Containers for IN the Garden

May 23rd, 2017

Container plants aren’t just for use on decks and patios. They add colorful focal points within gardens as well.

Flower pots, you might assume, were invented so that people without in-ground space could grow plants.

While that’s the main idea, there’s no rule that says decks, porches and patios are the only places you can use pots.

Plants in containers make good sense in many other spots around the yard – including in garden beds.

The most practical purpose is for instantly filling spots where plants have met an early-season demise.

Sometimes that’s a natural occurrence, as in the case of spring bulbs going dormant in May or spring “ephemerals” such as Virginia bluebells or bleeding hearts dying back in early summer.

Other times bare spots pop up after a surprise visit from voles or groundhogs, a root-rot death from a spring soggy spell, or a June heat wave that knocked out those pretty blue annual lobelias that you thought were going to last all season.

Planted pots can go right on top of the ground to give immediate new life to the nakedness… no waiting around for replacement plants to pop up or fill in.

A bonus is that when your pot annuals peter out in the fall, you can refill the pot with fall-interest plants (mums, kale, ornamental cabbage and such) to keep the show going into Thanksgiving.

Another ideal use for in-garden pots is under and around trees where the tree roots are making it difficult to grow other plants.

Sit a pot or grouping of pots on top of the roots, and your flowers will grow happily segregated from the big roots that would easily outcompete them in the ground.

You could surround these under-tree pots with root-tough groundcovers, such as liriope, pachysandra or barrenwort.

Or you could mulch or pave the surface and add a fountain, bird bath and/or bench to create a peaceful, pot-adorned sitting area – which really is a better use of space under a tree than grass anyway.

Buried pots help annuals avoid tree-root competition.

An alternative to sitting pots on the surface under trees is using wide, shallow pots with drainage holes and burying them between big tree roots.

This reduces watering by insulating the pots in surrounding soil while keeping the tree roots from out-competing the flower roots. The tree roots will end up circling around the outside of the buried pots.

Cover the pot lips with mulch, and you won’t even know the pots are there. Visitors will be astounded at how you can grow lush begonias right near the base of humongous maple and tulip trees while theirs curl up in submission.

A third good use for in-garden pots is breaking up plant masses – especially where two or three different types of plants meet.

Pots make excellent dividers that double as focal points – kind of like serving as exclamation points in the garden.

Especially impressive is if you can either match the pot to the surrounding plant colors or fill the pot with flowers that bridge the differences between the surrounding pots.

Example: Marry a planting of white flowers on one side and red on the other with a pot full of pink flowers. Or grow one pot flower that echoes the in-ground flower to the left, and grow another that echoes the in-ground flower to the right.

Try this pot-in-the-bed approach just once if you’re not sure you like the look. Gardeners almost always come away liking the “hardscape” effect that a well-placed, attractive pot adds to an otherwise bed full of plants only – even if the pot isn’t itself planted.

Keep in mind that you’ll still have to care for your potted plants as you would on the deck or porch.

Set above ground, wind will dry plants on all sides faster than if they’re planted in the ground. Check daily for water, and keep the soil consistently damp but never soggy for best growth.

Also be sure your pots have ample drainage holes.

And, fertilize regularly since the soilless mix that’s best for pot growth doesn’t have nearly the nutrients of garden soil.