‘Tis The Season: Top 5 Tips for Fall Container Gardening
Welcome to my weekly fall gardening blog! Here you will find simple ideas that make a big impact. I believe that anything is easier with the wisdom and experience of others. And this blog conversation is just that: for beginners to ask questions and experienced gardeners – yep, you chime in too! - to help the beginners. No question is too basic: we are here to help.
Many of you asked about container gardening, whether you are short on space or maybe don’t have a lot of time. Here are my top 5 tips for sprucing up your space in Fall with plants in containers.
1. Take stock of your containers. Yep, bring ‘em all out of your closets. You probably have more than you think (or at least I sure did).
2. Use some of your older pots and plant veggies. Get started with veggie seeds: cool weather vegetables like Swiss Chard, Spinach, Kale, Peas, and Radishes and plant them in containers. The same tips apply that you saw me offering in my live TV segments in the Spring. Kids love to help! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adVJ2okGLvQ&feature=channel_page
Aster and goldenrod
3. For flowers, put together combinations of 2-3 colors you like. You can purchase annuals like pansies and violas for containers (which are even better with some spring-flowering bulbs buried underneath). I also like perennials (flowers dormant in winter that return year after year) in containers. Mums, aster, and goldenrod some of my favorite fall perennials for part to full sun. ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum is great for dry, sunny conditions. In shade, try anemone. For a month-by-month picture guide to the most fail-proof perennials, see my Bloom Calendar: http://www.rebeccaplants.com/gardening.asp
4. Never underestimate the impact of varying heights. For example, an ornamental grass, evergreen shrub, or tree is fabulous in a container year-round. I just picked up azalea and nandina for my patio.
Nandina with two azalea
The plants will only grow to as large as the pot you put them in.
5. Drainage is important – have holes in your container and a saucer underneath to catch the water. Water when the soil starts to dry (e.g. every 2-3 days depending on the amount of sun and the plant tag’s recommendations).
You can use these tips at home or spruce up the entrance to your neighborhood school. For more tips on creating a learning garden at your child’s school, check out my latest free guide, Outdoor Classrooms: The Basics, at http://www.rebeccaplants.com/outdoorliving.asp#classroom
Fall Containers Quick Supplies List
When you hit your favorite nursery or big box garden center, here is a handy list of what you may need:
1 extra large bag potting mix
3-5 packages of vegetable seeds (one type of vegetable per container)
3-5 mums in different colors
1 large ornamental grass
2-3 evergreen shrubs
6-9 containers (depending on how many you have at home!)
Optional: gardening gloves and a hand shovel
May you find happiness in gardening and involve little ones as much as possible! Let us know what is working for you this fall and what questions you still have.
Rebecca
Tags: container gardening, fall container gardening, fall gardening, fall perennials, gardening, gardening for beginners, how to garden, how to plant, perennials
September 15th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
I’m inspired! Thanks, Rebecca!
September 16th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Oooh, Rebecca, one of my favourite things… container plantings! They really are the perfect thing to add a lot of pizazz without a whole lot of effort.
I love container plantings with some of my gardening clients to fill in those gaps in the flowerbeds after cutting back perennials in the Fall. Just set the container in your flowerbed and it’s a low-effort, low-cost bit of garden art!
I have totally fallen in love with ornamental grasses in containers on a patio or deck. At our own home, we have 3 all-weather containers (that we got at Lowe’s a couple years ago) that we plant annual Purple Fountain Grass in each Spring and put them around our low seating area on the deck. By now, they’re lush rustling pillars of purple/green that make it feel like we’re sitting right in the middle of a flowerbed!
September 17th, 2009 at 7:18 am
Thanks Camille and Starla! I LOVE sitting on Starla’s back porch among the purple fountain grass. Her low, comfy, conversation chairs are around a cocktail table that doubles as a fire pit (how fabulous is that?!). What a simple and easy tip - three containers with fountain grass - for an instant garden conversation area.
My mind also wandered this morning happily to picturing Starla’s other tip: an accent container in a bed where perennials are dormant; very cool! Since I’m in an easy gardening mood of putting a lot of shrubs and trees in containers as filler, I’m thinking of using a winter blooming, yet still evergreen camellia in a couple of places. Although a container with a perennial fountain grass surrounded by some pansies and violas would be lovely too.
Today, it’s raining, and for some reason it’s making me happy. I need to write today, and there is something romantic to me about the rain (e.g. in Paris, when it rains, it’s still lovely, so why not here too)? It’s been dry here for several days, and the day-long drizzle is a gift to the plants and to me so I can focus on other things, yet still look out the window to appreciate the water nourishing my plants.
Here’s to helping each other. Keep bring the questions and tips!
September 17th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Rebecca, I’m grinning, as usual, at your response — because now *I* am pining for a winterblooming Camellia container plant in my own garden… love it!
Containers are so much fun because you can use their colors as either a blending complimentary color or as a whimsical splash of contrasting stand-out color… especially welcome during the late Fall and Winter months!
Reminds me of when one of my nieces was still quite young, and we had a container-painting party with her. Lots of different kid-safe paints and paintbrushes and she had total creative freedom to decorate her containers in any way she wanted. The grown-ups had fun getting competitive about which of their designs was the coolest.
My niece is 16 years old now, and I still have such a vividly clear memory of that container-planting event!
Btw.. I’m loving the rainy day too. Writing proposals, getting caught up on some office work, letting myself start setting emotionally into Fall. mmmmm.
September 17th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Love the container painting event - great fall birthday party idea for kids - or for any day. I have to say that I love my veggies in containers - it’s so simple. And because I turned over the veggie gardening to my kids, I think I’ll turn over the container decorating to them! It’s such as obvious activity, but I think mommy (yes I know, the irony of the outdoor mom protecting her decorative containers) didn’t want to upset the “just so” look of her garden. But, the veggie garden and “secret garden” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5lvLaV47Kc&feature=channel_page) are theirs! Fabulous! I now know what we can do on this rainy day after homework is done. Get out the paints
Thanks Starla!
September 17th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
This is great, Rebecca!
You know, I feel rather silly and I’m probably the last person on Earth to find out, but I didn’t know that you can / should plant certain things (like kale) in the Fall! I knew about some kinds of bulbs, but not about veggies. I guess I just always thought everything was planted in the Spring!
When are you able to “harvest” these Fall veggies?
September 17th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Julia, see, we learn something new every day! The way I think about it, the time to plant the veggies has more to do with the temperature - e.g. the cool weather vegetables that do well in the spring will do well in the fall too. My rule of thumb for harvesting veggies is about two months after you plant. You’ll really know just by going and tasting it. For example, with spinach, if you harvest when the leaves are small, you’ll have ‘baby greens’ and super small will be ‘micro greens.’ How cute is that? In the spring, we got so excited to harvest peas, that we were eating the tiniest peas for awhile, but we still derived the same satisfaction and excitement tasting them ‘tiny’ as we did big. Some things get too tough or bitter the longer you wait. The good news, is when you pick your veggies, the plant will produce more.
This summer, I learned that I liked picking some green peppers early, when they are a deep purple on the outside and green on the inside (so pretty for salads!), harvesting some green, and then some late when they are orange or red. It was fun - and tasty - having different experiences off of the same plant!