The Secrets of Organic Container Growing

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CULINARY HERBS

Probably the most useful plants for organic container growing are the culinary herbs. At MOM's self-reliant permaculture homestead, we've installed a large growing box, next to our kitchen's south-facing window, that's used for raising herbs. Wherever you grow them, though, you'll find them to be versatile and valuable.

Of course, the biggest benefit of maintaining an indoor herb garden is that it allows you to harvest fresh flavorings 12 months a year (not to mention being able to enjoy the plants' fragrance and the sight of them framing a frosty scene outside your window!). It'll also let you bring in those tender perennial herbs that would otherwise be lost to the first killing frost. In this way, you're not limited by your planting zone. In our zone-seven home we're able to "winter over" such delicate plants as sweet marjoram, rosemary, coriander, and several varieties of scented geraniums.

Some of the tender perennials—such as the pineapple, emerald, and indigo sages—generally get too large in just one season to move to containers. I take fall cuttings from such plants and raise those indoors.

I also grow some annuals that I start from direct seed in August or early September. These include sweet basil, cumin, some pepper grass or salad cress, small-leaved garland, and a nutty-tasting green called roquette.

To complete the collection, each fall I usually dig up one of each of the hardy culinaries just so I can have them fresh in the middle of winter. These include chives, oregano, common sage, a few varieties of thyme, apple and blue balsam mints, parsley, and shallots (for their tops).

HANGING BASKETS

I'm also fond of indoor ornamentals. But as all of you who have become addicted to growing these decorative species probably know, they do tend to accumulate.

While I sometimes trade some of my extras for different plants, I've found another use for surplus ornamentals: I arrange.them in large, multispecies hanging baskets that are quite dramatic. These picturesque islands, suspended at eye level or slightly below, really show off beautiful foliage and flowers. Spilling greenery in all directions, they catch your eye and pull you right into the center of miniature worlds. And if you use a dwarf semicascading or leaning juniper (or other suitable miniature evergreen) as a centerpiece, the whole assemblage takes on that bonsai quality of scalelessness. A few well-selected stones and driftwood pieces added to the basket complete the picture.

You can also make beautiful hanging baskets with herbs. Rosemaries, thymes, and parsleys are especially suited to ten-inch hanging containers. You can create a very woodsyfeeling assembly by having a two- or three-year-old creeping rosemary cascading over one side of a basket filled with the lacy bluegreen foliage of thyme, sage, and dwarf catnip.

You can even make a surprisingly attractive hanging basket with vegetables! A Small Fry tomato, planted in the center of a 24-inch basket, can be supported by a cord or rope hanger and surrounded by celery, spinach, bok choy, leaf lettuce, and French marigolds. Any plants you don't have room for on top can be set into the basket's sphagnum moss sides. (Leaf—not head—lettuce and flowers work best here.)

No matter what type of plants you're raising, though, don't use any invasive types. An orange mint, a Boston fern, an airplane plant, or a spider plant will soon take over a basket filled with less "pushy" species.

To make a hanging container garden, you'll first need to acquire a wire plant basket (available from most nurseries; I've used sizes from eight to thirty-six inches in diameter) and a bag of unmilled sphagnum moss. (You'll need a surprisingly large amount of the moss—a small, 12-inch basket alone uses about 450 cubic inches.) Make sure you get a solid hanging support—a hook with a molly bolt in Sheetrock just won't hold up a heavy container. Likewise, see that your cord or wire is secure. If you make a macrame hanger, use an inorganic material—not jute, which will rot. Maybe I sound overcautious here, but, believe me, being awakened in the middle of the night by the thud of a fallen 24-inch basket is not a pleasant experience!

Start by soaking the moss in a container of water. Then, while it's soaking, bend down the horizontal wire sections just below the rim, all the way around the basket. Then grab a handful of moss, squeeze the excess water out, fold it in half, and insert it snugly—mossy side out—into one of those just-under-the-rim sections of the basket. Continue until this section is filled with sphagnum protruding equally into and out of the basket. Then pull the bent wire back up into place to secure the moss. Follow this procedure, working around the basket, until you've completed a sphagnum ring. That will help hold your soil mix in and keep the rest of the moss you'll add from settling.

Next, start at the bottom of the basket and line it with unfolded, hand-size moss patties. Generously overlap these pieces as you go—so your soil mix won't fall out—and make sure you get up under the ring on top. The lining should be about 1 inch to 1-1/2 inches thick all over. Then pull off any loose pieces from around the outside to "clean up" the appearance of the basket. (If you're fortunate enough to have access to Spanish moss, you can use that tropical material instead of sphagnum and let it drape down from the basket for a dramatic effect.)

Now cover the bottom of the basket with the moist soil mix I described earlier, and gather your ornamentals. (You may well want to arrange some on a table, while they're still in their containers, to help you plan the composition of the basket.) You'll begin by installing the plants that poke out the sides of the container. Work a hole in the moss just above a horizontal wire. Fill the basket with soil to that level, then gently maneuver a side plant's root ball into the hole so that the top of its root is at the inside edge of the moss. Fill soil around that root ball and go on to the next horizontal plant.

Good choices for this application are ivies and other trailing plants. Set an odd number of these—probably three or five—around the sides of a foliar basket. On the other hand, if you're making a flower-laden basket of, say, pansies or petunias, you can plant them at every section to give your basket a thick burst of color.

Once you've filled the sides, you can put in your top plants. Start by setting tall ones in the center (or just off-center). Work different shapes of foliage around the basket and finally, near the rim, add a few that will cascade down. (Just watch that you don't let a hanging plant cover an ornamental in the side.)

One pattern I'm fond of for the center of a basket involves using a large split-leaf philodendron to provide shade and then hiding a delicate prayer plant or African violet in that shadow . . . sort of inviting people to look inside. (If you do use such delicate flowers as the African violet, leave them in their own containers, burying them, container and all, in the basket, and remember not to omit those small containers when feeding and watering the basket.)

A few of my other favorite basket ornamentals are table, button, maidenhair, and bird'snest ferns . . . bronze, grape, and Swedish ivies . . . mother-in-law's tongue . . . wandering Jew . . . rex begonia . . . fuchsia . . . some of the slow-growing small and midsize bromeliads . . . and schefllera (or umbrella plant).

That's it. All you have to do now is clean up . . . trim any blemished leaves from your plants . . . thoroughly water the soil . . . and set the basket out of direct sun for a day or so to "heal in."

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