Pots In The Garden: Container Gardening in the Inland Northwest
Spring is coming in a few months and if you’re like me you are feverishly anticipating pots of billowing summer color. I would like to suggest that this spring you take a long view on containers and think about adding enduring, freeze-resistant pottery that will grace the garden all year long.
My goal as a Spokane landscape and garden designer is to create landscapes that are compelling in each of our four seasons and of sustainable and lasting beauty. Garden containers should meet the same objectives.
Finding the perfect pots requires an investment in careful selection and quality containers. The garden containers you see here are year-round residents that add to the flow, the function, the visual excitement of the garden and complement their sites in scale and character.
Start by analyzing your landscape’s attributes: What is the style of your house, office or garden – what personality do you want to project? Where will containers be most appreciated as accessories or focal points – the entry? the patio? adding structure to a perennial border? How will the shape and color of your container provide contrast and punctuation? Keep your list of requirements general and be open to the unexpected.
Think Big
If you can move it easily it’s not big enough! Exteriors – buildings, trees and sky – demand a larger-than-indoor scale for accessories. I recommend that the smallest garden pots you consider are 18” or so in one or more dimensions.
Budget for Durability
Now that you’ve opened your mind to large containers, there will be no more moving, emptying or covering of pots. Your new, scale appropriate containers must be made of freeze-resistant high-fired clay or flexible materials such as metal, plastic and rubber. With proper drainage and siting, freeze-resistant pots can beautify the garden planted or empty all year long.
Aim for Art
Handmade pots with organic glazes, bold steel planters with custom texture and patina, vessels carved from stone – choose your year-round containers to double as garden sculpture and to furnish your garden in style.
Make a lasting investment this spring – think about a design consultation for an underutilized garden space or for help choosing year-round pots to accessorize your home!
