| Creating your own container garden can be so much | | | | The best place to use your fragrant plants is in |
| fun, especially if you think of using themes. Consider | | | | garden pots on your deck or patio. This is where we |
| showing off your style with a small kitchen garden, | | | | can enjoy their lovely scents when relaxing in the |
| or create an outdoor pot designed to attract | | | | evening. Mix scented plants with foliage or flowers |
| hummingbirds or to welcome butterflies. Our beings | | | | and see what you can come up with. Some plants, |
| are drawn to beautiful scents, what about a | | | | such as heliotrope, can be enjoyed once they begin |
| container giving off wonderful fragrances. | | | | to bloom and for the rest of the summer. Lilies that |
| Culinary containers or kitchen gardens are especially | | | | have been forced in your pots can be moved to the |
| handy as a source of herbs, leafy lettuce or parsley, | | | | garden after they bloom. Others such as tuberoses |
| or even edible flowers. You may wish to combine | | | | may have to be moved indoors before frost and |
| many edibles to create your own miniature garden at | | | | then brought out again next year. Dahlias and of |
| the door. Combining edibles with your flowering or | | | | course geraniums make a great show and a delightful |
| ornamental plants can be so attractive - imagine | | | | addition to your container gardens. |
| Beefsteak Tomatoes surrounded by basil or oregano. | | | | Hummingbirds will arrive right on your deck or patio if |
| For foliage color, use green and purple leaved basils, | | | | you give them the proper encouragement. Along with |
| leaf lettuce and Swiss chard. Parsley is especially | | | | your hummingbird feeder, some of the best container |
| great, goes anywhere, and adds attractive texture | | | | plants to attract them are annual sages. They come |
| and rich green color to any container combination. | | | | in so many colors from bright red to shades of |
| Nasturtiums are grown for their showy, spurred | | | | mauve and purpose to creamy white and pink. Try |
| flowers and trailing ones are sensational in your | | | | out one or more of them in your garden pots. You |
| planters - they are edible and give a finished look to | | | | may also use Nicotiana plant, petunias and dwarf |
| the container. | | | | dahlias too. |
| Herbs that work wonderfully well in culinary | | | | To keep all of our container plants going all summer, |
| containers are chives, lemon balm, rosemary, | | | | deadhead regularly and of course water and feed on |
| different sages and oregano. Lemongrass is | | | | a timely basis. When plants become scrawny or |
| wonderful in soups and adds a nice vertical accent to | | | | leggy, just cut them back hard in mid-summer and |
| any planter or outdoor pot. | | | | then they will produce more new flowers and foliage |
| And then of course there are those peppers, both | | | | within a few weeks. Your containers will be beautiful |
| colorful and hot. Cherry tomatoes should not be | | | | right into the cool Fall weather. |
| forgotten, they look pretty in your arrangements and | | | | In summary, create theme container combinations. |
| the spectacular patio tomatoes are there for the | | | | They can be ones either for the kitchen, to give off |
| picking. Don't forget arugula and of course golden | | | | wonderful fragrances and of course to attract |
| thyme for another theme. | | | | hummingbirds and butterflies. |