Spring Fever: More garden planning!

Mom and I and a few of her friends went up to Hill City today for a seminar on container gardening sponsored by the Hill City Garden Club.  It was only an hour long, but it was nice to get out of the house and change pace a little bit.  Not that I needed to get out of my house, I've barely been in it for weeks, but Mom's been cooped up with her cold/flu for far too long so we made a field trip day of it.  We all ate at the Alpine Inn (their tomato basil soup is fabulous!), went over to the seminar, then stopped at The Farmer's Daughter to browse antiques.  Mom got a nice ceramic planter and I got an adorable 3-bottle wine rack.  On our way back we stopped in Custer at the sister's house of Mom's friends for some goat's milk and fresh eggs.  We'll be getting some yogurt and goat cheese from her when she has some made, haven't tried it before but I figure why not?  All kinds of healthy benefits there.  Now I'm at home sipping some amazing tea I ordered from Tea For All Reasons on Etsy.  I considered it a little splurge for myself and I've gotten more than enough enjoyment from the 3 cups I've had to justify the cost...wow.  Just...yum.  Yes.

So, on to the garden seminar.  Mom started container gardening last summer because in the spring she had broken one ankle and the other leg.  Yes, she had two broken legs.  At the same time.  Blame the deep mud puddles that formed in the driveway after a very wet winter and spring (and the fact that we had hired at least two people/crews to fix them who never showed up to do the work).  At any rate, she couldn't till or work the soil in the regular garden or do lots of bending/squatting and I was so busy working at the store that I wasn't home enough to do it all either.  She found out about Smart Pots from a friend of hers and ordered a few for herself and it ended up being the easiest and best gardening she'd done for years.  This year I'll be doing some of the same since I'm sure my dirt work won't be done in time to get a full garden in.  Today's seminar was more about how to pair flowers in a container for the greatest effect, so here's a list of the general concepts to keep in mind:

• Get a color wheel and use it.  (I need to get one for jewelry anyway, so it's definitely on my list.) Consider the color of the pot as well as the foliage and flowers of the plants to complement it.
• Once you have ideas for good color combinations, look for plants of differing heights, leaf textures, and spreading tendencies for the greatest visual impact.  Mix a spreading shiny vine with a velvety mounding flower and a spiky grass, for example.  The max height of the plants should be about 1 1/2-2 times the height of the pot itself.
• Consider water/light needs and group plants accordingly.  Read the labels for this info as well as the full size height of the grown plants.
• Be sure to fertilize regularly.  Potting soil often says that it includes fertilizer but it's often not enough for the plants to thrive in a self-contained environment.
• Don't be afraid to mix vegetables with flowers.  They use and contribute different nutrients to and from the soil, not to mention it's unique, fun, functional, and many vegetables have beautiful foliage.  We'll be trying that with some side-planting baskets Mom got this year, she has a book on combining vegetables and flowers and the pots in there are just gorgeous!
• Group plants into odd-numbered groupings.  The eye somehow prefers odd-numbered groupings.  Same goes for pots.  And jewelry.  And art groupings on walls.  And just about anything visual, for some reason.  Not sure why, but it's true!

I've decided to not really fight the native prairie when I start with my flower gardens.  I picked up a booklet on what plants are native to the area and how to create a garden with them in our semi-arid climate, since I know I'd be battling with the native plants anyway.  Might as well make them work for me!  I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would buy yucca when we have *so much* on the property out here!  I may as well make a native rock garden out back by the deck for minimum maintenance/weeding.  The front where I'll have my terrace can be a little fussier, but it gets very hot on that side in the afternoons so I need to be careful to pick full-sun plants that will stand up to the wind.  I want daylilies for sure because they do very well at Mom's house, and I'll probably grow a bunch of ornamental grasses, maybe some succulents, but definitely stuff that won't curl up and die in full-sun.  The stuff on the deck and the back hill needs to be part-shade probably, but I'll need to watch and pay attention to what the sun does exactly.  I know it beats down on the west wall quite a bit in the late afternoon and that's the terrace side.

Last summer we planted two ash trees down the hill from where the terrace will be, and when those grow they'll cast shade on the office and living room windows to help keep the house cooler.  It was late in the season when we put those in, so I hope they survived the winter.  Time will tell.  Below the tree line I put down some grass seed so hopefully some of that took, but that's mostly native prairie down there too so I don't want to fight with that too much either.  It's too much of a slope to have a nice lounging lawn and no natural boundaries between that ground and the field, so my nice gardens will be on my terrace and on the hill behind my deck, plus whatever containers I end up doing on the deck itself.

So now that I've rambled on and on, how does that sound?  Any pointers on semi-arid plants or perennials that would withstand hot sun and wind?