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Creating container gardens
1 Jul, 2007 By: Heather Pittinger LivescapesThere are few hard and fast rules in this blossoming discipline – just bring along your creative side
Container gardens appeal to a broad range of customers: the condo owner who has no land, but loves plants; the avid gardener who has landscaped every square inch of property and is now looking to add visual height to the flower beds; the restaurant owner who wants to liven up the al fresco dining patio.
 HEIGHT AND TEXTURE are every bit as important in container plantings as they are in bed plantings. Containers with different shapes add another variable to the design equation. |
Adding container gardens to your service repertoire can be lucrative, but time-intensive. Experts agree that you should visit the account at least once, and maybe even twice a week for maintenance. However, there are third-party maintenance companies you can contract with that specialize in just that, according to Dr. Terri Starman, who is with the Texas A&M Department of Horticultural Sciences, College Station, TX. She notes that container gardens are becoming increasingly popular.
"They're really popular around pools, too," she says. "But having planters as focal points, in either the landscape or even the tabletop, lets the garden become a 'living centerpiece' of an outdoor kitchen and patio."
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Greg Stack, a horticulturist with the University of Illinois Extension/Urbana-Champaign, notes that planters are becoming an increasingly common sight along public and commercial parkways, as well. "Chicago is doing a lot of this in its parkways," he offers as an example.
Open-Ended Design
The experts agree that designing a container garden offers a lot of freedom. With the exception of deep tap root or invasive plants, the combinations are endless.
 Try to contain yourself |
While there is a proportional guideline (brought over from the florist industry) of having your plant be 1.5 to two times the size of the container, Starman points out that it's more about what looks proportional and balanced to the eye, not the measuring stick.
"The one thing to put out there is to make sure something's unique," she says. "Keep in mind that what stands out on someone's balcony may be different that what will stand out in a parkway as you drive past as 50 miles per hour. Not that everything has to be unique, but there should be one 'thriller' in there — an amaryllis or catacomb flower, for example."
 Container basics |
Bobbie Schwartz, owner of Bobbie's Green Thumb in Shaker Heights, OH, advises looking for plants that are at least one or two zones hardier than where they'll be placed.
"I also look for plants that will not need frequent deadheading, particularly if they are difficult to reach — window boxes, for instance," Schwartz adds. "Another factor in maintenance is picking the plants for the site. If the site is very sunny, the containers will dry out quickly; therefore, I look for drought-tolerant plants."
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