The Seed Volume 33, Garden Tool Review!

Toolin' Around

"Give a boy an apple and he will eat for a few minutes, teach him to garden and he will eat well his whole life! When we teach our kids about organic gardening we give them the tools to build a healthy future!"

While it’s true that a determined gardener can do more with a rusty shovel then a lazy gardener can with a whole shed full of tools, it’s also true that when given the right tools for the job, determined gardeners are unstoppable. Coming across a tool that makes my work easier is like meeting a new friend, I’ll often find myself wondering how I ever got along without them.

The blanket of snow adorning our fair cities gives northern gardeners time for reflection on the seasons’ success and lessons so that we may continue profusely sharing our profound passions. In this spirit of sharing, Giving Tree Gardens would like to present this years cream of the crop from the world of garden tools. This month’s volume of The Seed celebrates with all our gardening friends a few of the handy tools that helped us achieve this season's garden accomplishments. 

Talkin' Tools! A Few of my Favorite Things...

Having the right tools for the job makes life so much easier!

The Sod Cutter

 
  Never do I feel like more of a superhero as when I brandish my freshly sharpened sod cutter and peel away at sheet after sheet of useless boring sod grass.  I’m fond of telling folks new to using a sod cutter that this is one implement that turns a man into a mule.  Though gasoline powered versions of this fantastic tool are available for rent or purchase locally, there’s nothing quite as satisfying to a gardener as using one’s own power and strength to cause a healthy landscape makeover to occur.  Reddy Rents on Hiawatha is the spot to find both the human and petroleum powered versions of this fine tool. 

Utilikilt!

"The Utilikilt offers a man freedom, comfort, and rugged durability, not to mention a nice fresh breeze through the hot summer work days.  Hard working guys need to treat their tools with care, the Utilikilt is here to help!" 

    Freedom grows in this gardener’s gardens.  Freedom to eat healthy food, freedom to enjoy nature, and freedom to know that I’m treating the environment with respect and love are just a few of my gardens gifts.  With all this freedom flowing from the garden growth, it’s only appropriate that the gardener himself feels as free. 

  Utilikilts is a Seattle based company that brings freedom to men everywhere.  As soon as I donned my first Utilikilt, I knew I was in love.  I’ve never had an easier time jumping in and out of my truck bed, stretching through the garden for those hard to reach weeds, or attracting attention from passers by.  Folks seem either impressed or surprised to see a hairy burly man, proudly wearing a tough looking skirt through the city.  I couldn’t have guessed at the marketing power of the kilt, but after handing out hundreds of business cards to folks who approach me because of the kilts, I’ve become a firm believer. 

The Weed Wrench

   Perhaps the greatest time saving tool I’ve ever found, The Weed Wrench is less a miracle of modern engineering then an ancient, time tested design improved through the strength of hardened steel. 

  A little leverage goes a long way could be the work song chorus of anyone bearing this tool.  Simply clamp the vice like metal jaws around the base of any weed tree you’d like to remove then lean back and let the 6 foot metal pry bar do the hard work.  I remove a lot of buckthorn from Twin Cities properties, and this tool cuts a 2 hour tree removal down to 5 minutes.  The Weed Wrench is worth it’s weight in gold, and from it’s price you might think that it’s made of gold.  If however you’ve got a whole mess of buckthorn trees in the back 40, then this tool will quickly pay for itself in saved time and back pain.  Check with Reddy Rents in the early winter months to see if they’ve got any slightly used Weed Wrenches for sale.  You’ll save a good chunk of change and the Weed Wrench is so strongly made that even well used tools will still have decades of life in them.

I like this tool so much, I made an instructional video!

Felco #2 Pruning Shears

I never go anywhere without my Felco # 2 Pruning Shear.  These are the handiest and sturdiest cutting tool I've ever owned, this garden helper will hopefully become a family heirloom.

