By the time late February rolls around in northeastern New York, the people here are noticeably cranky and socially awkward after 4 months of freezing rain and snow. The gardeners I know (and everyone else I know, really) long to be surrounded by the color green again instead of the color gray. When I start to feel like this, I usually try to get in and visit my friend who works at the local hydroponic store. On the occasion of my first visit to the store in 2011, I was astonished at how many products they carried that were useful for me in indoor or outdoor container gardening. And a visit will inevitably drum up some inspiration for new container gardening projects in the near future. For example, seeing the turbid lettuce, cilantro, mustard greens and pepper seedlings growing at the store was nearly intoxicating. And I reflect on how we can provide for wildlife on a smaller scale than we usually think of.
I have an aunt who lives in Brooklyn, and she has a rooftop garden fine enough to be on the Prospect Heights annual tour. She has given me pointers on the art of container gardening over the years; the most memorable suggestion being to stuff the bottom of each
container with unfinished kitchen compost, leaves or clean plant debris, for the purpose of stalling moisture in the container.
Here is a pot of fingerling potatoes from my container garden last year, at planting time and two weeks hence. The set-up was devilishly easy- after getting the potting medium together, I pulled over-grown potato eyes from the paper bag of farm market local grown, organic and neglected potatoes. Half-hearted watering produced leafy green production reminiscent of a fairy tale about bean stalks, or Gremlins.
I like to grow vegetables, herbs and annual flowers in my container beds. Harvesting fresh food literally right outside our front door was delightful last season, and the diversity of plants that included fruits, pollen, nectar and bright color attracted a ton of wildlife visitors and residents. We had no aggravated pest issues. I would notice Cucumber and Japanese beetle visitors, but they never got to epidemic or devastating proportions. I think it’s because of the strong predator insect and arachnid presence we enjoyed, especially this fella:
Our native wildlife need native plants and trees to complete their lifecycles. So when planning for inground and permanent new plants, I prefer NY natives. There is something to be said for the sheer fun of annuals though. They grow rapidly and if you pick them you often trigger a prolific bloom sequence that can last months! Being able to pick the flowers is especially fun for children, and we mostly want our native perennials to complete their lifecycle without being picked. Many of the annuals are useful bird food after going to seed.
We grew Dahlias this past year in our container gardens, along with Rosemary, Sage, Lemongrass, Broccoli, Red and Green Peppers, 3 different Heirloom Tomatoes, Zucchini, Cilantro, Cucumbers, Basil, Green Beans, Kale, Lettuce, Sweet Potatoes and Fingerling Potatoes and unsuccessful watermelon. A multi-colored parade of insects showed up, and new birds came to our yard to patrol the insects. This Monarch butterfly was a late season visitor, the photo was taken at the end of September. He/she must have been carbo-loading before migration.
Container gardening is a fantastic way to connect with nature for those of us with limited space and/or budgets. Creativity, flexibility and attentiveness make the container gardening experience enjoyable and often successful.
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Thanks for the inspiration and ideas. I’m planning a container garden for a now-sunny spot where a tree was flattened by last year’s derecho while we use this year to smother a remaining invasive patch of ivy.
Martha recently posted..New Year’s Day
Wow, what a good idea for working with nature and her curveballs! Hope to see some photos, Martha, and have fun!
What fun! I want to add containers this year to my garden. I was given a bunch of deck planters that fit on the top rail of my deck, and I’d love to bring some butterflies right up on the deck with me. Thanks for the inspiration
Carole Sevilla Brown recently posted..Megan Crewe on Birds, Birding, and Bird Habitat
Ooo!! What a nice visual! You’ve been steadily increasing the butterflies’ presence in your yard all these years; now you’ll have ‘em dancing with you over Mint Juleps on the deck!! Nice. Will you put a suet feeder up with fresh fruit too? Oh, I can’t wait to see pictures!
Nothing like a container of your favorite herbs & blooms right outside the kitchen window~ Thanks for sharing your Spring dreamin’~
kathy recently posted..Sycamores to the Rescue
It’s like a good poem or secret ephemeral pool in the woods! All I have is pictures now… But soon, I can do it all again…
Jesse every year I go to a local nursery and decide what annuals make me swoon and that’s what I plant for containers…of course my veggies in containers are less and less as I use grow bags and they seem to do nicely. I cannot wait to see what annuals catch my eye this year…
Donna@Gardens Eye View recently posted..Seasonal Celebrations-Spring Fever 2013
What a fun process, Donna! Do you ever grow ornamental Millet? It’s pretty, though I often wonder about just growing the edible Millet as an annual, and when it goes to seed letting the birds do their worst.
What have you grown successfully in grow bags? I don’t have any experience with that, I’ve seen some nice online photos of strawberries though.
Jesse – thanks for showing how easy and fun it can be to create even a bit of habitat using containers – so do the dahlias attract any pollinators other than the butterflies? I have never grown dahlias because having to dig and bring in bulbs for the winter seems like too much work for me, but I suppose if they’re in containers you can just bring the whole container in somewhere…
Ellen Sousa recently posted..Norcross Sanctuary – Hidden Jewel of Monson, MA
Hi Ellen! Yes, I saw lots of different bees and dragonflies on my Dahlias- bumblebees, honeybees and what I assumed were solitary native bees. (I am just now reading the Xerces Attracting Native Pollinators book, identification of these amazing creatures is new to me.)
I hear what you’re saying about digging Dahlias up; this year I actually forgot (wedding, honeymoon, end of season collided) and so I’ll have that much more raw compost in that container, ha. I bought the Dahlia bulbs from a lovely organic farmer at my local farmer’s market. He was selling them $4 apiece, they were huge, I bought 2- a red one and a white one. Before I walked away he insisted on giving me 2 extra bulbs. So really? If I forget and leave them in the ground again this year, it’s just like buying an annual. They’re fun for the same reason Zinnias are, once you pick them you trigger a prolific flower frenzy, so every day you can bring fresh flowers with you and give them out to people all day. If I have a meeting in a coffeeshop, when I’m tipping the barista I leave money AND a Dahlia or Passionflower. (Guerilla marketing.)
OK Jesse, you have softened my hardened attitude towards dahlias, I always like doing patio pots with big showy flowers, but they have to attract some form of wildlife so I can have an excuse to sit on the porch longer on summer evenings with a glass of wine
Tipping with flowers – you are fab 
Ellen Sousa recently posted..Norcross Sanctuary – Hidden Jewel of Monson, MA