 Enhance Your Landscape with
Large Containers
by Connie Cottingham,
special to Gardener's Confidence Collection e-newsletter
I
love large containers in my garden. A collection of Japanese maples
adds life to a sea of liriope. Colorful containers brighten the cool
green shade garden and others accent the porch. The containers on the
side of my garden shed frame the view and create a living wall between
the seating under the open shed and the landscape beyond.
 Larger
containers (ranging from about 14" in diameter to whiskey barrel size)
take less frequent watering and have room for roots and fun plant
combinations. Colorful containers make a bold design statement, whether
it is a jolt of blue glaze adding color to a planting bed or russet red
complementing the house trim. A container in the garden can become a
focal point from inside the house too, transforming the view out a
window into a picture-perfect composition.
Large containers add
height, plus they allow enough space to grow sizable plants that can
create even more height in the garden. Imagine a tall conifer, fragrant
gardenia, blooming vine on an obelisk or ever-blooming rose as the focus
of a container planting. A crape myrtle like Red Rooster® can add summer
blooms, plus height, screening, even some shade, to a deck.
Blue Suede®
blueberries can produce fruit on a deck out of reach of those browsing
deer (won't that get attention during a summer party?) Add annuals,
perennials, herbs and bulbs for color and texture at the base of these
larger plants, which show off above the ground-level garden plants in
large containers and add drama spilling down the sides.
One
trick that can save on potting mix (and it can take a lot to fill a big
container): line the bottom with upside-down, empty soda cans. Whenever
you revive or replant a container, add fresh mix. And remember that
container plantings need fertilizer, either a weak solution while
watering or slow release fertilizer that can last up to 3 months. Have
fun selecting and planting containers for your garden!
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 About Our Contributor
Connie
Cottingham's writing career started when one of her landscape design
clients marched into the local newspaper office with Connie's latest
newsletter, announcing "You need a garden column and you need her to
write it!"
Connie is a columnist and blogger for Georgia
Gardening magazine and has written over 600 newspaper garden columns and
100 magazine columns and articles. Connie also enjoys a full-time job
in charge of public relations and special events for The State Botanical
Garden of Georgia.
An experienced Southeastern garden writer,
designer and speaker, Connie received her Bachelor of Landscape
Architecture degree from the University of Arkansas. After working as a
landscape architect in Little Rock, Northwest Arkansas and New Orleans,
Connie now gardens in Zone 7b Athens, Georgia. She is an active garden
club member, a Lifetime Master Gardener, and a member of the American
Conifer Society and Garden Writers Association. |
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Where to Buy Gardener's Confidence®
Collection Plants?
 Go here for our Garden Center Locator.
 Go here to download a handy reference chart of all the Gardener's Confidence® Collection plants.
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