Container gardens

[willow_girl]

Who likes them? Who has 'em?

I put container plants across the whole front of our house this year.



There is a little bit of everything in there -- herbs, flowers, ferns, vines, houseplants!

[fishhead]

What kind of herbs?

[willow_girl]

Oh what do I have in there? Some sage I propagated from cuttings last year, rosemary that I overwintered in the plant room, basil I started early, and cilantro that was just direct-sowed into one of the big pots in the foreground.

I'll probably do another planting of cilantro, and I'm still looking for some seed for purple basil. It grows so quickly that I could still plant it now and have it ready to harvest by the time I start making spaghetti sauce.

Oh, there is mint and catnip in there, too, although the cats discovered the latter so I don't think it's long for this world!

Herbs do really well in pots ... most are tolerant of hot, dry conditions and will even take to growing in clay pots, which tend to dry out faster than plastic or glazed ones.

[fishhead]

Thanks. I'll have to try some basil and oregano this year in pots.

[romysbaskets]

I love planting in pots...I can move those guys around wherever I want them! Here our weather gets kind of weird, drenching rains and then...some days none and last year we had drought for over 2 months. I moved my tomatoes around and got a nice little harvest that way. I have planted up a lot of containers of all kinds of things too! Garlic which is slap happy in the black plastic as it helps build the heat, some well over 3 feet tall with scapes....lots of herbs, teas also plus strawberries. I have about 50 pots or so not in a special grouping like yours... I put them in strategic places for their light preferences.

I really think your pots are charming in front of your home and I think they are arranged so nicely too!

[Ruby]

I have planted this year in milk crates lined with card board. Yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, 3 or 4 different kinds of lettuce, collards, and gr. beans. Then in a 5 gal. bucket I have an heirloom tomato. Don't remember what kind. Then in a long thing that came from a store display I have 1015 onions. It's raining out right now but maybe this afternoon I can take some pictures.

[Taylor R.]

I've got some containers. A big hanging pot of strawberries, some herbs, plus my 'deck planter', which is an old dresser with the drawers planted and pulled out stair-step style. That's where my strawberry plants live. I also have a blueberry in a large pot. I brought it with us from our old house, and I didn't put it in the ground because I intend to take it with us from this house as well.

Your container garden is beautiful, willow! Mine isn't nearly so pretty, essentially just functional.

[willow_girl]

Thanks!

Taylor, I wanted to try the dresser idea a couple of years ago with one I pulled out of the trash, but after sitting outdoors for just a couple of months, it began to fall apart. So I had to junk it before I had a chance to use it. Did you paint or seal yours first?!

[willow_girl]

Was so excited; on Friday I found some pink Knockout roses at Lowe's clearance-priced for only $3!

They weren't in bloom, but I snipped off the spent buds, gave them a good shot of Miracle Gro, and transplanted them in compost.

As luck would have it, I even had a pair of matching containers left ...

I put them either side of the door, although I'm afraid if they get too big, I'll have to move them elsewhere!

[romysbaskets]

Interesting on the potted items...my potatoes potted are bigger than in the upraised beds and same with the garlic, now 4 1/2 feet tall? Black plastic really helps to build up the heat here which we need for some things.... I think I will try pole beans in them also....

Love the new roses, that will surely make your entry way like resemble an English home!

[willow_girl]

I don't think anything could make this 50-year-old trailer look like an English cottage!

I do love that cottage-garden look, though. And ours is a happy hovel, so hey, it's all good!

DBF only flinched for a moment when I suggested we paint the house purple! Hopefully we'll get around to that yet this summer ...

[willow_girl]

A P.S. to add: I've grown my pole beans in whiskey-barrel planters for a couple of years now ... they always seem to do well in them!

[Ardie/WI]

Willow, I'll be looking to you for ideas! DH and DD's BF are building me a handicapped accessible porch/deck and I'll finally be able to do some gardening!

[willow_girl]

You GO, girlfriend!

[Fat Charlie]

I've got two. I've got 5 gallon buckets with peppers, tomatoes and squash out in the sun, and a couple 4" HDPE pipes with salad greens and oregano on the northeast side of the house.

