A couple months ago, I got a call from a mother of two who was looking to plant a vegetable garden in her back yard. The problem was that they had recently remodeled the yard, installing a large stone patio that pretty much ruled out a vegetable garden. The yard was beautiful will all of its new improvements, and it seemed to me that planting in either a raised bed container on legs or containers right on top of the patio would be our best option, especially since that spot got more direct sunlight than any other part of the yard.
After a consultation, Michelle decided to shop for some nice looking, but inexpensive, pots that would compliment the patio furniture. We made a list of all the things she wanted to grow and eat. She went to the nursery, with list in hand, and bought transplants and seeds to fit the bill. Then we got to work together planting in pots.
I thought it would be nice to combine herbs and salad greens together, so we put one herb plant (like parsley, for example) in the center of the container and then planted 4 mixed lettuces around the perimeter. Each pot has a different herb in the center, surrounded by lettuces. Michelle’s deck had stairs that reminded me of Capri, and how they place flower pots on each stair in the spring. So we put one pot on each step of the deck stairs.
Michelle also bought some larger pots for the patio to hold tomatoes, artichokes, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, strawberries and fava beans. We decided to plant the strawberries surrounding the artichoke in a giant pot, while most of the other veggies go their own pot to themselves. Michelle arranged them where she wanted the pots to live, then I assigned veggies to those pots. Once we planted them, we took a step back to admire.
We decided to leave a few plants and seeds for the kids to plant with Michelle when they got home from school, now that Michelle felt confident to continue on her own as a brand new gardenerd.
If you have a project you want help with, contact Christy@gardenerd.com to get a fall garden started now.
