My Favorite Container Garden Plants

It's been a banner summer for gardening – lots of sun, lots of rain, and the growing season started in about March, so that helps.

My beautiful urban garden is doing very well, as evidenced by the riotous profusion of foliage out on the deck. I even had to move several pots to the front stoop and even the patio to make it less crowded out there. And, while a parent should never do this, there are a couple of plants that are my favorites.

Corn in a Deck Garden

You might remember the corn I "planted" last year – i.e., the shoots I stole from a squirrel's cache in the lawn – and watched grow into large, healthy stalks that even tasseled, silked AND produced one tiny, stunted ear of feed corn. I was so proud. 


Well, since my deck garden this year was to be so much bigger (I added tomatoes, green beans and green peppers to the menagerie), I decided to plant corn on purpose. So I did – but I still counted on the squirrels to start the process for me: when the first little shoots of corn started peeking up over the grass from the squirrel caches this spring, I "stole" six of them and planted them in their very own pot. 


While only five of the little shoots made it, and they're not QUITE as big as the two stalks I had last year, they're doing very well. (Also, this year it's just known as My Corn; I didn't name it :)


In fact, in the last week they tasseled and then they started the silking stage...hopefully with FIVE stalks in contention the pollen will find its way to the 3 or 4 budding ovules. Clint said this year we might have to rent a combine to harvest all the corn. Smart-a$$. 

My First-Ever Tomato Plant

A newcomer to the gardening endeavor this year was a cherry tomato plant I bought from a "neighbor" (he lives on the parkway about ¼ mile away, so by country standards, a neighbor). It was quickly a favorite because I love tomatoes. And, how fun is it to watch them ripen and then pluck them right off the plant and gobble them down? Very, I assure you.

I think the pot the tomato plant is in doesn't drain very well (I had to have Dick over to drill holes in several of my pots this year) since the plant's leaves are yellowish. The tomatoes are doing well but the plant itself tends to look somewhat peaked...next year I'll have to be sure to drill some more holes in that pot.

To date I've picked and eaten about 10 cherry tomatoes; I'll have a few more to pick tomorrow morning, I think.

Bright, Cheery Zinnia Flowers

I love things that make me smile. I'm also partial to bright colors, which make me happy – ergo the zinnia plant I have is my favorite flowering pot this year. It will definitely be a yearly addition to my garden, now that I know how lovely these cheery, colorful blooms are. 


I wasn't prepared for the sheer number of flowers this plant would produce – and the myriad of colors! Various shades of red, orange and pink flowers sprout continuously...they're so happy!




Unfortunately, bright colors attract bugs...namely, the horrible Japanese beetle. My poor, beautiful zinnia plant was one of the hardest-hit of my plants when the beetles started chomping away. Thankfully, the spray I've been using has been keeping the nasty bugs to a minimum (along with Dick & Jane's pheromone trap) so my gorgeous, poufy blooms have come back and are much, much healthier now. 



I'm even entering a photo of one of my blooms in the Crow Wing County Fair this year...hopefully the judges like it as much as I do :) Regardless, I think this print will hang on the wall.

Orange Coleus

I think part of the reason I love coleus so much is I consider it the "gardening for dummies" plant. It's a hearty, thriving addition to any garden and there's really not much you can do to mess it up...full sun, mostly shaded...it's really a plant that does well just about anywhere (well, mine are, anyway). Plus, there are so many varieties and colors. 


My favorite is orange coleus (surprise, surprise), and the plants I got this year are from one of the "neighbors" so that makes them special. And, again, they're bright, colorful and happy. 



So there you have it...the update on my fun container garden. 

War on Japanese Beetles

Last month I realized I had a major enemy: the Japanese beetle. Turns out I'm not the only gardener suffering  this summer from the onslaught of these little carapace-bearing monsters; Dick & Jane's plants were also afflicted.

While I've been trying to spray my plants with some sort of death-to-all-beetles chemicals, D&J went the organic route and put up a Japanese beetle trap. Evidently the dreadful bugs are attracted to pheromones and head into the trap to investigate, where they then remain trapped until Dick dumps them all into a freezer bag.


That's right, when the pheromone trap gets full, he puts all the living bugs into a heavy-duty Ziploc baggie and lays them out in the sun, where the greenhouse effect kills them within minutes. Die, you nasty bugs, DIE!!!

Sorry.

I don't like seeing any animal suffer...but there is a very, VERY warm & fuzzy feeling that washes over me at the demise of these hideous beetles that wreak so much havoc on my lovely deck garden. And I don't feel the least bit guilty about said feeling.