Let me help you cut through the crap.  Using a poorly working pruning sheer can wreak havoc on your woody garden plants, and frustrate the heck out of any busy spring gardener.  The best pruning tools on the market are made by Felco.  Their designs have blades that can be sharpened and replaced, steel springs that can be easily removed for cleaning, and they have slickest by-pass anvil design available.  Of all the Felco products, the Felco #2 is my faithful companion.  Every time I slide this tool out of it’s belt bound leather holster I trust that the branches I remove will be cut cleanly and without crushing.  This is a great tool that every gardener would love to find in their holiday stocking.  Felco tools can be found at any reputable local retailer of garden tools and supplies.

The Toughest Wheelbarrow in Town!

At Giving Tree Gardens we need the toughest wheel barrows around, and there's none we've seen tougher then the Brentwood Industries Pro-Boss.  This barrow is a real mover and shaker with it's structural steel chassis and hardwood handles.

In the battle for the better barrow my 6 cubic foot Brentwood Industries Pro-Boss model is by far the best of the bunch.  Before I met this beastly bucket on wheels, I was sure that I’d be buying a new wheelbarrow annually because of the abuse that I bestow upon them.  This well designed wheelbarrow has thick steel legs and a larger then average hard plastic basin that won’t rust out.  I fill my wheelbarrows with the roughest stuff, broken concrete, bricks, rocks, and sand, and I barely notice the wear and tear on this workhorse.  Available locally at Klier’s Nursery, I’d recommend anyone considering a new wheelbarrow stop by to give this one a test drive. 

A gardener’s work is truly never done, so we might as well equip ourselves with the tools that make our work go as smoothly as possible.  Mother Earth Gardens, Reddy Rents, and Klier’s Nursery are a few local stores that work hard to offer us the equipment that can make our green-guided lives a little easier. 

  Any tool is only as useful as the hand that holds it, and our towns are chock full of hard working hands.  If you’ve got a gardener in your life, consider giving one of these fine tools as a gift this year.  After all, outfitting a gardener with good tools will likely pay off with healthy, beautiful rewards for years to come. 

These young fellas hold the tools that will be used to build the future.  With the huge environmental  challenges ahead we need to make sure and leave our kids with the best tools possible.  Organic gardening knowledge is absolutely one of the strongest tools that we have to gift to our children.

 


“Anything you can do needs to be done, so pick up the tool of your choice and get started”

~Ben Linder

  "When the only tool you have is a hammer,

you tend to see every problem as a nail."

~ Abraham Maslow

  "A worker may be the hammer's master, but the hammer still prevails. A tool knows exactly how it is meant to be handled, while the user of the tool can only have an approximate idea."

~Milan Kundera 

Photos by Russ Henry  ©2009 ,Text by Russ Henry ©2009 by Giving Tree Gardens, all rights reserved.
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Compost, It's Hot!

These days it seems folks all around me are taking bold strides to “green up” their everyday lives.  Whether we’re motivated to reclaim our health from the abominable agriculture and healthcare industries, or take back our wealth from the robber barons of the big energy companies, all of us are awakening to the idea that it’s time we followed that sage bumper sticker advice and remember how to live simply so that we may simply live. 

Composting is one of the simplest things that I’ve ever learned.  As a designer of Earth friendly landscapes and organic gardens, part of my job is to help folks implement changes right outside their doors that positively impact the entire global ecosystem.  I routinely testify that there is no greater teacher of natural methods then nature itself.  

So what does nature tell us about compost? 

 

In nature there is no waste.  Any creature lucky enough to emerge from the muck is quickly turned back into muck upon death, at which point another creature feeds on the muck created by the first creature.  Life, death, rebirth, I’m guessing you’ve all heard about this process.  When we compost we pay direct homage to this ancient cycle, and our gardens display the rewards of this environmentally respectful approach.  What I’m getting at here is that nature shows us that compost grows great plants.  Compost has always been the only sustainable means of creating fertility in soil.

Okay so enough about why we should compost, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.

First of all, I’m through with black plastic compost bins.  Frankly, I hate them.  Ineffective, ugly, and misleading to folks, these bins are ridiculous.  We already know that the act of composting at home is a way of copying nature.  Ask yourself, when was the last time you found a black plastic compost bin on the prairie, or in the woods, or wetlands?  Compost happens in nature completely unaided and unhindered by plastic bins.  Instead all the parts of the trees, and plants grow up and then periodically or seasonally die off to fall loosely across an open area where the rain soaks the leaves, and the wind and animals stir the whole thing up.  After a good sit on the floor of the forest or prairie, a dead leaf or fallen apple becomes soil.  At home we copy this process, in an open air compost bin or compost pile we mix together our kitchen waste such as fruits and vegetables, coffee, egg shells, grains, and bread, with our yard waste such as leaves and grass cuttings.

