2014 Container Garden

Here it is!  My container garden for the year.  I thought I'd posted about this last year too, but I guess not.  I love growing things, but the soil around here is so poor you can't just plant things in the ground and expect them to grow.  You have to enrich the soil and stuff.  I miss the Midwest!  No wonder all the pioneers were in such raptures when they got Iowa.  Such wonderful, instantly-ready-to-grow-things dirt.  But anyway, we've solved the issue by building a raised bed garden for our veggies, and putting a container garden on our deck so I can grow flowers.  Actually, I have daffodils and hyacinths and other things growing in the ground too, but annuals and veggies don't seem to thrive without a lot of crazy stuff done to the soil first.

I actually planted this a couple weeks ago, but just didn't get a chance to post about it until now.  These pics were taken the day I planted everything, hence all the dirt and water everywhere.  In the leftmost pot, I have lavender.  I've tried growing lavender from seeds for two years and failed miserably, so this year I bought a plant and we'll see if that works better.

This is a closeup of the lavender pot.  It's just a terra cotta pot that I painted with these wonderful "patio paints" I found at the craft store.  They dry quickly and don't wash off!  Very fun. 

I got these amazing stackable pots new this spring!  They were originally $60 for a set of three layers like this, which I thought was a bit exorbitant, but I got one set 50% off, and the other 60% off a week later!  Very pleased.  This set by the lavender has lemon basil on top, then chives in the middle, and dill on the bottom.  I've been growing a mint plant in a container for a couple years, and decided to try some more herbs.  We'll see what happens!

In the two pots to the right of this, I planted seeds for marigolds and nasturtiums and pansies.  Those are all edible flowers!  Going to be interesting experimenting with that this summer.

The center pot has flowers I bought from the store too -- I like to start out with some color already there in my containers so I don't have to wait all spring for things to sprout and grow and bloom.  So I put yellow lantanas and a pretty yellow-and-white striped calibrachoa hybrid in that pot.  They're so cheerful!  My lantana last year got enormous, and I'm hoping this year's does too.  The calibrachoas should spread out and drape down the sides of the container, a look I just love.

Calibrachoa "superbells" hybrid

Lantana

The two off-white containers to the right of the center are the same things as the ones to the left.  And then the brown three-layered pot on the right is totally planted with verbena seeds I harvest myself from plants I had last summer.  I've never tried harvesting my own seeds before, so I'm really excited to see how these do.

I also harvested nasturtium seeds last fall, which got planted in these three pots.  My three kids each got to paint a pot too, and I put them on this nifty little plant stand to add some levels and interest to my garden.  The six-year-old's is the highest, then the four-year-old's, then the two-year-old's.  Isn't it fun seeing the progression of painting abilities?

Last year I only had those middle five pots.  And that was wonderful -- I got such joy from the beautiful flowers that grew there all summer and into the fall.  This year, I'm really excited for all the additions!  This section of my deck is all filled up now, so I don't think my little container garden will be getting any bigger for a few years, but that's absolutely fine with me.  I'll try to post an update when plants are up and getting pretty!