Contain Yourself, Please!

Container gardening continues to rapidly rise in popularity. Aging baby boomers as well as millennials are discovering the joy and ease of gardening in containers and raised beds. Everything from edibles to ornamentals to flowering shrubs and conifers are fair game.
May is when many of us start diving into bags of rich, organic potting soil (you can’t beat Espoma’s products) with the mission to create eye-popping containers to adorn decks, entranceways and patios. If you are looking for some ingenious, imaginative plant combinations, check out the 18-page ‘Can’t-Miss Containers’ article in Garden Design’s early spring 2016 issue. You’ll walk away with thirteen planting layouts for unconventional, riveting containers.

Designs vary from ‘in your face’ explosive color arrangements to delicate and demure, pastel combos. Many of the plans include perennials that can be wintered over for an encore the following season. There is also a stylish mini water garden featuring a 2-foot-wide fiberglass container and funky plants like fiber-optic grass (Isolepis cernua) and umbrella grass (Cyperus involucratus).
One of my favorite combinations includes two different varieties of alliums along with soft pink blooms of coral bell ‘Strawberry Swirl’ and jet black blades of black mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’. All are perennials!
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*All copyrighted and taken by Jason Ingram