 

This edition of The Seed is dedicated to the hundreds of folks who've asked me how they can make a functional, affordable, and aesthetically pleasing compost system at home.  Giving Tree Gardens Russ Henry is proud to have partnered with another green thinker, Margaret Wilke to bring you two great gardeners thoughts on growing garden gold from garbage!

 Garden How To : home composting made easy

 

When attempting to adapt open air composting to the urban environment a little experienced advice can be handy.  I always describe the best urban composting system as the 4-Bin system that I learned from my friend Margaret Wilke.  Simply make 4 bins that are at least 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep each.  The bins should be made out of whatever re-usable construction materials you have around.  I love to use chicken wire and stakes because they’re cheap and breathable.  Make sure the sides of your bins allow for a lot of air flow, so if you make your bins out of wood leave a few inches of space between each board.  Situate your bins in a location that is easily accessible so you don’t feel like you’re going for a hike each time you bring a bucket of kitchen scraps out.

  If you are worried about ill-tempered neighbors or city inspectors, you could always plant raspberry bushes along the sides of your bins.  That way the bins will be disguised and you’ll have a peace offering to share with any disgruntled passers by.  Using your 4-bin system should look a little something like this:

Bin 1:  This is a storage space for yard waste.

Bin 2:  Whenever I’ve collected enough food waste in my kitchen scrap bucket I empty the bucket into Bin 2 and then I layer on a healthy dose of yard waste from Bin 1.

Bin 3:  After Bin 2 is full, I move all of its contents into Bin 3.

Bin 4:  After Bin 3 is full, I move all of its contents into Bin 4.

By the time you’ve layered and then moved your compostables from bin to bin a few times you’ve got yourself some real garden gold.  Feed your new plantings plenty of this fine homemade magic and watch them grow healthy and bountiful.  Give the entire garden a 2-inch layer of compost each spring in order to ensure a full season of growth.

Composting is not a science; it is an easy craft that anyone can master.  The only other advice I can think of on the matter is to be flexible, adjust the materials and size of the bins to suit your needs.  Don’t get hung up about your ratio of kitchen waste to yard waste, your yard’s a little piece of nature and there’s supposed to be way more leaves and grass cuttings then there are fruits and vegetables.  Feel free to put some soil or already composted materials in with your bins, this can help speed up your composting process.  Composting is easy, so don't let your scraps go to waste anymore! 

Margaret talks compost

Margaret stands beside the compost system that she's been faithfully using for more then 20 years in the picture below.  Composting is one of Margaret's passions, and her wisdom rubs off on anyone who visits her gardens!

Composting is one of my passions.  I think it is because it is a kind of alchemy.  You can turn things that people normally throw away into GOLD!  Well, not real gold, but something as valuable as gold to anyone who gardens.  You would have to pay a lot of money to get the kind of enrichment for your soil that organic compost gives you, and my bet is it wouldn’t be as good, either for the garden or for the environment.

It all starts in the kitchen.  We keep an old ice cream bucket with a lid handy in the kitchen sink. Everything that is plant based, that normally would go into the trash, winds up in the bucket instead.  Even with just two of us these days, my husband and I, we often have a bucket or more of material to take out to the compost heap every day, especially in the summer.  It makes us very aware of how much we are dependent on the products from the earth for our health and well being.  Food comes from somewhere, and it’s not the grocery store!  And plant material needs to go back into the garden to complete the God-given natural cycle that sustains life.

We compost as long as we can into the fall, and begin again in the spring as soon as there are any days above freezing. Actually, I should rephrase that. I compost as long as I can into the fall, and begin again in the spring as soon as there are any days above freezing. My husband just puts up with me.

Here’s what goes into the bucket from the kitchen:

All vegetable and fruit trimmings, skins, seeds, stems, leaves, etc.

