Container Gardens

Baby kale and lettuce mix win the mobile garden location

By Angie Quantrell Angie Quantrell

Container gardens are the way to go this year.

It's funny how I go through fads in my garden.

Last year, I didn't want many containers other than the raised beds and strawberry garden. I relished the empty patio space that left ample room for the grands to race wheeled vehicles around without crashing.

Previous growing seasons bloomed and produced according to my every whim and decorating idea. I loved grouping pots and plantings according to heat and watering zone. Notice I say heat instead of sun requirements. My afternoon garden is all a heat zone and any container has to be mostly in shade or capable of handling the crippling sun rays.

Baby kale

This year is once again a container garden year. But my reasoning is fresh and experimental.

This year I want to win against the garden predators. Slugs. Sow bugs. Earwigs. Aphids. And whatever else is chewing its way through my fresh veggie crop.

For instance, radish is languishing in an old turkey roaster pot that has holes in the bottom, mainly because every time I have planted them in the past, the sow bugs and slugs have eaten holes and rings around each beautiful radish.

Radish seedlings popping through the soil

Lettuce and kale are making a new home in a little red wagon and a washtub. This is my attempt to avoid the slugs and aphids.

Chives and a random sunflower are living in yet another washtub.

Chives and a sunflower plant

Germination has commenced and plants are popping through the soil. What has yet to be found is how successful the plants will be in growing to full-size and giving me tasty treats.

Kale? Check. We've already had baby leaves.

And that's all I know for now. We shall see. Let the experiment commence.

Until then, kale, strawberries, and herbs it is.

Spring strawberries

My Martha/HGTV Moment - Tulips in a Wagon

Happy tulips hanging out in an old beat up red wagon.

By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

Normally, this floral objet d'art would not occur in my yard. Once the bulbs are nestled in, that's where they stay.

But due to the removal of giant, old, space and light-hogging arborvitae, the tulips had to be moved to save their pretty little lives.

Zoomin' in on brilliant color.

Aha! (Insert light bulb hanging over my head.) I will put them in a wagon, just until after they bloom. And then we shall find a new bed for them.

Success! Even with my careful removal, accidents happened. But those sturdy beauties just hung in there and are now blooming like crazy!

I love spring. Tulip season is my favorite season in the yard.

I think I will plant kale next in the wagon. Do you think the aphids will find it there? At least the slugs/snails will have to work harder.


No bumping up and down in my little red wagon for these pretty spring tulips.

What kind of container gardens do you have in your yard?

Container Landscaping - Porch Decor for the Season

We have a very tiny front porch step. Small though perfect for a vibrant green pot and assorted adornments.

Christmas and winter are but memories, so out goes the pinecones, swags, ribbons, and stuff.

In comes gorgeous pink blooms standing in front of (recycled Christmas) branches of thin grape vine tied into sprays.

A tiny house rests in the dirt hauled from the raised garden beds. The blue cast iron kitty stands on mossy old bricks to keep its feet out of the water that invariably leaks from the bottom after watering.

And Monet noisily interposes herself in the middle of the process. Decorate on, mom. Looking good! Hand me that fly, would you?

Welcome, spring!