Decorate garden with colorful containers

LINDON — Now is a good time to make a summer check of your flower garden, including your containers. Experienced gardeners know that flowers in containers that are fading now aren't likely to rebound.

For some help, I visited Cheryl Nixon's garden in Lindon. Her garden is awash in color with great borders of annuals and perennials. As showy as these were, it was Nixon's container plants that really caught my eye.

Nixon grew up in Chicago, where she enjoyed a limited exposure to gardening with her father. While living in apartments, she tried to grow something in a variety of containers and pots.

"One of the reasons I like to garden is that I like to decorate," Nixon said. "It is so fun, because when summer comes, you can decorate on a budget outside in the garden."

When I asked her to reveal her secrets, she maintained that there were none. "I really don't do anything out of the ordinary. I water and fertilize and let them grow."

But she did offer some additional tips.

Her first recommendation is to use good soil. "I used Miracle Grow two years ago and then last year I used a Sunshine Professional blend," she said.

Next, she recommends using the right plants. "I use a lot of the Proven Winners that I get at Hyde Park. I particularly like the Superpetunias, and I think they are the best kind to grow in containers."

In addition to the Superpertunias, she uses many other showy plants in her containers, including phlox, zinnias, plectranthus and verbena. By intermixing planters with the shrubs in her landscape — and additional shrubs in pots — she extends the dramatic show of her container gardens.

Nixon is careful to make certain the plants get enough fertilizer. Typically, plants in containers are underfertilized because the artificial soils have no nutrients. Lack of fertilizer keeps the plants small and the blossoms meager.

"I start by mixing Osmocote into the planting mix," Nixon said. "This is a good slow-release fertilizer that helps them (plants) grow well." She fertilizes on a weekly basis, "sometimes a little more if I'm not too tired." She uses a scoop of soluble fertilizer in her watering can.

Her next secret is watering. "I do most of the watering with a hose. The plants on my front porch have a drip system, but I find I still need to do some hand watering. Now that it is really hot, I am watering twice a day."

She follows the same techniques in her borders and beds. Her plant selection involves some experimentation or, as she likes to describe it, trial and error. Verbenas and zinnias are two of her favorites this year.