Cozy Up Your Space with Containers

Spring is almost upon us. And with spring comes container plant season! As soon as the last frost happens, it’s time to plant, hang or place our favorite containers.

Issaquah Highlands is a great area to have many different types of container plants. This technique provides a great opportunity to beautify a small yard or patio with a lush looking garden.

by BEN ARMLIN Garden Ambassador & Huckleberry Circle Resident

Container gardens allow us to grow plants and flowers on balconies, patios, courtyards, indoors on windowsills, or even hanging from the ceiling. One of the best things about containers is their mobility.

If your area has too much sunlight, move the container to the shade. If you are getting too much rain or wind, move the container to a sheltered area. Being so mobile makes it possible to grow plants, or even trees, that typically would not survive in our zone.

For example: I currently have a silk floss tree growing in a planter, which I move to a warmer area during the winter. These trees typically are found in areas that do not reach temperatures below 50 degrees. For the past six years, I have grown and nurtured it from a seed that I found at Disney World, carefully tending to it in a container. During the warmer seasons, the tree reaches about 12 feet.

Container gardens make it easy to completely customize your gardening space. By using separate containers, you can have plants that require different types of soil and watering needs right next to each other.

Once your flowers have stopped blooming, you can swap them out for another flowering plant to keep your garden lively. If you already have a small in-ground garden, consider placing a container filled with pollinator-friendly flowers nearby or directly in your garden.

Do you enjoy cooking? An herb garden in a container is an ideal way to ensure a steady supply of fresh herbs throughout the growing season. Plus, when the colder months approach, simply bring the container indoors to enjoy the freshness of your herbs year-round.

Another fantastic benefit to container gardens is the low maintenance. With the small surface area of your container, weeds will have a very difficult time of finding your pot and growing. Also, with containers being portable and a bit smaller, the only tools you may need are a trowel and garden shears.

One of my favorite advantages to container plants on patios is the lack of pests! Insects that may typically infest a garden are less likely to discover plants on a balcony. In the event that you do encounter pests, a container offers the benefit of isolation and containment, allowing you to treat the affected plants before the infestation can spread to other containers.

A good thing to remember about containers is the importance of watering and feeding. I like to keep to a schedule when my plants are in containers. To ensure optimal growth and hydration for your plants, water them in the morning and continue until it flows freely from the bottom of the container.

Keep an eye on the weather as well. If the weather gets abnormally hot, your soil may dry out faster than normal. Liquid fertilizers are easy to use when watering your container plants. Just follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

Lastly, be sure to keep up with removing dead flowers, leaves and stems. Enjoy your containers and have a great spring!

The simple rule of choosing a "thriller," a "filler" and a "spiller" will give your planters that wow factor you've maybe been missing. A thriller provides dramatic, eye-catching height, a filler tucks in around to make the container look full and bountiful, and the spiller trails over the edges for lushness.

Check out a few suggestions below to get you started, and be sure to choose plants requiring similar light and water needs for the same container.

THRILLER FILLER SPILLER

Tropicanna Canna (sun)

Lemon Cypress (sun) Gartenmeister fuschia (shade) Fatsia (shade)

Marigolds (sun)

Geranium (sun)

Coleus (shade) Impatiens (shade)

Wave petunias (sun)

Sweet Potato Vine (sun)

Creeping Jenny (shade)

Vinca (shade)

Illustration: Katie Cannon next day. Either way, you made a start and that’s what counts.

Have you ever tried to tackle a space, but your partner isn’t as inspired? I’ve been there. Thankfully, my spouse doesn’t really concern himself with how I organize or declutter. But occasionally, I have things that require his input. Once, I had about 50 books that needed to be sorted, so I arranged them face up on the ground and he just pointed to the ones I could give away. Maybe your partner has an old t-shirt collection or box of electronics that you need them to sort through—making it as easy as possible on them can help with that mental block.

Don’t go buy a bunch of expensive organizing stuff. While it may feel good and motivating at first, you know it’s just going to sit in the pile of other organizing clutter. It’s best to declutter and clean first. Use random shoe boxes or old Amazon shipping boxes for organizing until you have the space set up exactly as you want (and know that is how you’d like it maintained). Sometimes, what seems good in theory does not work in practice.

Ask a friend to be your support! We all have those spaces in our house that are a mess (even me, an openly admitted organization geek). Ask a friend to come over and sit with you, drink tea or coffee, and chat while you sort through those boxes of old photos and art projects.

“Perfection is the enemy of progress.” Don’t let your desire to have a flawless organized pantry stop you from having an organized pantry. Maybe having a “Pinterest-worthy” pantry is your ultimate goal, but in the meantime, you can do small things like throw out expired food or donate items you know your family won’t eat.

If you want to tackle a big area at once, put the things in four piles:

• Trash

• Donate

• Keep in this area. Don’t worry about organizing or where it will go yet - just put it in a pile of “staying in this space."

• Move to a different area. Fill a box or bag with items that belong in a different room or space. That is all the mental energy you need to expend on these items—just put them in the box and you can deal with them later. When the box is full, take it to the room where the items belong. Don’t worry about putting them away! Stick to your organization schedule—you can deal with that box when you tackle that room.

None of these tips are new or revolutionary; but maybe there’s one that resonates with you and is the final piece of encouragement you need to SPRING into organization. Remember, it’s okay (and recommended) to just start small so you don’t get overwhelmed and give in to the clutter.

“The best way to find out what we really need is to get rid of what we don’t.” — Marie Kondo