Dotted with Flowers: Summer in Review

Labor Day is here, so I guess the real meat of summer is over, although I still believe there's a bit of summer left to be enjoyed. The autumn equinox isn't until Sept 21! It was a short one, which I blame mostly on the late, late Spring, but I'm so glad we're having some 80+ degree days now to enjoy, even though the public pools have been closed for over a week!

Yesterday, Mike and I attended the tomato tasting day at Heritage Farm in Decorah, IA, which is the headquarters for the Seed Savers seed company. We buy a good number of seeds from Seed Savers, and Mike is all about the heirloom tomatoes, so it's fun to try all the different varieties. We had fun and found a few new varieties of tomatoes and flowers to try next year.

Here are some pictures from our visit to the farm:

in line to taste tomatoes!

Now, I'd like to share a few notes on what worked well and what didn't for my container gardens.

The Best

Zinnias, coleus, and snapdragons, all of which I started from seed. The zinnias are visited often by butterflies, hummingbirds, and yellow finches, which makes it really fun to have these right outside the kitchen windows. And it's nice to have a butterfly-attracting flower that does not also attract bees.

Mint (chocolate mint and spearmint), which I bought as plants and took off like crazy. They look great all summer, and I make them into tea. I'm hoping to overwinter these in their pots outside.

Bacopa in my hanging basket. This one just did great. I'd like to keep this inside over the winter or possibly try to grow it from seed. It's one of the slightly pricier annuals, and it does so well that it'd be nice to grow them myself.

Sweet potato vines. These are one of my favorite spillers for containers. They just thrive in the summer heat.

The Pretty Good

Creeping Jenny. Just love the green color and cool leaf shape. But mine got eaten off by a mouse when we left the plant overnight in the garage. I think I'll be trying it again.

Basil. I think it's just begging for a bigger pot. Lesson learned. Get a really big pot dedicated just to basil.

Calendula. Not quite as spectacular as zinnias, and once done flowering just have to be cut off. But a good fill in and I like the color.

Petunias. When they really thrive and are very floriferous, the dead-heading gets to be a bit tedious.

Dianthus. Kind of got overshadowed by the petunias. Would like to try these in a cool-weather container with pansies and kale. Speaking of which, the cool weather container of kale and pansies was bleh by mid-June. Might be better to have a shaded area to move it out of the way to until putting it back on display in the Fall.

The Not So Good

Lobelia. I just love these things. They get me every time at the nursery. They're just so beautiful. But they seem to like things a little more cool and moist than I provide. I almost kill them every year. If I get any next year, I definitely will plan to keep them in the shade in a spot that's easy to water often.

Gaura. This would have been a great thriller for my containers, but the Japanese beetles nearly destroyed it and it is just now starting to flower again. In the absence of beetles, it would be awesome.

Future Plans

More vegetables in containers near the house, for the sake of convenience. Particularly lettuce, but I would also like to try cilantro, maybe some other herbs, and possibly a tomato. Having edibles mixed with decorative plants also lends a utilitarian depth to the container garden that I find attractive.

More flowers started from seeds. They just did so well, and they are so much cheaper than buying the plants, that I look forward to doing more of this. I might try to do it all from seed and cuttings next year. Just need to find good examples of all 3 categories (thrillers, fillers and spillers) that I can start myself to make this work!