My neighbors realize my fascination with the abomination because now they've started calling me when they empty the trap: "we're killing another bag of beetles!" So I hurry over to watch the little suckers writhe and squirm 'til their demise.

Did I mention I do NOT like Japanese beetles?

Oh, and while I'm over in their "lawn," I just happen to hang out and invariably a Yappy Hour ensues. The dogs chew on sticks, chase tennis balls and in general entertain us (as the bugs lay dying. Faulkner, anyone?).


Little Coyote Bait has decided he doesn't want to drink out of the water bowl anymore; he prefers climbing up on the fountain to get a drink. He's a weird little dog.

Many times there are drinks involved over at Dick & Jane's; the most popular drinks-on-the-house are mimosas and bloody marys. Of course, on a hot day there's nothing like a cold, refreshing adult beverage to cool you off...and even the dogs benefit: we give them the leftover ice cubes, which they greedily gobble up.

Long story longer: I'm glad Dick & Jane have declared war on the evil Japanese beetle population in St. Paul. Not that I needed another excuse to wander over, but, you know...

Japanese Beetles In the Garden

This is my third year with a deck garden in Saint Paul, Minnesota. If you prefer the proper terminology, I'm an urban gardener. That is, I have a container garden. On my deck. In the suburb.

In previous years, I started out small – a ready-made pot of petunias and a few other plants and that was about it. Then, my gardening endeavor last year got pretty complex: I added more plants than the year before and I even grew herbs, which I used in my cooking. Whoa. Look out, Martha Stewart!


Well. You think last year was something special? This year, I was even more zealous...more plants, more pots, more types of foliage and I even added actual vegetables to the garden!

That's right, this year I'm not just growing basil, chives, cilantro and lettuce (like last year); this year I added green onions, cherry tomatoes, green peppers and green beans to the mix. Go big or go home, that's what Clint says. So that's what I did.

Well, everything was going swimmingly, 'til all of a sudden I noticed some of my leaves (on various plants) were looking a little holey and chewed.

Of course, I thought it was because I found snails in my container garden at the end of May. I tried to "trap" them with beer and even sifted through leaves, stems & soil every day for weeks trying to find the offending slugs...but I only caught and executed about 5 of the slimy things, so didn't think that was the reason I had holey leaves.

While I'd seen various bugs and beetles on the leaves here and there, I didn't think much of it...until this evening. I went out onto the deck to check on my lovely plants and lo and behold, there were beetles EVERYWHERE, especially on my zinnias.

These greenish, round little sh*ts were lolling on my erstwhile beautiful plants and I could see the utter desecration they'd wrought with their little beetle-y pincers...the evidence was writ plain to see on the leaves of my zinnias, daisies and even my CORN!

I was aghast...and I started slaughtering the beetles. No remorse, no "aww, they're just doing what they DO!" attitude; no, it was all cold-blooded smooshing. I must've gotten 15 of the wretched bugs before they started flying off.

After cleaning up the mess (and tossing the lifeless bodies into the trash) I Googled "garden beetles" and learned through Google Images that what's ruining my container garden is the Japanese beetle. Otherwise known as The Low-Life Beetle Which Shan't Be Allowed to Rule Here No More. 

I read up on them a bit, and it seems they're attracted to rotting/dying fruits...while I don't have any ripe fruit to speak of (yet), some of the flowers on the zinnia plant are well past their prime and could be responsible for attracting this hideous beetle.

Also, I learned that in killing the beetles on the plant, less beetles are likely to come because they give off some sort of "get it here" type pheromone that attracts more beetles. So, if there are less beetles to give off said pheromone, then it stands to reason less of them will show up.

Regardless, I shall be diligently checking each and every plant for the little bastards each and every evening (this is the only time I've ever seen so many of them on the plants at once...which could be due to the extremely hot weather, or the time of day – it was after 8pm – though I've yet to see this many beetles in one place before. 

War. War has been declared. 

We'll see who has the best strategy: the Japenese beetles or this container gardener! 

Snails in My Container Garden

Yesterday as I was diligently re-twining the tender new shoots of my vining black-eyed susan plants, I noticed something odd in the soil...

Upon closer inspection I realized what I was looking at was a small army of tiny snails!

Excited, I ran to get my camera, my macro lens, the Canon Life-Size Converter EF and the tripod and started shooting.

It was only upon the upload of these pictures that I decided to use The Google to see just what, exactly, snails could do to a garden. Could they, for example, be responsible for all my holey coleus leaves?

Turns out, they COULD.

DAMMIT!


Of course, after my "photo shoot" with these little slime balls I'd let them slip back into the recesses of the soil so I couldn't find them again...but I'm now on a mission to hunt, capture and "remove" these garden slugs entirely from all my flower containers. Whether they evoke a sense of "home" in me or not (hey, gimme a break: I grew up on a lake), they're BAD business for my urban garden!


