Every year it seems like it is time to replant and decide if we are
going to have a produce garden or not and if we are going to keep the
flower garden the same or not. There are those of you who live in big
cities and apartments and you are saying oh I wish I had the room to
garden. Good news, you can, just not on as big a scale as urban and
country folk.
For those who have limited space
There are
potting gardens and these gardens can be any size you want. You can even
grow vegetables in flower pots. The vegetables that grow the best in
flower pots are tomatoes, beans, herbs, carrots and other small
vegetables. I would not try to grow corn; however I am not saying you
cannot try. There are even dwarf fruit trees that do very well in pots.
Dwarf fruit trees such as; banana, oranges, apples and even pomegranate.
These dwarf trees grow from four to eight feet in height which make
them ideal for patio or balcony. They need to be able to be moved inside
in the colder regions.
Flower pot gardens can be planted in any
size pots, but care must be given to the size and number of planes to
be grown in the pot. Potted gardens are only limited to the imagination.
There are water gardens, hanging gardens, even "fairy" gardens and
terrariums.
Planting full size gardens
When deciding
what to plant in a flower garden, it is best to use a catalog so you can
see what the flowers will look like; however, you will want to compare
prices. For example; a four foot by six foot butterfly/hummingbird
garden with 29 plants sold as a planned garden can costs $32.99 plus
$12.95 shipping; whereas you can buy the plants individually from the
same company with a savings of about $5.00; here how it works. The
garden plan with 29 plants works out to be $1.14/per plant. That sounds
like a really good deal. Now let us look at the real price of each
plant:
- · 1 Rainbow Butterfly bush $3.99
- · 1 Orange trumpet vine 3.99
- · 10 Hardy Perennial lilies 10/6.49
- · 1 Ever-blooming coneflower 2.99
- · 10 Blazing star lilies 10/2.99
- · 3 Blue columbine 3/2.99
- · 3 Dwarf Daylilies 3/5.99
Total: $29.43
These same plants bought individually works out to cost $1.01/per
plant. Because the total is under $30.01, shipping is only $10.95.
Therefore that is another saving of $2.00. It is very important to check
out what is a better deal. Would these same plants, be cheaper at the
local garden center? I am not sure. You would have to shop around to see
which is the better value. These figures came from the Michigan Bulb
catalog spring 2014.
