|
I like the Garden Cottage look in our gardens and as I get older I have to find easier ways to garden and keep colorful annual flowers in my garden. I need to have them where it is easier for me to maintain and water them. Plus I have virtually given up on wire baskets hanging on my pergola because the first time I leave for a week we seem to have major days of global warming sun, no rain and those poor planters are dead as can be when I return.
I can usually get my daughter in law to water things that are close by when I pop off to do some sightseeing or painting somewhere, but I can not get her to become my garden maintainer and that is fine.
However, over the years I have accumulated many wires hanging baskets that are now empty and lying in a corner of the green house, plus I am a frugal gardener which is another word for a cheapskate recycler. Also for some reason we are collectors of odd pieces of wood which apparently is a hangover from our days of building, building and more building and over the years we have dragged a lot of stuff back here to our miscellaneous sheds.
Here is what I do with them. I love poles, posts, painted or unpainted, the odd table leg, old chairs with no cane bottoms in them. These are the starts of my plant perches. I love the ones which are painted with the paint chipped and peeling off. I have been known to stop at people’s garbage on the side of the road when I spot one and put it into my car.
Once I have either planted my various annuals in pots in my greenhouse or bought what I want and they are big enough to be transplanted to my wire baskets I find a spot I want to put them in. I now make sure they are within reach of my gardening hoses.
I then dig in my post or pole to the height I want the top of the post or pole to be at. Some times I will put a group of three together all about two or three feet apart at various heights.
I now take some heavy duty staples and placing the wire basket on each post or pole I hammer the heavy duty staples over three of the wires at the bottom of the basket in various places, which is usually in a triangular design so the basket will not move in a heavy wind.
Once I am satisfied with the stability of my post and basket I now line it with some coco matting and I make some small holes in the sides of the coco matting so I can fit some side growing plants into the wire planter into the dirt which I next put into the planter.
I always put in some good organic time release feed into the dirt which is also amended with some vermiculite which helps to keep my maintenance to just watering.
Now I start to put in my plants. I want some trailing plants, I want color, texture in the leaves, plants that will tolerate some drought just in case I am gone for a couple of days and I cannot rely on a garden “sitter”. These could include Lantana, salvia, Artemisia, sweet potato vine, Angelonia, Calibrachoa, zinnia, cleome and others.
Another nice touch is to plant some type of climbing vine such as Malabar spinach at the base of your post of pole
When you fill your planting perches with sun loving plants make sure you put your perches in the sun. However, should you have a shady area that needs some drama simply put your perch there and fill you wire basket up with shade loving plants.
Next year the planting perches are ready to be refilled.
“Tread the Earth Lightly” and in the meantime… May your day be filled with…Peace, Light and Love,
|
Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries and to take a walk through her pictorial garden or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books, including her new book, “The ABC’s of Wine and Beer Making”. Many of her articles written for Greenthumbarticles have paintings she has created of the subject and they can be seen at her “How to Do It” site. Remember to check out her artwork, especially of her fruits and vegetables. Many of her paintings are sold internationally and many of her works of art have been reproduced on note cards, post cards and other functional items and you can get Giclee prints of her artwork starting as low as $11.89 Arlene says, “All my royalties from the sale of my books, art, etc. go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my sites.”
Didn't really find what you were looking for?
|
|
|
| |
|
|
![[Valid RSS feed]](images/rss.gif "Subscribe to our XML Feed for RSS")
(Read 50+ times)