I don't even have the heart to post photos of my poor, torn little leaves here...so instead I've opted to show you what's going well with my deck garden.

Of course, now some of the pots contain little containers full of beer – for the snails, of course – and since I haven't trapped anything yet there's nothing to report. But I'm still searching.

 You can run/slime, garden snails, but you can't hide...forever.

My Urban Garden in St. Paul

When I woke up this past Saturday morning, I didn't have any concrete plans for the day – except to get up and get my dog walk in before it got super-hot – so little did I know what was in store for me.

Since the mercury was supposed to creep up towards the 90s I had Zada walked (we went to/around Lake Como) and back in the house by 9am. Along Wheelock Parkway there were a plethora of "Garage Sale" signs on almost every block – evidently it was THE day for sales in St. Paul. 

Leaving the dog reclining in the cool of the air conditioning, I hopped in the car and ventured back to a garage sale where I'd put a rug on hold; I ended up with a few more knick-knacks (spent a whopping $11.50), and then on my way home I saw another sign advertising plants for sale.



I had a genius thought: why not get my deck garden started? I'd buy plants locally grown from my "neighbors" (I'm from the country; anyone within a radius of 10 miles is a neighbor!) and save money, too.

Turning down an alleyway, I pulled up alongside a hand-painted sign ("The Greenhouse is Open") and walked into a beautiful little urban garden – complete with quaint greenhouse – in the midst of Saint Paul. A nice man greeted me with a smile and I asked for the grand tour, which he happily obliged. 

He had herbs, flowers, coleus and a myriad of other plants I don't know (and some I can't remember) – in short, he had almost everything I needed for my container gardens on my deck. Last summer's deck garden was my second foray into the world of urban gardening and I did very well, so this year I'm expanding yet again...*gulp*...and I've added a couple more items to the list.

I bought 4 basil plants and 8 cilantro plants from him. Also, I've added two newbies to the urban herb garden: a cherry tomato plant and 4 "big dipper" pepper plants. This'll be my first time growing peppers OR tomatoes, and I've never had to stake plants before, so hopefully I don't botch it. In addition to last year's chives (which came up of their own accord in March) and lettuce (those started peeking through the dirt in the past couple weeks), I think I've got quite the little herb garden growing.

Of course, after getting a tad stumped by my brand-new, already-tall tomato stalk, I came up with a creative little solution (also free :) to help support the slender plant. I don't think it'll last very long – as the plant grows thicker and the tomatoes start to weigh it down I'll need something more sturdy – but for right now it's cute and works very well: two of Zada's on-hand throwing sticks that together create a convenient "notch" in which the tomato stalk can reside.

Last year's supports for my vining black-eyed susans is in place for the peppers – we'll see if that works! It's all a learning curve.

I also bought some coleus from him, but he didn't have the orange ones I'd hoped for...so he sent me over to another local sale – where several neighborhood ladies collaborate and sell their perennials – and I got my orange coleus (plus a nice, hefty flower pot for $1.00!). 

Although I wanted to buy all my plants locally, I needed to head to Linder's anyway (for potting soil), and once there of course I loaded up on more goodies: a HUGE pot for my clematis (a gift from Clint – it's gorgeous!); some superbena; daisies; a couple varieties of osteospermum; colorful vinnias; ornamental grass and the soil.

Whew.

By now it was mid-day and in my excitement of the day – and all my purchases – and forgotten to eat breakfast! After a quick snack it was out to the deck with my gloves and the iPod for an afternoon of potting, re-planting, digging-my-hands-in-the-dirt fun. 

It was sweaty, hot work (thank goodness for the breeze) but once it was done and I could step back to survey my handy-work, I realized that I have quite the beautiful urban garden :)

Time will tell how this year's deck garden fares...but it's looking good so far!

Rain Is Good For Growing Things

If the human body is 70% water, then surely the plants in my little "garden" are approaching humanly grace on account of all the rain Minnesota's been receiving this spring and summer.



You might remember my foray into gardening last summer – my first, true attempt at keeping plants alive – and how excited I was that I not only had pretty flowers to look at, but also fresh basil to use in Clint's favorite chicken recipe.

Well, THIS summer I've stepped up my game.

Not only do I have more plants and variety, but I actually put all of them – except the monster on the front stoop and the hanging baskets – into their own cute pots (some of which I found on a recent antiquing trip with The Girls). I brought over the cute little shelves residing at the Mini-crapolis house to use as supports for all my cute, new plants, but after a few days' worth of rain the pots were so heavy I had to remove most of them. No biggie. I still think it looks cute.

