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| Photo Credit: David L. Morgan |
| Our accidental container garden really brightens up the landscape – and we didn’t even spend time planning it. |
Ever get tired of your garden design? Want to try something new? That very thing happened to my wife and I, and a whole new idea for a container garden grew out of our boredom.
We had tried nearly every kind of garden in the roughly 10- by 15-foot plot we originally configured as an ornamental showcase (and I use that term loosely) in our back yard. We planted trees on the west side for shade (which is essential in Texas), and left the area open on the east so we could plant in full sun.
And plant we did. First, it was vegetables – enough tomatoes, radishes, onions and Irish potatoes to feed the neighborhood (which we did). Then we got into roses in a big way. Initially, we put in beautiful, large-flowering floribundas and hybrid teas, followed by a heroic selection of Southwestern native plants. Later on we added in a garden of “found” and antique roses. They were all beautiful, of course, though the roses scratched us up a bit, and I seriously overwatered or underwatered the natives (I’m still not sure which). Nothing lasts forever, I told my wife.
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| Photo Credit: David L. Morgan |
| Viewed from a different entrance, our mix-and-match garden offers a whole new intrigue. |
After a few years of deadheading, pruning and replacing abundant mistreated taxa, we were ready to try something new. We wanted something different. Something with many shapes and flowering habits – and lots of color. Hmmm.
The idea of creating a container garden actually came quite by accident. We had long enjoyed pots of annuals and perennials on our deck, so now, with everything rogued out of the bed, we began placing our odd assortment of leftovers and weird favorites in the area to absorb the early spring sunlight. We began to buy more plants and stuck them in whatever containers we had in the potting shed. Suddenly we realized we had a container garden, for better or for worse.
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