By Barbara Booth-Moore
Through the years my interest in container gardening has evolved for sure. I have always loved the look of plants in large pots or wooden raised beds. Container gardening shows us that gardening is more than large suburban lots and manicured gardens. Gardening can be as simple as a pot.
My first attempt at container gardening was with the old tried and true cedar half barrels. I think anyone who has a garden had one of these at some point. Starting those first few years with annuals and realizing after a few years they were hard to keep healthy through our heat and dry spells here in Mississauga, I moved on to mixing in some perennials (non-native). I will say I had some success since most survived the winter, but still, the heat of the summer was tough.
Moving forward, along came 2020 and I signed up for Blooming Boulevards. In the middle of everything being shut down, in went my boulevard garden. So began my journey with “natives”.
Coincidentally, this past spring as I was planning my deck replacement, Blooming Boulevards had a seminar on Container Gardening with natives. With that, I decided to have a container box built right into my deck. No more cedar barrels for me! The plants went in, starting early June with plants I grew from seeds I had saved from my own plants. I added more plants a few weeks later from the Blooming Boulevard Plant Sale.
The results have been, in my opinion, nothing short of amazing. The amount of blooms this first year has made for a stunning display. As well, the number of pollinators in there at any given time is, without fail, entertaining to watch.
My journey with native plants and containers has merged and continues. I have a planter built into a small deck off my front door and next year that is going native for sure!
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