Coffee grounds (very key because they have nitrogen that helps the compost “cook”)

Tea bags

Egg shells

Left over / day old / moldy bread products (no butter please!)

My family knows that Mom will have a fit if she finds a banana peel in the kitchen trashcan. Roses love bananas.

We add this kitchen mix to the compost pile daily and ALWAYS cover it with dry leaves or fresh green material such as garden trimmings and grass clippings (IF they are chemical free). It is amazing how fast those banana peels, potato skins, and broccoli stems break down and become completely unrecognizable! Eggshells take longer, so I generally try to break them up before putting them in the pile. If there hasn’t been rain for a while I occasionally water down the piles, but not very often. Once in a while I shovel some partially finished compost and/or garden soil over the top of everything to give it the microbes it needs to break down. That also ensures there are no odors from the pile for neighbors to complain about. Keeping the fresh additions from the kitchen COVERED is key to having an odor free pile. It keeps inquiring animals at bay as well. Also you won’t attract flies or bees when the fresh stuff is kept adequately covered.

 Above, the compost process begins in earnest when kitchen scraps are mixed with yard waste in Bin # 1

A mix of green(kitchen waste) and brown (yard waste) materials is ideal. I use everything from the garden EXCEPT weeds with seeds. I have learned the hard way that weed seeds will make it through most backyard composting systems. These piles are not usually large enough to generate the high heat needed to kill weed seeds. I am also very careful about which spent flowers with seeds I put into my compost piles as well. Your garden will be entirely black-eyed susans, for example, or purple coneflowers if you put the flower heads with these seeds into your compost. I generally cut off the flower heads and then throw the stems and leaves into the compost. Otherwise I just pull up over-zealous plants when they’ve finished blooming and pile them in a dark corner under the evergreens in the back of the yard where they are out of sight. There they break down but don’t get enough light for the seeds to germinate.

 Bins number 2 and 3 show us the various stages of waste becoming soil.  Bin number 3 below is full of healthy happy compost just waiting to spread its organic fertile magic!

As for brown material, hay without seeds will work, but is expensive. I have sometimes used oat straw that has seeds in it, the kind used for Halloween decorations, particularly if someone gives it to me free. If I’m sure the pile will be completely composted, then I feel okay about adding it to the compost pile. The sprouts of oat seeds from the straw are easily identifiable and pull up readily if a few of them make it through the composting process. But, I wouldn’t want them all over the garden, so I don’t use oat straw as mulch.

Once a summer I do a major turning of the piles. This is when a strong husband comes in handy. But I have done it myself, it just takes a little longer, since I have to do it a bit at a time, not all at once as hubby prefers (“Let’s just get it over with!”)

Margaret's compost system is the most functional home composting method that I've ever seen.  Notice how the posts are all slotted which makes moving and scooping the pile very easy.

Making compost in Minnesota has the advantage of the freeze / thaw process that helps break down organic matter without any help from you at all. It takes about a full season to make really good compost. Once you have the cycle started you can easily keep it going and will be supplied with compost pretty much throughout the growing season.

I have three compost bins that my husband built for me at least 20 years ago. They are about 4 feet across and 5' deep. They stand side by side with removable boards in the front of each bin, and also between the bins so that turning material from one bin to the next is not too difficult. I always keep fresh material separated from the 1/2 completed compost, and from the aged compost, so three bins are needed.

Once a bin is emptied by using the compost for potting-up spring plants or spreading it on the gardens, I turn the next most finished compost into it. This aerates the pile and gets it cooking. Then I turn the least finished compost into the just emptied bin and start a new pile. Composting fits naturally into the cycle of growing and life in the garden.

Try it you’ll like it!

 From the kitchen to the garden and back to the kitchen, Margaret's compost system is easy to build, fun to use, and it makes the best dirt around, just have a look at Margaret's gardens to see for yourself!

~Margaret Wilke

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Growing Power In Minneapolis

In our fair cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the gap between the haves and have-nots is so striking that it can literally be tasted. The difference in food selection and availability between low-income neighborhoods and wealthy neighborhoods is painfully obvious. In this world, far to few folks acknowledge that access to healthy foods is a basic human right.
Now's the time for us to stand up together and work for a better future, where healthy food is available and accessible to everyone.

