Urban Gardener: Container Gardens
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Leonard Moorehead: GoLocalProv Garden Expert
Gardeners of every stripe find themselves container gardeners. Who hasn’t kept a flower pot on the window sill to nurse along a Phalanopsis orchid? Or treasured petite African violets when winter prevails? It’s outside we go, the great migration into sunlight for carefree days in the summer sun. Surely those spider plants need trimming back. Certainly, urban gardeners are enterprising folk and there is a container garden limited only by imagination and opportunity for you.
A successful container needs only good soil and very important drainage. Sometimes plants do best in containers and are useful for those with a bit more room than the front steps. Let’s start with soil.
I gardened in a community garden with marvelous soil. An established garden, it was created from a vacant lot surrounded by Victorian houses. After the demolition of a fire gutted house, the Sanchez family bought the lot at a tax sale and invited the neighborhood in. The plots are not regimented. One early gardener spoke up. “I grew up in a communist country and everything was regimented, like the army. Let’s divide the lot up with different shapes and sizes.” Earnest and sincere people brought in bags of potting soil from their apartments and on the handle bars of bicycles. Eventually, a compost heap and shared loads of compost grew above the rubble and the soil grew with each successive gardener. A garden plot is a container, the only difference in this metaphor is size. Many herbs, vegetables, fruits and berries thrive in containers. You decide which size suits your needs.
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Italian terracotta pots have long traditions for good reasons. They are affordable. Their gentle color is universally acceptable or if you like, are fun to paint. This container breaths easily and in a short while, informs whether moist or dry. I have grown potted culinary herbs for convenience, by the back door, or because some herbs, such as bay laurel or rosemary, do best in direct sunlight for nine months of the year. Rosemary is a strong handsome shrub fussy about poor soil, yes, there are some, and is grown in pots in its native regions. Each thoughtful snip of foliage encourages branching. Topiary is easy with rosemary. Consider wiring the plant to guide shape and form. Yes, it is possible to root the large sprigs sold in markets for skewering. The scent is an end within itself, the subtle color and diminuative blooms pleasing.
Red clay pots too traditional for you? How about baskets? Nearly every yard sale I’ve visited has old baskets, some of very high quality, for bargain prices. Available in a huge array of shape and size, baskets make for great containers. I flatten out brown paper bags. Then fold the paper in at least 3 layers to conform to the basket’s shape. Line the basket and fill with the best soil you can lay your hands upon. I like to mix in perlite, peat, compost and loam in my wheelbarrow. The perlite and peat absorb moisture for those days when the beach or work demands time. Once filled, gently tuck the edge of the paper under the soil for a finished look. The paper will prevent any soil from leaking out of the wickerwork and lasts for entire growing season. This is recycling at its most basic. Brown paper biodegrades and will protect the wickerwork from composting. Wicker baskets can also be painted. Like clay pots, baskets can be moved without much difficulty and in the case of often free bushel baskets, often have handles.
Containers bring gardening into scale. I have containers on long legs. This brings the growing space much closer to the gardener’s height. Save your back. Endive, roquette, and multi colored lettuces are planted into my 4x4x4 foot container made of scavenged lumber. The height protects these delectable salad plants from maurading woodchucks and rabbits who also share our city.
Be creative. I mix colors, shapes and forms for effect. Enjoy yourself. Mixed types of plants are a natural deterrent to insects as well as animals. One or two seedlings might fall to damping off rather than all. There is strength in diversity. Flowers and herbs are good companions. Parsley, chives, and basil do well in containers. Concoct a stew of fish emulsion and water. This organic fertilizer endures as a convenient power house of nutrients.
I have wonderful luck with nasturtiums in pots. Children of all ages are enchanted by nasturtium. The foliage has the wonderful ability to concentrate diamonds of water in suspenseful pearls after rain. The strong summer colors of red and golden yellow blooms uplift the spirit. Nasturtium has deep roots in our culture as a snappy addition to salads. You can enjoy your flowers in the pot or in a salad. The seed pods are also edible. You probably will save the seeds for year after year. Nasturtiums will spill out of the container and spread across sidewalks and down stairs. Their long growing season keeps them major players in your container efforts.
Other familiar plants do well in containers. Tomatoes are classic. Place a support trellis in the pot when filling with soil. Tamp down and gently guide the tomato up the support. I rip up old burlap or tshirts for this duty. Pick a color tshirt you like and color coordinate. Jute twine is essential to all gardeners and here is where it is most useful. The jute can be but must not, be tightened. Jute composts in one season if not quicker if in touch with the soil. The soft brown color blends right in or purchase green colored jute for instant disappearance. Cherry tomatoes give the largest crop for the punch. They are just right for popping into the mouth for a treat certain to please any palette.
Children are often good container gardeners. Give your child a container to care for. Large seeds are good for small learner hands. Or select transplants and demonstrate to your child how to handle transplants, loosening the roots, dusting with rooting hormone, forming a good hole and planting at just the right height, stem and roots remaining at the same depth as in the small six pack. Offer children plants with distinctive fragrance. Scent is our most primitive sense. Happy memories of a nurtured plant will endure forever. Whenever I smell Lilies of the Valley I am brought to early childhood where mother was nearby, naming the plant and linking us together for decades.
Geraniums are a container classic. New colors and choices are endless. Geraniums like to be pot bound, they thrive when they’re crowded, a true virtue. Grow rose scented geraniums for their remarkable fragrances. Lemon and nutmeg scented geraniums are wonderful too. Scented geraniums dry well for winter potpourri or when steeped in hot water make a soothing tea.
Urban gardeners demonstrate their endless creativity growing container gardens. I urge you to consider the wide spread variety of shapes, forms, affordable, containers. Enjoy, explore your sense of adventure, plant seeds with youngsters and grow healthy bodies, minds and most importantly, the heart. Give love a chance.
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