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Garden Talk

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"GardenTalk", a regular feature for The Gazette, brings to you the combined experience and expertise of Holly Lake's dedicated gardeners and others. A continuing focus will be subjects of interest to anyone who has ever bought a packet of seeds or dug a hole in the ground for a plant, as well as the dedicated and sharp-eyed observers of nature. "GardenTalk" will not only inform you each issue but solicits your ideas and personal gardening experiences which you may wish to pass on to others. The hope is that "GardenTalk" will enrich us all as well as help make Holly Lake even more beautiful.

Container Gardening— Success Without Fear of Deer

Wood County Master Gardener Linda Timmons obviously knows container gardening like a mariner knows the habits of dolphin. Not only that—she knows how to make it look simple and enjoyable.

She presented a program for the Holly Gardeners at the FireHall April 27 that immediately answered all the questions anyone could ever have about how to grow plants in pots and why.

The "why" has two obvious answers—for natural beauty even in the midst of deer territory and to fulfill the homeowners' desire for attractive landscaping.

She called it an "alternative to gardening" even though it does, in one sense, fulfill the accepted definition of "gardening".

For one thing gardening in containers brings plants "up close and personal" so that you can look out of your living room or dining room window onto a colorful panorama of plants of different shapes and colors. Container planting offers the advantages of being able to combine colors at close range, of being able to enjoy sun loving plants along with shade lovers by the simple expedient of moving the pots around, and of enjoying tropical plants growing alongside natives.

Container gardening, Timmons pointed out, is not just a matter of pots full of coleus and pansies. This different approach to gardening embraces vegetables, small trees and shrubs (which later—if their size indicates— can be transplanted into the ground), herbs. cacti, and even grasses. It encourages the gardener to experiment with some of the little known exotics which can be closely monitored from their placement on deck or porch. Container gardening rescues the yard from the monotony of becoming large single-plant areas. Its beauty and versatility extends to container selection which by offering endless variety of color and shape satisfies the desire for ever-changing landscapes. Then there is the ability to select plants of widely different physical characteristics—such as those that "weep", others that remain stiffly upright, those that spill over the edge, and those with foliage that nestles at edge level but blooms above the leaf mass. Container gardening allows for mixing of sun and shade loving plants, blending of colors and leaf patterns, frequent changing of each miniature landscape for contrast, display of single color variations and even of mixing in a single pot a variety of colors. Shrubs can be displayed as containerized accents by placing them in one-gallon size pots for the first year and later as they continue to grow, setting them out as permanents in some suitable area of the garden.

Container gardening brings the gardener into the kind of close contact with plants that calls for focusing on details—relationship of plant to container, relationship of one kind and color of plant with another, selection of plants by bloom time to produce a continuing panorama of color.

Timmons also offered expertise on other areas of container gardening including selection of potting material. She uses a mix of 20% compost and expanded shale. The use of both expanded shale and water crystals aid in the regulation of water. She favors light-weight containers to facilitate shifting of design and color. She blocks bottom holes with which most pots are equipped by manufacturers, preferring to make three or four holes an inch up on the pot's outside edge. She recommends avoiding small narrow based pots—pots of choice should be at least ten inches or the plants will dry out too quickly. Black pots should be avoided. Concrete pots can bleach out lime and terra cotta plants, if allowed to dry out, may crack. Shallow saucers allow for good regulation of water. Overwatering is one of the worst threats to container plant life. Watering should be done early in the day.

Rainwater—which can be accumularted in special containers or ordinary garbage cans is the best source of water for keeping plants healthy.

For plant nutrition, Timmons recommends fish emulsion and bone meal. Compost tea is a good way to keep plants healthy year after year. Much good sense about container gardening threaded through the visual presentation which offered pictures of a variety of containers and their happy occupants. Timmons, a widely known speaker on gardening matters in Wood County, provided an interesting and easy-to-follow program.

Guest speaker for the May meeting—May 27 at the Holly Lake Fire Hall will be Dee Bishop, a well-known speaker on gardening topics. All residents of Holly Lake are invited to attend the Holly Gardeners' meetings where they can acquire knowledge of plants and planting, win interesting and valuable door prizes, and select for their home gardens from a variety of "passalong" plants generally available at no cost to participants.

Lucy Germany- Master Gardener