Dear Helen: This year, for the first time in my life, I’ll be “gardening” without a garden. I’ve moved into a condo with a large deck and am looking into what I might be able to grow in containers. Selecting small-growing flowers will be easy, but finding vegetables that will produce well in pots and planters will be more complicated. Having some of my own fresh, home-grown food is important to me. Can you direct me to basic information on container gardening and to seed sources for appropriate vegetables?
H.V.
If you type “West Coast Seeds + Growing Food in Containers” into a search engine you will find basic information on containers and soil, followed by a list of vegetable, herb, and flower varieties. Click on a variety of interest to you for a photo and description, as well as an option to order the seeds. ()
Consider making a list first of the edibles and flowers you would most like to grow and begin acquiring seeds and suitable containers for them.
Most people like salad vegetables, which are easy to grow given coolish conditions. There are many small lettuces like Tom Thumb, a baby butterhead, and mini-romaines of the Little Gem type. Small-bush snap beans, short-rooted carrots and patio tomatoes are popular, easy container plants.
I noticed recently, on the Salt Spring Seeds website (), a book called Grow Without a Garden: 101 Plants for Containers. The vegetables and herbs are accompanied by descriptions, growing tips, and charming illustrations. This could be a worthwhile investment in your upcoming adventure. Click on Store and then go to Books.
I find lightweight containers most convenient. Some of mine are the colour of terracotta. They are widely available. I have some window box shaped ones, which I find useful for mini-rows of dwarf basil.
Garage sales are sometimes a source of pots and planters at low prices. People moving away often choose not to have such items shipped to their new home.
An online seed catalogue that has an extensive and interesting selection of vegetables for containers is Renee’s Garden (). Click on Vegetables and then on Container Variety Sampler to find varieties of beets, beans, carrots, chard, cucumber, kale, salad greens, spinach, zucchini, snap pea and more.
Renee’s Baby Belle peppers and Inca Jewels (Roma) tomato have done well for me in patio pots.
Best of all, the website is a pleasure to use. Clicking on a variety delivers photos, a detailed description, and full planting, harvesting and using information.
Dear Helen: In a recent column you wrote about pruning in summer to avoid the production of suckering (water sprout) growth on apple trees. Does this apply also to hawthorn trees?
M.M.
It is generally recommended to prune hawthorn trees minimally, only to remove broken, diseased and crossing branches that are rubbing. Anything more does tend to produce a flush of new and suckering growth.
Late winter, before the sap begins flowing and growth buds swell, is considered the best main pruning time for these trees, though some tidying can be done as soon as the spring flowers fade. Buds that will become next year’s flowers begin to form right after the flowering period.
Suckers that appear around the tree’s base and along the trunk are best removed as soon as they appear. The basic aim in tending these trees is to keep them neat looking.
Dear Helen: In the week before Christmas, I bought a lovely poinsettia to place at a kitchen window. It was fine over the holidays, but now some of the leaves have begun dropping. Can this be stopped?
F.L.
Leaf drop in poinsettias is a common problem in many or our homes. Hot air ducts are often located directly under windowsills where the plants are located and hot (or cold) drafts are a common cause of leaf drop. Poor light, inadequate soil moisture, dry air and cold temperatures are other usual causes.
Poinsettias do well in evenly warm to just slightly cool temperatures that stay above 15 C. They need the brightest possible winter light but protection from direct, hot sun.
Water a poinsettia when the soil feels dry and the pot feels light when lifted. If the pot is enclosed in a watertight wrapping, removing the base of the casing will allow the pot to drain away excess moisture into its drainage tray.
