July for a fresh start fall.
GOOD PLANTS FOR CONTAINERS:
Thrillers:
Purple fountain grass
Large caladiums
Plumbago
Fillers:
Geraniums
Annual salvias
Lantana
Begonias
Petunias
Impatiens
Dusty Miller
Coleus
Spillers:
Scaevola
Ivy
‘Marguerite’ and ‘Blackie’ sweet potato vines
Bacopa
Hellchrysum
‘Wave’ series petunias
Trailing lantana
Calibrachoa
Tomatoes and herbs:
Rosemary
Thyme
Basil
Sages
Fennel
Dill
Parsley
Small tomatoes such as ‘Saladette’ and ‘Mountain Magic’
Lavender
Kale
Small shrubs:
Dwarf Norfolk pines
Miniature hollies
Fatsia Japonica
Roses
Bulbs:
Plant tulips and hyacinths under pansies for a winter-spring transition
Tulips in a hayrack are bulbs treated as annuals.
Vines to climb railings or mailboxes:
Moonflower
Morning glory
Black eyed Susan vine
Hyacinth bean
Mexican flame
Mandevilla
Blue sky vine
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