Click below to read how Giving Tree Gardens has worked this growing season with an amazing array of folks from around the country to start growing community power, personal health, and food justice here at home!

CLICK HERE to read The Seed #31, Food Justice!

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Russ Henry and GIving Tree on the RADIO

WE'RE GONNA BE ON THE RADIO!
KFAI Radio Without Boundaries is going to air a documentary featuring Giving Tree's Gardens at the Seward Co-op and Deli in Minneapolis
This Thursday the 24th of September during the 6pm news!



CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE FULL 7 MINUTE DOCUMENTARY!

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The Seed Volume 30 is online! Fermenting the Harvest!

Harvest time is here, and organic gardeners everywhere have an abundance of food on their hands and plates! Organic gardeners are health conscious folks, and there's no more healthy a way to preserve your bumper crops for winter storage then through the use of fermentation!
Giving Tree Gardens would like to help empower folks everywhere to take their health into their own hands, click below to learn how to turn your fall harvest into a winter full of health with the power of kimchi fermentation!

CLICK HERE to learn how to grow your own HEALTH SUSTAINING KIMCHI

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Wild Night!

Russ Henry of Giving Tree Gardens made quite a splash on Wednesday night with his fall garden class at Mother Earth Gardens. Delighted class participants sampled 3 flavors of garden grown kim-chi and drank their hearts content of a delicious raspberry home-brewed beer all the while discussing the fine arts of composting, home food production and storage, as well as fall garden maintenance and planting ideas.
The class was so much fun that one happy pupil went home and blogged all about it. So impressed were we with this posting, that we'd like to share it with our audience as well!

Be sure not to miss the fun of our next class this Saturday!

CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT A WILD NIGHT OF FERMENTATION FERVOR

Free Class:

When: Saturday September 12th @ 1:00pm

Where: Seward Co-op 2823 East Franklin Ave S

What: Take a tour of the Seward Co-op’s new landscape with Giving Tree Gardens owner Russ Henry. Learn how to grow beautiful, bountiful gardens at home. We’ll talk about food production, native plants, garden aesthetics, soil health, habitat creation, composting, and anything else that you’ve got a question about. This is a great opportunity to learn how to grow health in your own back yard!

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Free Garden Classes!

Free Class 1:

When: Wednesday September 9th @ 7:00pm

Where: Mother Earth Gardens 3738 42ND AVE S MINNEAPOLIS

What: Get Ready for Autumn in the Garden! The irrepressible Russ Henry will walk you through fall plantings, mums, cool weather annuals, fall maintenance, winter prep, brilliant fall color, and ideas for what to do with all your garden harvest.....End your garden season with a splash of color, and prepare your gardens for another year of organic abundance!

Free Class 2:

When: Saturday September 12th @ 1:00pm

Where: Seward Co-op 2823 East Franklin Ave S

What: Take a tour of the Seward Co-op’s new landscape with Giving Tree Gardens owner Russ Henry. Learn how to grow beautiful, bountiful gardens at home. We’ll talk about food production, native plants, garden aesthetics, soil health, habitat creation, composting, and anything else that you’ve got a question about. This is a great opportunity to learn how to grow health in your own back yard!

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Garden Newsletter #29

Garden projects can tie communities together and add value and beauty to neighborhoods, Giving Tree Gardens latest issue of The Seed highlights how one garden in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis is doing just that. Have a look at this latest multimedia volume of our newsletter to see beautiful images of these new growing gardens while you read about the community involved garden project and listen to a 7 minute audio documentary by the blogger Katey Sleeveless!

CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE VERSION OF THE SEED #29

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Giving Tree Gardens, Seward Co-op rain garden project featured in The Underbelly Of The Sun Blog!!

Russ Henry (aka Rooster) owner of Giving Tree Gardens toured the gardens at the Seward Co-op with Ms. Katey Sleeveless, musician and blogger at The Underbelly Of The Sun. The two talked all about Rooster's gardening inspiration, all his great plants, attracting birds, butterflies, and bees, and how community gardens can deter crime and supply a neighborhood with comradery as well as fresh organic produce. Click here to have a look!

