Plant an oasis for small spaces

Don’t underestimate the power of container gardens

By Jane Harris

Not everybody has the time, space or inclination to tackle an entire yard. Container gardening, however, allows you to create an instant garden for any space, big or small. Even a railing, wall or window can become home to a flowering sanctuary. Best of all, if your family moves, your garden can go with you.

Solve urban space issues

Sherle Raitt, a garden designer from Tsawwassen, B.C., creates urban oases on balconies, patios and decks in the Lower Mainland. She started her own container garden more than a decade ago after downsizing from a house to a condo. Since then, Raitt has moved her garden several times. Her web site, All About Planters, is full of great planting ideas.

“You can have a lush, full garden very quickly in containers. And your plants are going to do better,” says Raitt. Container gardening lets you position plants away from searing sun or chilly drafts. You can also showcase spectacular blooms and lush foliage by moving them around. When fall hits, move the container inside.

Plant a healthy garden

During the planning stages, use your PC to help you make the most of your space by finding helpful gardening tips, printing garden-organizing templates, surfing sites and organizing all of your information.

Microsoft Office Online has templates to download for garden budgets, garden almanacs, garden journals and plant lists.

Go to Gardenplans.com where, for a modest fee, you can download instructions for making planter boxes and moss hanging baskets or devising interesting container plant combinations.

A more challenging program by DiComp, Inc. called 3D Garden Composer also includes planning tools and a plant encyclopedia.

Decide what to grow

“It’s not just about geraniums and petunias anymore,” says Raitt, who grows perennials and large plants, including a monkey puzzle tree, on her patio. Tropical plants and even trees now find their way into many container gardens. Miniature fruit trees, slow-growing evergreens and flowering shrubs, such as miniature roses, can live in this kind of environment for years. “It’s all about getting those nutrients to the roots,” says Raitt.

Salad in a box: Brenda Smith of Stony Plain, Alta., loves growing corn in containers. “It looks great as it grows, produces well and looks awesome in the fall as it turns yellow,” she says. Smith has also grown cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, herbs, peas and lettuce. “I’ve also had many of these as hanging plants,” she says. Eggplants, peppers and carrots also grow well in containers. Garden Guides has tips on its web site for growing veggies in containers.

Visual and aromatic delight: To add colour to your container, consider pansies, nasturtiums, nicotina (a scented relative of the nicotine plant) and teddy bear sunflowers. Herbs, like lavender, rosemary, basil, chives and parsley, also grow easily in the tiniest space. Garden Forever, a site “for people of all ages, abilities and lifestyles,” has articles on container gardening and maintaining hanging baskets.

Also check out the patio/container plants category of the Royal Horticultural Society and I Can Garden, where you can search hundreds of archived articles after becoming a member for free.

free. Find out what plants to buy

When you buy seedlings, look for vigorous plants with bushy foliage and thick stems. They should not have yellow leaves, rot or twiggy stems. It’s best to purchase seedlings from a reputable nursery you can visit. If you’re buying seeds, shop online at McFayden Seeds or Stokes Seeds.

Judy Khemchand produces organic seeds from her garden on Cortes Island, B.C., and designs gardens for islanders. Khemchand uses containers to grow ornamental grasses on her deck, which she says are “quite hardy and drought resistant.”

Stay in your zone

An organic gardener, Khemchand recommends Seeds of Diversity’s listing of heritage seed houses in Canada, the United States, Britain and France. She cautions that staying within Canada when purchasing seeds may help ensure they arrive in time for planting and urges gardeners to purchase plants acclimatized to their region. “A perennial on the West Coast may be an annual in Ontario or Quebec,” she explains.

Get to know your space

Getting to know the environment of your garden will help you plant accordingly. Catherine MacKay, a self-employed mother of three in Surrey, B.C., solves her gardening dilemmas by placing containers on the patio alongside the family pool.

“It’s very hot in the sun and very shady against the house,” says MacKay, who has solved the problem with hardy plants: coleus in the shade; ivy and ornamental grasses in the sun. Another word of advice: “Don’t put the planters too close to where the dog is tied up, no matter how heavy you think the pots are — that was an expensive lesson.”