Using Glazed Containers and Wooden Barrels

For your garden, you might prefer glazed ceramic pots. Like jardinières, they usually lack drainage holes and are most useful when unglazed pots are slipped inside them. These then do not dry out so quickly. Always be certain the potted plant stands above drainage water by placing pebbles, stones, or pieces of wood at the bottom of the jardinière.

Glazed pots with drainage holes have several advantages. Plants require less frequent watering because the soil remains moist longer and surfaces of containers remain free of salt accumulations. On the other hand, watering requires care, though with practice you can learn just how much water to apply and when. Glazed pots come in many colors, but delicate pastel shades pink, peach, aqua, or yellow are usually preferred. For instance try pink geraniums in pink, soft green, or pale blue containers.

Glazed containers may be gaily decorated with intricate patterns or designs. These are seen in the patios of Portugal, Spain, and Italy as well as in Japanese gardens. In certain settings they may be appropriate with flowering plants, but they are best suited to foliage types, since the decorations detract from the flowers. In a Portuguese jardinière or a Japanese porcelain urn, you will like sprenger asparagus, Japanese privet, rubber plant, French ivy, upright philodendron, cast iron plant, rosemary, or a foliage begonia.

Tubs Are Popular
Tubs—the traditional circular or the modern square, triangular, or hexagonal type are outstanding plant containers. Easily available as well as durable, they are heavy when filled with soil, so they are not easily knocked over. Wooden containers can be painted; in fact, they can be given a different color each year, a pleasant chore for the winter. Wooden tubs can also be stained or allowed to weather naturally, and these are recommended for foliage plants, scented geraniums, and such herbs as rosemary, basil, chives, and sage.

The familiar circular wooden tub is widely accepted. Newer angular boxes square, rectangular, triangular, octagonal, or hexagonal—have been designed for contemporary houses. These may be purchased or custom-made, generally in redwood, cedar, or Southern red cypress. Allowed to weather, they become a neutral gray, a color  that goes with all flowering and foliage plants. But if desired, these woods may be painted or stained.

Wooden tubs, long lasting when treated to resist decay, hold moisture well. They also keep out the heat of the sun, preventing overheating of soil. Then, too, wood, substantial and solid in appearance, is well suited to formal or informal gardens.

Wooden Barrels
Barrels, old time standbys, are always excellent. Unless you prefer the full barrel shape, simply cut off the top at the desired height. Then bore holes at the bottom and paint the inside with a wood preservative. If the hoops are galvanized, they will not rust; if not, they will. To prevent this, apply oil or paint outside of the barrel. Hoops, which tend to slip, can be secured with nails.

Wooden boxes are becoming more and more the thing for the modern terrace. Varying in size and shape, large units are planted with trees, shrubs, and vines. The smaller sizes are allotted to perennials, herbs, and bulbs. Long planter boxes, intended for terraces, walks or driveways, can be filled with evergreens and blooming plants. When flowers petunias, wax begonias or dwarf geraniums are massed in large, low boxes they give the containers the look of garden beds.

Black locust, osage orange, and chestnut are other woods that do not rot if left untreated. To prevent boxes from resting directly on solid surfaces and thus stopping good drainage, raise them on short lifts or legs. Better still are wheels, for then the boxes can be pushed about.