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30-under-30 – October ’14
We confess! The floral and gardening hobby can be difficult and complicated! Now that we have that off our chest, we’re going to start a blog series dedicated to exploring fun things that take 30 minutes and $30 or less!
Two of the top responses from a Ball Horticulture survey of the would be Home Gardener/Floral Designer is that our green hobby takes either a) too much time or b) doesn’t fit in the budget. With this blog series we aim to generate ideas on how to enjoy horticulture in the home while keeping an eye on a busy schedule and household budget.
This entry will be dedicated to making a Fall Container Garden! A fall container garden is the easiest and most efficient way to learn about Autumn blooming annuals and add some bright horticultural color to your deck, patio or sunny indoor space throughout Richmond’s winter months.
A container garden is comprised of three major components:
Any sturdy container that has drainage holes
A suitable planting medium
A cool selection of Blooming, Edible or Unique plants suitable to your taste.
Pansies were chosen as the primary Blooming Plant since we are focused on a Fall/Winter themed container garden.
We went with a small, but still nicely glazed ceramic pot.
Container ~ $16
The first consideration is space and decor restrictions. If you have a large backyard patio with plenty of space, a crazy or unique container such as a re purposed wheel barrow or water trough is great. For this post we are focusing on a small deck or entryway, so keeping the container size “portable” is paramount.
We selected a nicely green glazed, 12 inch ceramic container that can be re-used time and again for $16.
Planting Medium ~ $4
On to your planting medium. The size of container will dictate some of this. If you are using a smaller to medium sized container like we are, pure planting soil works well. If you are lucky and found that really neat re purposed container that’s rather large, using stone or some other bulky aggregate as a bottom layer will go lengths in helping maintain a proper soil condition and ballast. Whichever you end up with, just make sure it’s well draining because we want to avoid soggy or damp conditions that will allow fungi to attack our perfect Pansies. This one bag will suffice for one container twice!
We chose a Richmond Winter Hardy Annual – Pansies
At around $2, Varigated Liriope adds some bang for our buck.
The Best Part: PLANTS! ~ $8
As we mentioned above, our base blooming plant this go round will be Pansies. They are hardy through our odd winters here in Richmond and will even bloom back after the snow. Pansies do well from full to partial sun and come in a myriad of colors. In addition to Pansies, we’ll add Variegated Liriope, a nice hardy perennial grass to add some flair and texture. Variegated Liriope and Pansies will compliment each other for water requirements and keep our care time on a weekly basis down.
Total Cost: ~$28.00* Some items can be reused!
Getting dirty!
Finishing touches
Assembly ~ 10 Minutes
This week, assembly is rather plug and play. We took our container and made sure the drainage was adequate.
We added our planting soil and watered that in. Once the soil was moist, we planted our Variegated Liriope and Pansies.
After 10 mins of Plug and Play, our first 30 Under 30 is making a smile!
