By Valerie F. Reinhardt, Retired Horticulture Manager
Growing a lovely garden can be a challenge due to time constraints or lack of good gardening space. Many folks lead busy lives without much time to tend formal gardens and many don’t have much space. Even if both of those apply to you, there is a still a way for you to experience the joys of gardening—container gardening.
Growing in containers is becoming the hottest trend for the urban gardener. Whether you want flowers to brighten your day or some homegrown vegetables or herbs for cooking, a container garden can fit the bill.
The market is flooded with an array of planning options from lovely glazed decorative pots to garden planters that are waist high (making tending them a snap). The price can vary but a savvy gardener can sometimes get creative and repurpose items or find hidden gems at yard sales.
If you’re looking for floral, many garden centers sell planted containers with a nice mix of flowering plants ready to go. These can be pricey, but you can make them yourself for far less if you keep in mind the three things most of them have: thrillers, fillers and spillers. Thrillers are the focal plant, (a primary plant to build around) and can be in the center, the side or the back depending on the balance and layout of the container. Some examples are Persian Shield with its iridescent purple leaves, graceful grasses or tall spikes of flowers like Angelonia. These add a bold focal point while fillers tend to be rounded mounding plants like Diamond frost euphorbia, begonias or calibrachoa that add color and texture. Spillers trail down the pot; a few good choices are sweet potato, golden creeping Jenny or Silver Falls discordia. Choose plants with texture and color to create living bouquets to last through the summer into the fall.
If vegetable gardening is what you’re looking for, you may want to consider a stock tank that you mount on wheels for easy mobility. There are a multitude of large-scale containers on the market. Farmpark uses 100-gallon tanks, but the bottom half can be filled with branches, small logs and other organic mater to decompose slowly, which saves on the cost of potting soil but offers the capacity to hold moisture far longer than smaller containers. Farmpark often uses sheep’s wool to fill the bottoms of planters. Another reason to plant in raised containers is the ability to plant early crops like spinach, sweet peas, lettuce or carrots. These veggies grow in cooler temperatures in well-drained soil and the raised bed is ideal, easy to weed, and can be covered should an unexpected cold snap hit. Later, these spring vegetables can be replaced by summer favorites like tomatoes, peppers cucumbers and other garden favorites.
You can grow a nice potted herb garden out the kitchen door that can be attractive and useful. Oregano, thyme, sage and chives are all winter hardy perennial herbs that can overwinter in a pot. Parsley is biannual but will overwinter in a pot and can be harvested until late in the fall and again in the spring until it goes to flower. In late spring, you can add rosemary, marjoram or basil to the mix once the weather is frost free.
To start, you will need a container that drains and can hold enough soil to support the plants you are using. The key element to think about is how much space will be needed. Consider growing plants together that need the same amount of sun or moisture. Succulents make lovely container plants because they need less water and plenty of sun. Vegetable plants need more space and water than ornamental plants. The larger the pot the less often you will need to water. Also think about the soil you use—potting soil has a limited amount of nutrients available for the plant so you might consider adding nutrient rich compost, a time-release pelleted fertilizer or a water-soluble fertilizer to keep your plants happy and healthy. When watering, remember to water the soil, not the plant. Leaves can act like an umbrella, shedding the water away from the pot. If you use ceramic pots, remember to bring them inside during the winter because they can crack if left outside in the winter. It is best to store them empty.
If you are looking for ideas or have questions, please visit the Plant Science Center at Lake Metroparks Farmpark.