Hudson - Litchfield News
April 23, 2010 - Home Improvement 7
Practical meets pretty: Container gardening for beauty and bounty
Container gardening is a great alternative
for people who don’t have the time or space for a full garden or flowerbed. Often, however, container gardeners may feel they have to choose between beauty and practicality. When you can only plant so many containers, what do you fill them with—flowers or veggies? “Both,” says container gardening guru
Pamela Crawford, author of “Easy Container Combos: Vegetables and Flowers.” “It’s possible to artfully combine flowers and vegetables in single, stunning, beautiful containers,” she says. “Practical and pretty can go side-by-side on your patio, deck, balcony, or even interspersed in your landscape.” Author of nine gardening books, Crawford
was a seasoned floral container gardener when she decided to tackle the task of figuring out a way to make vegetables look pretty in containers. “Did I ever get a surprise when the first 100 or so vegetable combos looked just awful,” she says. By the end of the growing season, she had planted 1,768 vegetables, all transplants from Bonnie Plants, and arrived at some insight into how you can make a container garden both beautiful and bountiful.
Here are her top container garden tips:
1. Less is more - Keep it simple
“My first container attempts included mixing
too many different vegetables in the same container. The results looked like a mish-mash,” she says. Instead, think simple, like one tall vegetable in the center surrounded by a few flowers. Upright tomatoes with begonias and coleus planted along the edge are quite attractive. Or, plant one tall herb, like rosemary, and surround it with a shorter vegetable, like lettuce.
2. Use pretty pots and hardware
Even tomatoes look good in attractive pots,
supported by nice obelisks or attractive trellises. Try planting one crooked-neck squash in the middle of a large, ceramic pot. Or plant a tomato in a Talavera (bright-colored geometric design) pot with an iron obelisk to support it.
3. Pick your pot pleasure
Almost anything can serve as a container for
your garden - flower pots, pails, buckets, wire baskets, bushel baskets, washtubs, window planters, even large food cans. Larger veggies, like tomatoes and eggplants, will need a larger container, at least 5 gallons for each plant. “Use the largest containers you can afford, and that you have space for, especially with warm season vegetables,” Crawford advises. “The plants will look better and last longer because the roots will have more room to grow.”
4. Don’t forget drainage and do consider color
Whatever type container you choose,
remember proper drainage is vital. Your container should have holes at the base or in the bottom to permit drainage of excess water.
Color is also a consideration. Dark colored containers will absorb heat that could possibly damage the plant roots. If you must use dark colored pots, try painting them a lighter color or shading the container.
5. Flowers look fabulous
combined with vegetables
Interesting looking plants like squash,
okra or crooked neck squash can stand alone in a pot. But others, like eggplant and spinach, look much better accented with flowers. Beans, lettuce, peppers and spinach are among the easiest veggies to start with in a container. Veggies that require little space, like carrots and radishes, or that bear over a long period of time, like tomatoes, are also great for container gardening. Steer clear of artichokes, asparagus,
corn, pumpkins and potatoes, which don’t look good, are too big for a pot or require you to dismantle the whole container garden in order to harvest them. Flowers that pair well with vegetables
in containers include dragon wing or wax begonias, coleus, fountain grass, lantana, lavender, pansies and purple-heart tradescantia.
6. Stabilize with centerpieces
surrounded by smaller plants
Floral container gardens usually look best
with a large plant in the center and smaller plants around it. The same holds true for combo containers that mix flowers and veggies. The large plant is called the centerpiece. Great vegetable centerpieces include peppers, tomatoes and eggplants. Collard greens, cabbage, kale and mustard greens make good-looking cold-season centerpieces.
7. Don’t break the bank
Warm-season vegetables
do much better in large containers with at least a 16-inch diameter. Since attractive, large containers can be expensive, look for less expensive alternatives if you don’t want to break the bank. Since many warm-season vegetables fall over without support, try wooden trellises painted in contrasting bright colors to help support the plants. “I used to avoid placing
vegetables in planting containers because I thought they were unattractive, but now I know better,” Crawford says. “Now I will always have vegetables tucked in amongst my flowers.”
- Courtesy of ARAcontent
on BEN and Natura Paints
129 W. Pearl St. • Nashua, NH • 882-9491
Hours: Monday - Saturday 7:30-5:30, Thursday Nites til 8:00
on Benjamin Moore Aura
Nashua Wallpaper Co.
rebates off our everyday low prices with this ad (expires 5/31/10)
Plenty of Free Parking
Division of Universal Decor Inc.
Spring is here!
NOW OPEN!!
Trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, seed, fertilizers, and all your garden supplies
Colorful Pansies Are In!
Open 7 Days!
TIMES ARE TOUGH!
Spend your grass seed dollars wisely. Don’t be
fooled by high priced seed coatings and fillers. Check out my superior grass seed mixtures.
Great selections of gifts and home decor in the barn
Kidorable Raincoats and Boots
35% OFF
while supplies last
April Showers Bring May Flowers
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors
3 for $100.00
Arborvitae 4’ Reg. $49.95
Dark American, Emerald Green, Techney
Sign up to receive timely lawn & garden tips www.jonathangreen.com
We Accept All Local Competitor Coupons!
175 Lowell Road (Rt. 3A) Hudson, NH 603-886-5200 www.countrybrookfarms.com
Closeout Special
Green Up!!
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26