Pots Are Like Rooms!

We have about 45 large ceramic or stone pots peppered all over our property.  Most of them came from Dan's California yard and we had them all emptied, cleaned and carefully packed for the cross country move.  They wintered over wrapped and stacked around the pool and then in the spring of 2014 I rolled or dragged or hauled them on a dolly to various locations on the property.  Most of these pots are huge and were not cheap so we worried about how they would fare over New England winters.  I've had many pots crack and dissolve over a couple seasons but I also have some at the Yellow House I bought at a drug store like Rite Aid that came on the move from Nevada 17 years ago and are still intact and sit out year round.  The key is that the pots be well made and properly fired.  None of these pots are drug store pots so I did some research to learn how to preserve pots that sit outside year after year.  One blogger who is a gardener in Alaska reported that she has never lost a pot once and this is what she does and what we decided to do to and so far so good.

Step one:  add a few inches of crushed stone to the bottom of the pot to aid drainage.
Step two:  add a mix of packing peanuts and empty 16 oz soda/water bottles with lids on so there is a cushion of air inside - we saved our soda and water bottles all winter and bought peanuts by the garbage bagful at a mail/fedex store.
Fill the large pots so that they are about half full of the bottles/peanuts and then fill the rest of the pot to the top with a good sterile potting soil.  The soil goes in and fills all the crevices and then has a large layer in the top half that is just soil.  The peanuts and bottles have some cushiony give to them so that when pots get wet and freeze and thaw over and over, the expansion presses against them and not the sides of the pots which causes the eventual cracking.  Last year we had a doozy of a winter - so much snow, so bitterly cold and we didn't lose any pots!  I did pull out all the dead plants before winter set in and just left them exposed and uncovered.

With 45 pots, I feel like I have 45 rooms to decorate each season - just about each one is distinct except for a few that are in pairs so they are planted identically.  Here are examples of all the little "rooms" around the yard this season.  If you don't care about flowers you will probably not enjoy this post!  For me it's a record of how I planted each one and a guide in case I want to duplicate one for another year.

This pot above is 30 inches high and bright cobalt blue but you can't see it nestled in this bed of annuals.

This one has all but disappeared in the long sun border.

This one sits on an old stump.

Twin sentinels in front of the pool house.

Stock tank tomatoes, basil, peppers and the second sowing of lettuces.  Herbs in pots in front.

This is the only small pot I think.

In several of the borders or beds, even though the pots are very large, they disappear leaving the flowers standing out as if they were shrubs.  It's great for bursts of continuous color.

Oops - a bit crooked (the picture, not the pot).

You can't tell in the pic but this pot in 3 feet high.

Pots on the kitchen door stoop.

The pot with the rose begonias has a veil of purple flowers underplanted that have reached the ground.

The pot is on the right but in this colorful border it just blends in.

These two on either side of the arbor have clematis growing and they managed to survive last winter in the pots with some mulching material on top.

Another one sitting on an old tree stump.  This pot is 3 feet wide and 2 feet tall.   The stump is enormous and I wish I could have seen the original tree when it was still alive and known how old it was before it fell or was felled.

A border by the pool.  You can't even detect the pots in there.

Four pots in the wall border that are also hidden.

There are four 3 foot tall pots along the back of the pool fence.  Below are four examples of what are in those pots.

This one makes me think of a thumb and a pointer finger aimed at the sky.

 Two large pots sit in this border and they add height with color but you can't see the pots anymore.

Now for something different below.

 I planted about 70 dahlia tubers all over the yard; some in pots but most in the borders and look at this mini pompon dahlia above that I picked today - so precious!  The dahlias are starting to explode with color everywhere and the show is going to be awesome!

 Below is not a dahlia, rather a new breed of gomphrena/globe amaranth this season called Fireworks.  The plants grows on very tall and airy stems like verbena bonariensis.  I'm crazy about it! They grow 4 feet tall and I put them every where this season, both in borders and pots.

The picture below is unrelated to pots or dahlias.  I just liked the look of the red foliage in the family room window early in the morning.  I just couldn't imagine life without plants and flowers!