CLICK HERE TO READ THE UNDERBELLY OF THE SUN BLOG!

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The Seed 28: Salad Bowl Garden

Early this spring while the snow was still melting, I noticed how badly the water pooled in a low spot in my lawn. A large puddle formed that thawed to a thick slushy consistency during the day and froze into a chunky icy mess each night. One night while walking to the garage, I slipped and had a close call with the ground, and it’s right about then that my determination grew some roots in my imagination. I decided that as soon as the thaw was over and the ground was workable, I’d set out to reshape the land in my backyard to accommodate and work with the available melt and rainwater.

Folks all around are digging rain gardens these days. Not only can we use rain-gardens to filter the water run-off from our properties, but when we use native plants in our rain-gardens we can create bird and butterfly habitat in our own back yards. As I sat inside the warm house rubbing my bruised knee and plotting against that slippery back yard mess, the thought occurred to me that if I was going to go to the trouble of making a rain-garden habitat for the birds in my back yard, I might as well go ahead and make some habitat for my family and myself as well. After all food plants tend to require a lot of water, and so I thought why not feed two birds with one hand and stock a rain-garden with my favorite edible plants. Seeing this garden take shape in my minds eye, suddenly I realized what it was I was about to create. This is how the story of the Salad Bowl Garden begins!

CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE VERSION OF THE SEED #28

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The Seed 27: Container Gardening

Container Gardening

"Are you doing any gardening this season?" This is often the first question out of my mouth when meeting someone new in the springtime. Far to often, I get a response that goes something like “I would but I live in an apartment”.

  As an avid gardener who has himself lived in a few different apartment buildings, I’d like to once and for all dispel the myth that apartment dwelling folks can’t garden.

 Container gardens have always been an excellent way to bring the spirit reviving power of plants to folks who live surrounded by concrete. This month’s volume of The Seed is dedicated to bringing the garden to the gardener, as we showcase, the Giving Tree Gardens approach to container gardening.

Plant Profile: Aloe Vera

Aloe barbedancis

Why run to the drug store when you could heal your minor burns with the nearest house plant?  An aloe plant is a sheep in wolves clothing.  Though it looks tough on the outside, this african succulent has a soft, healing heart. 

 

Recorded human use of aloe vera dates back to the 16th century.  Though it came originally form Africa, the cultivation of aloe long ago spread through China, Japan, Jamaica, Russia, and the Americas. Useful in healing small wounds, burns, and helpful in treating high blood glucose levels, the medicinal uses of this plant are still being discovered today.

 

This tropical cactus will grow with ease in a houseplant container.  Just give it a sandy potting mix and water once every two weeks.  One thing to consider with most house plants including aloe is letting them grow outside for the summer.  I'll transition all my houseplants to the porch or patio slowly so as not to sunburn the leaves that are used to growing indoors in low light conditions.  Aloe is especially sensitive to sunlight and if transitioned outside too soon it will easily burn.  I give mine one hour of direct morning light every day for a week, then I'll step it up by one hour each day week after week until it's fully ready to be outside all the time.  The growth and health that results from this patient process is well worth the bother. I consider it a blessing worth working for to have a plant with such amazing healing powers growing nearby.

 PICK YOUR POTS

 Planter boxes, pots, and container gardens come in as many shapes and sizes as humans can imagine. Choose your favorite look and set a theme for your home or patio by using similarly styled containers throughout your space. I love terra cotta for its simplicity and sleek lines. I use varying shaped terra cotta pots throughout my home to create a visual context and flow, like a melody for the eyes. 
 In order to add a little spice to the mix, I use different styles and types of containers in addition to the terra cotta throughout the house.

 
No matter what your style, make sure that the container you plant in has a hole on the bottom. Proper drainage is key to allowing soils to dry between waterings. 


Any potting soil that stays constantly wet, will start to go rotten and develop unfriendly fungi. If the container that I’m using is exceptionally large, I’ll often use a plastic pot turned upside down at the bottom of my big container to take up some space, improve drainage, and make the planter lighter.