[Grandmotherbear]

At the lake cabin- I have 2 50 gallon tree size pots with asparagus. Have about 10pots 1- 4 gallon size I had beans in and 10 planted to carrots that were harvested and overgrown to weeds. 5 10 gallon containers with eggplants, 2 with peppers. 6 with loofahs. 5 with lima beans. 4 - 5 gallon containers with yardlong beans, 12 2 to 5 gallon containers with corn, (baby corn only grows about 3 feet tall) 5 -5 gallon containers with tomatoes. 6 17 to 25 gallon containers with blueberries, 2 with blackberries, a yacon, an olive tree, 2 peach trees, 1 fig, 4 apples in tree size containers. I also have 4 containers planted to oca, 1 to tropical yam and one to gobo and about 22 in sweet potatoes. And 6 1-2 gallon containers with Malabar spinach, and a small pot of sage, 5 of basil and 1 of mint.
In the city, 4 4x2 ft cement mixing pans planted to water chestnuts, 6 ranging from 17 to 25 gallom in sweet potatoes, 8 17 gallon tubs in lotus, 1 8 gallon container to water parsley, 3 17 gallon tubs to saggiterrium (arrowhead, wapato) 1 17 gallon tub to canna, 5 5 gallon pots to tomatoes, 4 7 gallon pots to baby corn, 7 pots to Malabar spinach, 2 to eggplants, and 4 to yardlong beans, 2 to lima beans. And 3 to basil. I also have oregano and a starter pot for moringa seedlings.
At the lake I also have my "blue garden"- that's 5 containers planted to blue flowers. Never got blooms off the iris this year.
Over time I have moved away from smaller pots to larger pots. And I have even more pots at the lake, but all they areproducing a bumper crop of weeds right now.
Edited to add- I forgot I planted 2 pots to ginger at each place.
The Google maps video and the satellite view of the lake show the 4 separate "pot" gardens quite clearly
Oh I forgot I still have a couple cardboard boxes to dig Irish potatoes out of- they work really well for growing the Irish potatoes in the dry season- winter- the bottom rots out after the rainy season starts and I put the cardboard in my compost pile. The vines died before we left on vacation and I returned from vacation w/ a bad case of shoulder pain so I couldn't dig them last weekend- it's on the agenda for Friday.

[randm]

When I was first getting into vegetable and herb gardening I lived in an area with rock soil and I never bought a tiller so I did everything in containers and raised beds. My wife likes having the herbs for cooking, we would grow dill, rosemary, oregano, chives, 3 or 4 different kinds of mint, couple kinds of sage, last October I planted onions, shallots and garlic in a raised bed that did really well.

[lemonthyme7]

Originally Posted by willow_girl

Oh what do I have in there? Some sage I propagated from cuttings last year, rosemary that I overwintered in the plant room, basil I started early, and cilantro that was just direct-sowed into one of the big pots in the foreground.

I'll probably do another planting of cilantro, and I'm still looking for some seed for purple basil. It grows so quickly that I could still plant it now and have it ready to harvest by the time I start making spaghetti sauce.

Oh, there is mint and catnip in there, too, although the cats discovered the latter so I don't think it's long for this world!

Herbs do really well in pots ... most are tolerant of hot, dry conditions and will even take to growing in clay pots, which tend to dry out faster than plastic or glazed ones.

I have some thyme (regular and lemon) growing in a clay strawberry pot (the one's with the holes in the side) and it LOVES it. I took it inside in the winter because I didn't want the clay to freeze and break so I had fresh thyme all winter. I have chives and oregano and basil growing in pots also. I love all your pots in front of your house! They make a beautiful collection bunched together like that.

E.T.A. When I first planted in the strawberry pot I had DH cut to length and drill holes in a piece of 1 inch PVC pipe which is inserted in the center and runs to the bottom of the strawberry jar. With that type of pot it is hard to get the water down into the bottom to water the lower plants. It seems to work great.

[Mid Tn Mama]

LOVE, love, love your pictures! I especially love the hot pink on the metal structures that hold the plants!!! I have things like that and are slowly planting them all in what I like to call "South-of France" blue!

Yes, I have plants hanging on hooks every few feet on the porch. Under each one I have a large pot so that when I water the top pot, it drips to the lower pot (Thanks to this tip on the Tightwad tips thread from Mutti)

In the top pots I put a start of geraniums in the middle of each. Around each I start seeds of things I am not sure if they will germinate (old/saved seeds) in the garden. If they do, I either transplant or leave.

I have started around the geraniums: anise, cilantro, chives, parsley.

I also like to plant nasturtiums to drop down from the planters.

Underneath in big pots, I have tomatoes in the middle of most I tie these to the top pot so they grow up. In other pots, I have started eggplant and usually start some ginger and lemongrass.

These pots really make the porch a cool place to sit in the summer.

[skeeter]

Only way I have found to be successful at container gardening is by planting in big containers, and not in plastic. Need the clay pots. It just gets too hot and even though the plants have enough water, they seem not to thrive.