In a fit of "give the people what they want..."

I'm getting a lot of Google searches for winter pots, so here's a few to suck on...

Creepy+pretty= I must have it...

Aging punk rockers, creepy peeps, vintage collectors and indoor gardeners... I IMPLORE you to visit this Etsy shop. It's filled with the oddest, most wonderful containers. Plants on the Brain by Clayflower 22

If you don't like them just think what an awesome gift they'd make for someone you weren't that fond of.... What the hell kind of message will THAT send????

Ye Olde Garden Shoppe

A gaquillion years ago when I was working at a posh garden center in Chicago, we got to make the entry container display for the Sheffield Garden Walk- which is pretty posh itself. A nice little multi-zillion dollar garden walk with a garden of a different kind at the end... a Beer Garden, block party style- with bands and food- you name it.


So I'm all excited about the complete honor it is to have containers I make on display at the gates of the damn thing... So I plot and I labor...


We had AWESOME cedar planter boxes made by rehabilitated armless lumberjacks in Maine or something so I got some casters to put on the bottom because we would have to be delivering these the day of the event. Just roll them up the ramp of the box truck, roll the down and POOF! It's a display!


The theme was Victorian Tropical- which is an awesome theme to run with. The centerpiece of all this hulabaloo was a large square box with a Triangle Palm in the center, framed with the tiniest Boxwood hedge EVER and jammed full of Purple Heart (Tradescantia pallida) brimming over the top of the hedge.


I made the hedge by using about 20 1 gallon Boxwoods at about $20 each= $400


The Triangle Palm wasn't cheap... =$125


The Purple Heart was... except I used a LOT of it... 20 @ $6= $180


6 bags of premium potting soil? =$80


The hand hewn, lumberjack crafted box? = $190


Casters=$12





Well, we maybe shoulda spent a little more on the casters. The day of the shindig the casters get caught on the bricks and the whole damn thing disintegrates. Do you know how hard it is to rehabilitate a tiny hedge?


Next to damn impossible.


I labored and plotted and time was out. We got the-shadow-of-its-former-self up there on that box truck and delivered it to the gates of the block party...


Only to have it be used as a trash/cigarette butt receptacle by Chicago's garden elite...

Some massive fall containers...

June with Kiss my Aster!

Yeah, work is so tough I dropped off the face of the planet in order to make underloved, under- appreciated urns and containers for the masses. But here's a few photos to show what's going on around here...

1.Edamame seedling

2. window box I painted, waiting to be hung and planted- gotta get the Swiss Chard in the ground...

3. 2 of the bowling balls

4.new favorite combo- Black Mondo Grass and Silene Druett's whosywhatsis...

Make this! indoor tiny lawn...

I just threw some perlite in the bottom to encourage good drainage in these lil' containers with no holes in the bottom, topped it off with cheap soil and even cheaper grass seedon the top. I watered it only with a spray bottle until it was THOUROUGHLY established, which took more than a week. Until it germinated I kept them in a clear plastic bag to keep the temperature up in my chilly windowsill. They have to be "mown" frequently to keep pushing energy back into the roots. The smell is marvelous and then I compost the clippings. Voila!

Now I water them like crazy because there's so much roots jam packed in there but they are doing super well!

Tiny flamingo from Perpetual Kid...

reader mailbag #1,yay!

"Hi Amanda, this is Sheila, Dan's friend in Brooklyn. i have a question: we are selling our apartment in march and would like to put some flowers/plants on our deck to make it look nice. can you post some ideas for container gardens in march for east coast weather?"

So I asked Sheila for photos of the space, which I seem to have lost ( a large balcony with a handful of small mostly faux- terra cotta pots, none of them more that 14" across and then a long narrow walk with a few window boxes to fill the space between the walk and the wall, can you imagine it?) and what exposure they all got...
and here's the lengthy answer...

Ok, I'm going to suggest some thing for Plan A, which is making do with what you have... and Plan B which is buying some different containers.
Plan A: These containers are, for the most part, too small to plant anything medium to large in- which is tough because it's such a big space. My first suggestion is that it looks like 3 pots on the table and the one on the ground are smaller that 6"... those you need to put something succulent in. In spring, I think the only thing you'll find is a plant called Sedum 'Angelina'. Anything else really has too many roots and will crap out on you fast! I'm sure it's been hard to keep those going in the past! In the largest pots, for spring I recommend Phormium, or New Zealand Flax. You need something big out there without too many roots! Around the Phormium some yellow pansies would look nice. For added fake-height- you can add some branches like Bamboo or Willow and just stick them in the soil of the biggest ones on the corners. In the medium pots on the ground you can use Swiss Chard or even plant a few lettuce seeds (there are some surprisingly cool green out there) (I'm still thinking spring)- more Pansies or Ranunculus. Really, anything available in the spring will work(there isn't a lot you can do reliably early). In the long boxes along the side- tough because there really aren't any shade plants for March. You can get away with Pansies and Lettuce but they will look dwarfy there.
Plan B- Throw away those pots and get big ones. They have nice ones that look ceramic but they aren't- at Target- at least 24". You can even get little trays with wheels under them if you want to move them around. Go to Home Depot and get some Dwarf Alberta Spruce or any tree that will fit in the pot. You have a lot of space and you need to maximize it! I would fill up the Target pots halfway with packing peanuts or even just shove cardboard in there so that I could just drop the tree in there and it would sit up like it was planted. Usually I'm not a fan of this tactic as I like my pots weighted down and the more soil the more success- but this is really just staging at this point... Use dried Spanish Moss or sheet moss to hide the fact.
On the side in the window boxes- go buy more so that the whole space can be filled in continuously. They should all match or be darn close. I bought tons last year at a dollar store. Again, March is tough for shade- even part shade. It would STILL have to be Pansies with a little lettuce mixed in. Although something taller is what you need- it just doesn't happen in spring... Other thoughts.... use the lightest soil you can find Soil Moist crystals are a life saver water before cold snaps- the water actually helps protect. I know this is too much info... but I wanted to give as many options as possible.

Containers from the days of yore...

Here are some old photos I found whilest playing around with Geni...

They are from my container slinging days at JH&G...

more containers...

here's a couple more from last year, I had this thing for phormium...

Container Queen

At work, my job is to create containers to jazz up the place as well as make them to customers specifications. Here's some stuff I did recently- for the record, I think the Buddha one is horrific and contrived. But people LOVE it.