Container Gardening by Cynthia Beacom and Becky Wivang
Does it involve a thriller, a filler and a spiller? No, it’s not C.S.I. It’s a Container Garden! Hunt County Master Gardeners want to feature your original container garden at a contest in the Heritage Garden on the 2014 Garden Tour, May 31, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. The garden tour patrons will vote for first and second place overall favorites of the container gardens on display. Cash prizes will be awarded to the top two favorites. Tickets for the tour are on sale at Steve’s Nursery, The Garden Center, Hunt County Extension Office or from Hunt County Master Gardeners.
Please bring your container garden to the Outdoor Learning Center at Heritage Garden (2311 Washington St., Greenville, Texas 75401) between 8:00 -8:45 am May 31, 2014. Contestants will register their containers which will be assigned a number (no names on containers please). You may enter several different container gardens. Garden Tour patrons will vote for their favorites. Contestants will return and pick up their containers at 1:15 pm after the tour. The Outdoor Learning Center will be unattended after 1:15 pm. Winners will be notified the evening of the tour, and prizes collected at the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service office on June 2.
Do you want to make a container garden and don’t know where to begin? The Master Gardeners have planned a Container Garden Workshop to be held May 10 from 10 am to 12 noon at the Outdoor Learning Center at 2311 Washington Street. The cost is $15, limited to 15 people, and registration must be made and paid by May 1. For registration go to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Office at 2217 Washington Street. Potting soil, pot, and plants will be provided.
Growing plants in containers makes gardening accessible to almost everyone. A container garden is a creative outlet limited only to your imagination. No heavy garden tools are required, and pots can be put on wheeled stands and moved around. Mix it up because you can create anything you want. Group plants requiring the same watering amounts, and leave an inch space from the top of the mulch layer to conserve water.
Looking for more ideas for your container garden? Visit area nurseries, Arboretums, or outdoor living centers to see plants and containers, or enroll in a container gardening class. Magazines and websites are brimming with colorful ideas. Type in “container gardening” on Google or Pinterest.com and a wealth of photos, how-tos, and examples will inspire you. Take a field trip through your own home and garden. You might find that rusty old tackle box would make an interesting container garden with a “gone fishing” theme. Maybe the kids’ toy box has old dollhouse furniture for a fairy garden, or little Lincoln logs, corals, and horses for a cowboy theme, and rockets and stars for a space mission.
You may choose the thriller, filler, and spiller technique. Plant a thriller (tall vertical plant in the center or back of the container, then a filler (bunchy, moundy, shorter plants around the tall one), and spillers (trailing plants that spill down the sides). It’s fun to hunt for a container, pull together features for your theme, shop local for plants and structures, build it yourself, and put together your plan.