 POTTING SOIL

 Potting soil is the sustenance for our precious plants. Like any fine food, potting soil is best made from scratch. I find potting soils that include freshly composted materials never need to have any organic fertilizers added to them in order to keep plants happy and healthy.

When I need to make a batch of potting soil in a rush, I’ll use a blend of three ingredients in equal proportions, the first of which is farm-post available locally at Kern Landscaping in St. Paul. Then I’ll grab some pre bagged potting soil, and CoirBlock. The farm-post is an excellent source of plant food while the CoirBlock made from shredded coconut hulls can replace the use of habitat destroying peat-moss products. Together with the pre-bagged potting soils, this mix will provide a nutrient rich, water retaining, fluffy textured soil, which will provide for a full season of growth.
DESIGN

 

Laying out the design of your planters and containers is a fun challenge that can be a source of enjoyment and learning year round.  The easiest trick to making your planters stand out is to build in contrasting textures and colors.  I’ll use spiked, ferny, and broad textured leaves all in the same container.  I love combining dark purple or red foliage with bright golden green flowers or leaves.  Repeat or reverse these contrasts in several pots throughout your home in order to bring out more of that sense of melody. Often I’ll choose a tall plant for the middle or back of a planter and then I’ll place shorter plants around the base of these.  Cascading or drooping plants blur and soften solid lines when used at the edge of planters.

PICK YOUR PLANTS

 

Choosing great plants for your containers is as easy as choosing great plant stores to shop at.  I grow everything from tropical palms and bananas to rosemary, kale, and sweet potatoes in my planters at home. 

 

Have fun throughout the year and change some of your planters out seasonally.  Start with pansies and leafy greens in the spring then replace the pansies with heat tolerant annuals for the summer time.  As your leafy greens fade in the heat of the summer, change them out for herbs or funky tropical houseplants.  When the tropicals and annuals are threatened by frost switch them out for kale, pansies, and mums in the fall.  Follow up with a mix of evergreen boughs in the late fall for all winter long beauty.

 

 

Don’t be afraid to stuff your planters a little too full of annuals.  At the beginning of the growing season, I’ll use more plants then I’ll ultimately need and then thin them out as they grow.  This way I’ll have full planters for much more of the season then I otherwise would.  

  Call me impatient , but I think our northern growing season is too short to waste waiting around for our pots and planters to fill in.

 

Containers also present an excellent opportunity for northern gardeners to grow some otherwise not so hardy plants in our Midwestern back yards.  Friends of mine have grown zone 5 and 6 hardy Japanese Maples in large containers which they wheel into a garage for winter storage.  Bringing marginally hardy plants into a closed garage for the cold season is an excellent way of keeping lovely and delicate plants alive through our harsh winter.

 

HOUSE PLANTS 

 

I’m such a green thumb that I’d probably go a little nuts in the long Midwestern winter if I didn’t get to surround myself with houseplants.  In addition to your usual suspects of spider plants, pothos, aloe vera, and sword plant, I like to grow herbs, orchids, palms, tropical pines, and just about anything that will thrive indoors throughout the wintertime.  Some of my favorite houseplants have been handed down to me from family members, and friends such as a couple of Asiatic begonias gifted to me by a local business owner who hails from Cambodia.  Consider mixing two or more houseplants in the same container to create an intriguing blend.  I love the mix of my tall, spiked sword plant with some short round leaved sedum. 

Grow your own food, or raise a cash crop at home by setting up with a few grow lights from Midwest Supplies.  Many folks find they can raise fine herbal crops, or grow amazing tropical flowers inside through the long winter with a little help from some man-made sunshine.  I’ve seen Minnesota homes with tropical ginger and tomatoes growing inside in February.  This miracle of modern convenience isn’t for everyone, but if you have a very low light apartment, you may consider a grow light to help brighten your space.

No matter your living space, container gardening can help bring a full and verdant feeling to your home.  If you’ve been holding back your urge to garden because you’re landlord won’t let you rip out the lawn or parking lot, then wait no more.  Container gardens are one excellent way of greening up your urban environment.

~CLICK HERE FOR THE ORIGINAL VERSION OF THIS ISSUE OF THE SEED~

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