Common Sense Container Gardening

With Spring and really nice weather arriving, I get in the mood for blogging about gardening. After all, for me gardening is right on up there with pie baking and dancing for my favorite pastimes! I enjoy most gardening activities, including planting seeds, admiring my flower beds, and tending to my various shrubs and  perennials. But I have a particular love for creating container gardens. I have taught classes in the past about container gardening, and enjoy sharing the notes and ideas I have learned about containers through the years. With so many beautiful containers and gorgeous plants to choose from at garden centers, it can sometimes be confusing to know how to put together those "wow" combinations that we admire. I have come up with a couple of ideas to help, for myself as well as you who are reading this blog post!

1. Stay with what works - Each year, I feel that I need to come up with different and new container designs. This year it dawned on me that perhaps I should use many of my favorite designs from past years. This seems like such a simple notion, and many of you probably already do this. Although I take pictures of my favorite designs over the years, I have rarely used the same designs in future years, even though some of these past creations were pretty good. One of my containers was even featured in a garden magazine, but I have never re-created that design, for some unknown reason! But this year, I have noted my favorite creations from past years, and will use these in my container collection this year. How easy is that?

2. Consider sketching designs for your containers- Although I have sketched garden plans for my landscape, I have never done this for container gardens! I had a thought that making a rough sketch of the containers and the plants I plan to use in them and taking them with me to the garden center would be helpful. That way, I won't be trying to remember what plants I am supposed to be buying for the different containers. Photos would work as well, but the sketches are a handy tool to carry with me. I have labeled each sketched container, adding the color of the container as well.

3. Take photos of container gardens that you admire, wherever you see them- I am over the

idea that I have to have an original idea for all of my garden projects, including my containers. There is nothing wrong with being "inspired" by others (okay, or stealing those ideas) for my own garden.

4. Place plants together that have the same cultural needs- Just as you are told to do this in your landscape, you should also do this with your container gardens. A shade loving plant, like an impatiens, will be happy being paired with a fern, a coleus or a creeping Jenny. But put that impatiens with a sun loving sedum, and either the sedum or impatiens will be unhappy! This also makes watering easier, as the containers and plants that need the most water are grouped together. Along those same lines, I appreciate shade loving container gardens, as they can tolerate less watering than those in full sun. And for those containers I do have in full sun, I look for drought tolerant plants like succulents and ornamental grasses. I have found also that geraniums, petunias, and million bells are colorful additions that are surprisingly drought tolerant.

5.Finally, even though I am tempted, I will not put together my containers until May 1.- I know this is hard for most of us container lovers, but for those of us in Zone 6 Asheville, it really is good advice. We will still get a couple of chilly nights between now and May, and those tender annuals can be adversely affected. If you are tempted to have some colorful containers now, stick with pansies or other annuals that can take the cooler nights. And instead of obsessing about our summer containers, why not take this time to enjoy our spring blooming ornamentals that are so pretty now? Take in the beauty of the dogwoods, azaleas, phlox, candytufts, and columbines, and admire your efforts. You have the rest of the season to love your containers! Now let's just hope I can follow my own advice!