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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Container season

Heat and Humidity, that's August around here. Actually, this year the heat has been pretty mild but that darn humidity...

This time of year I find very little energy for the garden. Thank goodness for containers, they really start to steal the show now.

Not having huge funds to blow on container plants, I tried to use plants already available to me. Almost all of my containers have Hosta in them and I'm totally sold now on using them forever more as container plants. A single flat of Impatiens gave me enough fillers to add to all the containers and I still had enough left to plant a few in the front shade bed.

A single Hosta, one impatiens and a small slip of ivy is all it took to fill this upside down birdbath base. I love how the petals of the impatiens fall into the empty container resting below. Another good idea is to put a simple water feature underneath to catch the petals.

More simple containers, mostly with Hosta. The hosta in the garden have been inundated with slugs this year but the ones in the containers show pristine foliage.

Last week I left my camera at a friends house. It was like I lost my arm, I couldn't take photos for a week! We have perfect cloud cover today so hopefully I'll get to stop at a few places and take pictures of some of the great containers I've seen in my neighborhood.

Melanie

7 comments:

Sunita Mohan said...

Absolutely lovely! And I love that photo of the impatiens petals dropping into the empty container below.

Becca's Dirt said...

I love the containers this time of year too. They are easy and give off a beautiful display of foliage and color. Yours are beautiful. I think I will put hosta in containers next year as well.

Nell Jean said...

Hostas! I had given up on ever growing hostas. They seem to resent the lack of winter chill here. I had already decided to dig the few pitiful ones left here and pot up. Yours confirm that it would be the wise thing to do. We'll see how they like a chillier winter, in pots.

Gail said...

Hmm...maybe they would be happier in containers...Each year the hosta I have gets smaller and smaller! I am newly arrived at container appreciation. gail

sweetbay said...

Putting Hostas in pots is a good idea, as voles so love to eat the roots. They look lovely with the Coleus.

Whole Food Pioneer said...

I've just come to love hosta - as they bloom in this August heat. When I'm ready to divide I'll definitely put a few in containers. Could be a great solution for my mom's empty shaded containers, too.

lynn'sgarden said...

My hostas have never been so slug-riddened. They are bad this year! Lucky your containers still look great, Melanie! Mine are mostly dead from lack of care for 10 days! AUGust!