Last summer I excitedly planned a “look" and bought a few plants to put into two giant planters Nick gave me. For now, they live on both corners of the back patio.
I’m really into purples, whites, and greens in a garden so for a “Thriller” I chose Purple Fountain Grass. For a “filler” Spanish Lavender, and for a “spiller” Potato Vines both green and a black.
The spilling nature of potato vines is quite lovely. I’ve used them before and they look wonderful in containers but they do have to be watered every single day in the heat of the summer. Gah! But look how pretty.
By the end of summer the Purple Fountain Grass had grown far bigger than I expected. (It choked out the Spanish Lavender, so I removed those and put them into pots.)
The Blackie Sweet Potato Vine didn’t flourish like I’d hoped. In my experience it has never grown as well as the green. But it could also be that I had amended the soil for the lavender and the Blackie didn’t like it.
In all, I learned a lot (which is always the case with plants) and was happy to have these to look out at last year. Ok, to STARE at quite often.
This year, due to the stay-at-home policies, I haven't planned or planted anything yet. (I long to wander the isles of lovely, growing things.) I did notice however, that the planters stopped draining and one smelled like manure. So I had to tip them over and do some investigating.
I was VERY surprised to find this!
The roots had grown down through the drain hole and spread out like a carpet! There was NO pulling them out by hand. They were crowded in tight!
A long skewer ended up being just the right tool to push in, break up the roots, and then the open loop was useful to hook and pull the roots out. It was actually a lot of work.
And voila! This year I plan to put mesh...or some kind of loose fabric over the hole before filling the planter with dirt. Hopefully that will work to inhibit the clogging.
Oh! and let’s not forget what last year’s back porch looked like! I have pictures of all my little potted porch gardens since we got married. They are fun to look back at from time to time. Truly, gardening is one of my favorite things to do.