So, what do I have in my little garden this year? Clint of course got me a couple of huge "ready-made" pots that I like – those are mostly petunias, mixed in with some other cutesie stuff (threw away the little name tags :). I even have the very popular and (this year) brand-new black velvet petunia. They're very pretty and actually look like velvet! But the rain we've had tends to mush them a bit and beware – they "bleed" a dark purple and will stain your hands when wet.

I also have geraniums (those haven't been doing very well this year), daisies (spreading like crazy), vining black-eyed susan, calibrachoa (in orange! they're so cute), a couple different varieties of coleus, red-leaf lettuce (donated by my good friend from her garden), basil, cilantro and chives. Whew. I might not be very diligent with dead-heading this year,  but in spite of that most everything is thriving...in fact, I'm thinking I'll have to split some off and add more pots because they're doing so well they might start cannibalizing everything. It's a good problem to have :)

Another good way to "stem" the flow of growth – especially with leggy petunias – is to chop them back and create little flower arrangements. It's fun to cut the different flowers and throw them into cute vases for around the house.

And of course there are the herbs that need to be used in cooking! Last year I put my 2 little basil plants into dainty pots that I then placed on the windowsill inside. While they grew and were healthy, they just didn't yield enough growth to use very often. I also tried a pot's worth of oregano but I just didn't like that one as much.

This year, all herbs are outside and are not only thriving, I can barely keep up with the production! Again, a good problem to have. My 4 basil plants look like they're on steroids; I've cut back my chives and cilantro at least 3 times already and they just keep coming. It's fun to have my own little "herb garden" for once!

I'd say this year I'm measurably better with my plants – with a lot of help from Ma Nature – and am enjoying the ambience they impart to the deck. (Just this past weekend Mom and I sat out there with our morning coffee and chatted...it smelled nice, looked lovely and is as close to a real garden as I can get in a town home.)

PS: Let it be known that Blogger was NOT playing nicely with my images. Not my best work in organizing photos on this blog.

Look Who's Keeping Plants Alive

Even though I grew up in the country, I've never gardened. You might think growing up country doesn't necessarily equal gardening skills, but MOST people have some sort of garden – whether it's for flowers or vegetables – but my mother hated it so I never learned it. Wait, I take that back – one year in high school I DID attempt a veggie garden of squash and green beans. It wasn't pretty.

Throughout my years living alone in apartments, I'd try every once in a while to purchase a potted plant for some living thing to share my space...alas, I was never able to keep any of them alive. I even killed cacti. Yes, that's right. More than once.

When I moved into my very own house, I got somewhat excited to try to plant around the house...I didn't get to it until the year before I moved out (Clint was nice enough to put in bricks to make little gardens for me!), and still it was only transplanted hostas. Thing is, the majority of them that I planted (~30 or so) lived! That was a boost.

Now we live in a town home, and the point is moot. I mean, it's already landscaped. BUT, you can buy pots. Then, you can buy flowers. Then you mix them together, and you can put them on your deck. It's crazy.

Last summer, I decided to purchase one of those ready-made pots from the Cub "nursery" (geraniums = hardy) and figured I could start there. Thing is, my problem is watering. I was never really sure how much to water a plant. Evidently I did "okay" last summer, because the hardy geranium lasted almost 'til the end of the season. 

This year is different. I got talked into buying some plants from my cousin-in-law's kids for Boy Scouts. Figured I could buy a pot and plant them. Not really sure what I bought, and of course they're nothing like I thought. Still haven't potted them, but they ARE still alive...

Clint even bought me two already-potted plants (he thought I could uproot them and re-plant in a different pot, but I like them as is). My friend then gave me 3 hanging baskets which I plan on planting this week. Thing is, all these plants are STILL alive. It's quite amazing. No, for real. They're ALIVE.

And there's more. For the hanging baskets we made a trip to Linder's for flowers which are hanging-basket friendly, and while there I got an idea to buy some basil (which I use in a chicken dish Clint likes). Evidently that's a pretty popular herb, since the store only had 2 little plants left. Of course one of them was extremely wilted and looked like it was on its last roots. Wouldn't you know, not only did it perk up, it's GROWN! AND...I used the leaves from those little plants in making dinner last night. What a feeling.



While I wouldn't call myself a green thumb (Clint's had to remind me to water the flowers and has also pitched in from time to time...plus all the rain we've had has helped :), I think I'm well on my way to being able to keep plants alive and healthy. So what if I don't even have a watering can (I use a beer pitcher that says "Clint's Tavern" on it), I think I'm well on my way to being let off my plant probation.

Who knows? Next year I might even up the ante.