Containers

 

I used to have a lot more containers than I have now. My city garden was full of containers and finding unusual containers was a hobby of mine. I found plants to be easier to plant, maintain, control, feed and look after in containers. I could control the soil and the food easily. Move them if they were not happy. They provided bright colour in shady places just by rotating them out into the sun and back.

In my Valley garden, I find containers far more labour intensive. They fill with ants. To place them anywhere in the sun garden requires a lot of time laying hose to water or hauling water in buckets a long way... down steps. The steps are more decorative than functional and are among the paths that were built for me to garden - they are not paths or steps I would invite visitors to use. lol. Plants seem to need more water in containers here than they ever did in the city. The result is that I have pared down my container collection to about 10 or so. And so far this year, they are not all planted. The ones that are were only planted recently.

Of all the changes I have made to my gardening style, methods, design since moving from the city, this is the most noticable.

Perennial Containers

I love containers! Eventually, almost anything sitting long enough in my yard becomes a container. I have many that I fill with annuals and move around as the season progresses. Containers are great for moving around for a shot of colour as my perennials stop blooming.

I would need more than double my annual budget, or to start more seeds (which is work and consequently, never happens here) to fill all my containers with annuals. Years ago, I learned that perennial containers are the budget friendly way to go.

Almost all perennials will do well in containers. I wait until I see what is coming up that needs thinning or dividing and dig when they are small. I transplant them into containers and leave them for the season. Shade containers full of perennials are fantastic for filling up spots under trees where you want a garden but there is nothing left in the soil to support the plants. Soil under my trees is all dry and root filled - impossible to plant it and expect the plants to do well.

Next time you are thinning and dividing your perennials, look around and see if you can't find something to pop them into and sit back to enjoy the display!

dwarf iris, golden creeping jenny and hens & chicks sedum 2011, all of these survived the winter in this container so this year, it is coming up again, a nice bonus

Aloe

For those of you who remember my little aloe rescued from Judy's breakfast table, you will be happy to hear it did not die! It is having babies!!!

Organic Container Gardening

 

I love containers! They are one of my favourite things in the garden. I have been known to turn anything into a container and I continue to use all my broken pots to grow plants in. The more they are broken, the deeper they get placed.

Containers are easy to do organically. I start with an organic potting soil and add a little bit of my own compost, making sure to keep the mix light. Heavy soil will compact. Do not plant containers with soil from your garden. Garden soil is too heavy for containers and becomes compacted over the season with weather and time. Roots need oxygen.

The compost I add to the potting soil helps to feed the plants over the season but containers need to be fed regularly throughout the season as well. There are a lot of organic feeding options such as fish emulsion or seaweed extract. I use compost tea. It is easy and free to make by steeping my own compost for a few days in a covered bucket of water placed in the sun. The resulting tea can be used weekly to feed my containers.

In Saskatchewan, we have long, hot, hot, hot summer afternoons that make containers a challenge. It is very hard for containers to survive without daily watering. Daily watering makes me feel guilty about my garden so I have developed a two step trick for watering containers. Step one is heavy mulch. I use straw. It can look a bit messy in early spring but the plants will completely cover any mulch long before they are full grown. The mulch prevents evaporation from the top of the pot and helps keep the roots of the plants cool. Step two is to water completely through twice each time I water. When I water my containers, I water until the water is freely running out of the container bottom and then I move on to the next container. Once I have done them all, I do it once more. I go back to the start and water until the water runs through. This doubles the time the job takes each time I do it but it reduces the number of times I water from daily to once a week, with the exception of the very small containers that I toss water on with the watering can almost every time I walk by in the summer. This trick has allowed me to plant far more containers than I could have managed if I was watering every day or even every second day. I am a lazy gardener at heart. Watering daily would reduce the amount of time I have to smell the roses!

Think Outside the Box

There are a million uses for a box in my garden; compost bin, plant stand, tool box, temporary planter, wood carrier, branch holder, flower holder, harvest container, impromptu chair - the list goes on and on. Then there are all the things you can make with a box shape; raised beds, cold frames, garden art framing, fences, A-frame climbers, shelves, gates and much more. So imagine my delight in finding this Mother Earth News article on 'How to Make a Box', it is a basic article to make a basic box that you can use to build a multitude of things in your garden. See what you can come up with.

The Little Things

This plastic pot belongs in a little green metal chair. It is the seat of that chair, obviously never meant to sit in. I really dislike plastic pots and only planted it because I loved the little chair. Last year I used the chair as a peony ring for a baby peony that was needing help standing and the pot sat in the shop all year. This year, every pot I am taking has been planted with plants I am taking. This little plastic bowl seat got filled with sedum, creeping jenny, hens & chicks and dwarf purple iris - yes, I have a spreadsheet! Since it is an awkward shape to sit outside the chair and the chair is still over the peony, I tucked it in the boardwalk garden where a winter killed veronica left a space. Turns out that it is my favorite little planter this year. It is full of texture and so many shades of green that it always catches my eye as I walk by. Guess I like plastic after all.

Warm Weather Fall

Since the snowfall and frost, we have had a spell of warmer weather move in. All of the snow is gone and I have been able to get into the garden again. Today I was using the extra gardening time to empty, clean and sort containers. All the black plastic ones will be used to move plants in the spring. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this weather continues for another week but in this zone, that is always a question in November.