Container Mania

Container garden design and planting at Idyll Haven is in full swing!  In addition to the weekly destination nursery trips, I'm usually dashing out every day on my lunch hour in search of specific plants.  Since it's not considered polite to count, I have no idea how many containers I have in the garden.  Last year I was told by friends who water for me when I'm away that I had 78.  That's it?  Compared to others I know whose names I won't mention, 78 is small potatoes.  At any rate, containers contribute heavily to the design (and personal enjoyment) of my garden so I make no excuses.  BTW, does anybody know if there's a twelve step program for plantaholics?  No, wait a minute-forget I asked.

I won't lie, extreme container gardening is expensive and time consuming.  During the summer the pots need to be watered just about every day.  Plants need to be pinched or dead headed/leafed on a regular basis to keep them looking their best and to keep the design in balance.  In the spring I spend days and days cleaning and positioning the pots, shopping for plants and designing and planting.  In the fall, everything has to be cleaned up and stashed away.  Plants that are coming in for the winter need to be repotted or prepared for dormancy in the basement.  Every Thanksgiving I declare that next year will be the year I cut back.  Then spring and our nursery crawling trips arrive and my newfound restraint goes out the window.

In the past week I finally started throwing some plant combinations together. For some reason though my creative juices have stalled and the ideas just aren't flowing.  Work has slowed to a snail's pace.  Today I was home but spent my garden time on other projects.  I'm certain I could make a break through if I only had more plants.  Fortunately plans are in the works for more of that on Sunday.

TGIF!  Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend-the unofficial kick off to summer.