LADYBUG SAYS... POPULARITY BLOOMING FOR CONTAINER GARDENING

Ladybug May 19

Container gardening is booming in popularity.

Container gardening opens the opportunity for creating gardens where plants do not usually flourish, or where the gardener desires more color in the landscape.

The fun of gardening should be available to everyone and containers make it possible. With balconies, patios, decks, steps, poolsides to beautify, containers filled with plants add that special touch. All of these possibilities offer gardens to those who cannot get into the garden. Just drive through the parking lot of Chateau Girardeau and take note of all the balconies with planted containers.

The term container is a broad one. Anything that will hold a planting mix can be used as a container from clay, plastic or stone containers that are purchased to wheelbarrows, tires, jugs, old kettles, and most near anything that takes your fancy.

Planter boxes, tubs and barrel-halves and window boxes are sometimes permanent outdoor containers. These containers are often an outdoor feature and require more soil than lesser containers.

Bushel baskets make great containers for vegetables. Some apartment dwellers have had lettuce, onions, spinach growing early followed by green peppers or broccoli, and that to be followed by fall garden vegetables.

One year we split a bag of potting soil and planted petunias, watered it well, adding a water-soluable fertilizer and it was amazing how they grew and soon covered the printing on the bag.

Information came too late regarding a three-tiered garden made from three different sized containers, or we would have tried it for a project this year. It uses a 16-inch clay pot, a 10-inch and an 8-inch one. The pots are to be filled to within two inches of the top with container soil. (Suggested was a good potting mix with peat and vermiculite or perlite.) The pots are placed one on top of the other with the largest being on the bottom and the smallest on top. Suggested plantings are red geraniums (takes a dozen), white petunias, white periwinkle and asparagus fern. Pretty when they all get going?

Whether growing plants in small movable containers or larger the same general principles remain. First, plants will dry out much faster than those growing directly in the garden. One must water them much more frequently, probably every day during the hot drying weather of summer.

Soil of any good fast draining and porous mixture is good, as long as it retains moisture. It is essential to provide a way for draining the excess moisture from any container. Since plants will be more crowded than in the open garden, it is essential to give them frequent feedings. Also, because they will be in a conspicuous place they will need continual grooming so they will look their best to visitors.

Hanging baskets are usually lovely as most gardeners know when they are purchased, filled with blooming, irrestible flowers. Remember that these containers are up in the air, exposed on all sides, so naturally they dry out more readily than those pots that rest on the ground outside.

Ideally, wire baskets lined with sphagnum moss about an inch and a half thick (like those used at Six Flags and at commercial growers for display purposes) are the best kinds of hanging baskets. The sphagnum moss keeps the soil from washing out and also serves as insulation.

Houseplants in hanging baskets summer well hung on tree branches in deep shade if they are not blooming ones. They, too, have to be watered frequently because of the fresh air which has a drying effect. Like most containers they must be checked daily in the summertime.

Due to some limitations, many gardeners feel they can grow only a few varieties of plant, such as geraniums, begonias, impatiens and verbena in hanging baskets.

A hanging basket, or container, may be made up of one variety or a bright mixture of several different annuals. Those that either trail or spread out, rather than grow upright, will cascade over the edge of the basket and look more graceful. Small colorful, compact plants such as begonias, alyssum and marigolds make a nice combination. In the shade try browallia, coleus and achimenes.

Have you noticed how many plant combinations in containers are being sold this year? You can combine your own for patios, decks or porches by trying geraniums and dwarf mariogolds, caladiums and impatiens; dwarf marigolds and Blue Blazer ageratum; salvia and petunias; vinca and dusty miller, miniature roses and begonias, etc.

As you drive around town notice which plant combinations you admire and make a note to try something different in this line next season.

The fun of gardening should be available to everyone and container gardening makes it possible.