By Anne Davis

Even the smallest outdoor areas can be packed with flowers and foliage by using window boxes, hanging baskets, pots, urns and other containers. You can let your imagination run wild and create jungle scenes, English country gardens, embrace Zen or whatever your fancy – all within the confinement of a grouping of planters. The best part about container gardening is that it only lasts one season so you can choose to have a completely different look every year.

Shade and privacy can be created even on a small balcony by growing vines up a trellis or down from hanging baskets.  Containers made of wood are ideal, as the soil in them doesn’t become excessively hot.  Use a wooden wheelbarrow planted thickly with annuals, some of which cascade down the side or a strawberry pot planted with crocuses and miniature narcissus.  Give your houseplants a summer vacation by bringing some of them outdoors, but be sure to keep them out of the direct sun. Pots can be moved around your yard, even placed in your garden to create colour where flowering perennials are out of bloom.

Be creative when choosing a container. Almost anything can be used as long as it has drainage holes.  Remember to consider the weight of the container – it will only get heavier when filled with soil and watered.  It won’t be as much use if it’s so heavy you can’t move it.  Nowadays, lightweight pots that look like clay and cast iron are available, but for those who already own the clay and cast iron you can lighten the load by using foam peanuts (used in shipping) to fill the lower third of the container.  Another option is to set a plastic plant pot upside down in the base of the container. This option takes up a lot of the space while leaving room around the edges for roots to grow. You’ll save your back as well as money since you will only need half the soil to fill the container. The downside is that you will need to water more often.

There are outdoor potting soil mixes that contain polymers that absorb water.  These can be a real benefit, particularly when you are using smaller containers or less soil, as they will hold water in the soil for longer than the typical potting soil mixtures. Use more drought-tolerant types of plants as well such as hens-and-chicks in a shallow container. Perennials can be used also, take divisions and cuttings from your own garden or ask friends to save some for you. There are many new cultivars of flowering plants that have long blooming periods.  Check with your local nursery for new varieties or fall back on tried and true perennials such as ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum, purple coneflowers and veronica. Another approach is to plant a collection of ornamental grasses of differing heights that fill a corner of a patio or sundeck and relax you as they rustle in the summer breeze.

Right now the garden centres are gearing up for spring. Enjoy an afternoon break from the snow, go wander through the greenhouses and let your imagination and creativity flow.

Anne Davis is a writer, blogger, artist and photography buff.  Born in Quebec, she now lives in Kimberley, BC where she is editor of and contributor to the City of Kimberley’s Active Community Guide and webmaster for the City’s websites.

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