At our house, seeds are sprouting in the Bio Dome and plants have been ordered for spring delivery, so now it’s time to think about Containers. Every spring we drag out the survivors from the previous season — the motley collection of cracked terracotta and intrepid resin flowerpots, which we are too embarrassed to provide a photo of! — but we also try for a few new containers to greet the new garden.

So let’s look at what’s available at Park Seed this season:

Verti-Plants

We have already ordered 2 sets of Verti-Plants, and can’t wait to put them in! These new hanging wall pouches have been at the top of the list ever since we first learned of them last fall. They come from England, where they won a gardening award, and we are excited about them because we’ve been looking for something to put in the dog run — a long, narrow, sun-soaked side yard where nothing will ever Grow in the ground and which is too narrow for freestanding planters. Bordered by the house wall on one side and an unattractive 6-foot fence on the other, it’s an eyesore that just happens to be overlooked by a window in the den.

Verti-Plants is perfect because each panel (a set has 2 panels) has 6 planting pouches, stacked in pairs. So for the top layer, which will be in blazing west Texas sun, we’re thinking Portulaca and dwarf Sedum. For the shadier second and third layers, some of those Geraniums from the Bio Dome (see pic above), plus herbs.

Plantscape Vertical Planting Panels

Originally we thought of investing in the Plantscape Vertical Planting Panels for the dog run, which fascinate us but would be wasted in an area where nobody except the dogs will really see them. They come with their own irrigation system, though, which is really tempting since the dog run is far from the hose!

So instead, we are tentatively planning to use the Plantscape system alongside a paved walkway in the backyard. The previous owners installed a flat wooden trellis here in the hope of covering up a bunch of electrical boxes and pipes. (It didn’t work.) The Plantscape Vertical Planting Panels would be fabulous there, and would entirely hide the boxes and pipes.

Dirt (cheap) Pots and Bags

Dirt Pots are new this season, and the price is right! We’re excited about trying these flexible, breathable, re-usable bags (guess they couldn’t really name them Dirt Bags, could they?!). We love that they can be stuffed into tight corners, hosed down after the plant is gone, and moved easily via the super-sturdy handles. All this for under $6? Yes, please!

Flower Pouches and Growin’ Bags

Speaking of dirt cheap, these hanging bags continue to sell like hotcakes here at Park, and it’s easy to see why. You just fill them with soil, tuck in your plants, and sling them up anywhere! Presto — you can now grow your whole strawberry crop (or flowers, or any trailing vegetable variety) without using an inch of garden space! We like getting edibles out of the dirt and up to eye level. And the price is so right!

Eco-Planters

We have been very pleasantly surprised by this product. It was originally a Christmas gift item at our sister company, Jackson & Perkins, but once we tried these nifty little glass containers in the office windowsills, we begged to offer them here at Park Seed. Hydroponic growing has never been so easy and pretty!

This is a complete kit, and here’s how it works: you fill the glass jar about half full of water, then fill the little stainless-steel net pot with recycled glass beads, set the gourmet herb seeds (included — everything’s included!) in the germination pellet, drop the hemp wicks out from the base of the net pot, and put the whole shebang into the top of the jar. Now you have a self-watering herb that you can grow in the kitchen and snip leaves from any time you like! And of course you will use the system again and again, replacing nothing but the seeds and the germination pellet, for which you can use a Jiffy-7, a bio sponge from your Bio Dome, or simply a handful of grow mix.

We also love supporting the Eco-Planter folks because they work with agencies that employ developmentally disabled adults here in the USA to assemble the kits.

Tomato Containers

It’s tomato time, and we are always looking for new ways to grow America’s favorite homegrown veggie! This season we’re debuting the Tomato and Pepper Tree, a combination self-watering container and expandable support. The price is right on this one too, considering you get a good deep pot with a water reservoir in the base, plus 3 risers and circular support disks that you can add, one by one, up to 3 feet high as your tomato or pepper plant grows.

For bigger plants, the Tomato Barrel is also a self-watering container with an add-as-you-go support trellis. It costs a bit more, reflecting its larger capacity and taller (4-foot) “tree.”

Accessible Garden Containers

One of our goals here at Park is to keep us all gardening our whole life long, so we are always looking for new ways to bring the garden to the gardener, instead of the other way around! Elevated garden beds are terrific for those using wheelchairs or walkers, as well as for all of us who have pavement where we would prefer to have soil!

We also love the new Raised Bed Trellis Kit, which enables us to grow a nice big bed of climbing plants without kneeling on the hard ground. The Trio Cottage Planter is another great innovation, combining 3 extra-large, self-watering containers together in one handsome wicker trough. And then there are the rain barrels with planters built in to the top of the barrels, handy for wheelchair gardening and very attractive!

New Pots, Baskets, and Window Boxes

Of course, we also have the full range of “traditional” planters, window boxes, and hanging baskets. Many of these are now self-watering, such as the new WaterWell and Ella series. Much more durable and better designed than older models, these new planters can help make our container gardens truly self-maintaining during those super-hot, dry summer weeks!

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