Unusual pots decorate yard after container gardening class

Lowe's was having four seminars on container gardening. I needed some lumber and thought this would be a fun class to attend. Kathy Rosten, a master gardener and a Carson Valley resident, was the host of the class.

Rosten demonstrated how to put the potting soil in the beautiful antique brass-looking oval pot; it looked like the kind of pot you'd fill with ice and soda pop. Rosten explained about how the new potting soils now available have these little beads in them which will help retain moisture so your don't need to water as much. We got to take home free samples of the beads to add to our plants at home.

To this beautiful oval pot, Rosten added a tall flowering plant, some shorter colorful flowers and then some traveling light green ground cover. This collection was for a shady area of the yard. At the end of the class, a name was pulled from the hat, and another lady in attendance won the decorated pot. Lucky her.

I started browsing around figuring this is an idea that would make a nice addition somewhere in my yard. As I searched for the right pot, I noticed all the other ladies who had watched Rosten do magic with a pot, were looking for a new container for their yards.

I thought, "I have a container at home that needs to be worked with."

Remember the new toilet I got last year for Mother's Day, and how the old one got placed in the perfect spot in our back yard with a "red hot poker" plant in it? Well, last fall, my sister was teasing me about why all Nevadans have toilets in their yards and how "no one in California does that." That's when her boyfriend stepped in and said, "Hey, I have a pretty pink bath tub that's been sitting by the side of my house for years and it would accompany your toilet very well." He even delivered it.

So, Rosten helped me find just the right plants for my tub - two evergreen shrubs for the back of the tub. They have small, dark green, glossy leaves and will grow to be about 5 feet tall. That is good because that way they'll hide the back side of the tub that isn't very pretty.

My next-door neighbor will surely appreciate that, since that's all he can see of my pretty pink tub. Then in the center of the tub is a yellow and light green shrub that will only grow to be about 3 feet tall. A flowering type of garlic borders the shrub with flowering perennials in front of that.

Thanks Kathy for all your help.

Container gardening is fun and doesn't have to take up lots of room. Why don't you give it a try?

-- Lisa Welch is a Johnson Lane resident and can be reached at 267-9350.