Join the Penn State Alumni Association on February 27th for a special PSAA Presents virtual demonstration. Learn the ins and outs of container gardening with the help of master gardeners Andy Faust & Molly Sturniolo!
March can be a tricky month when it comes to weather and spring planting. Warm, sunny days may lead you to impulse-buy those tempting tomato starts at the hardware store, but frosty night temperatures make it nearly impossible to put anything in the ground. Container gardens are the perfect cure for spring gardening fever! Master Gardener Coordinators Andy Faust and Molly Sturniolo will show you the steps to create a lush, and even edible, patio garden that will be the envy of your neighbors all season.
Andy Faust is currently the Area Master Gardener Coordinator for Extension’s Horticulture Unit, covering 15 counties in the northwest corner of PA. His primary focus is leading/supporting program teams across the region, delivering state educational program & initiatives, creating opportunities for volunteers and building sustainable program partnerships. He is a graduate from Penn State with a BS in the Horticulture Landscape program, and minor in Ag Business. He then obtained an MBA during his 17 years in the green industry. Andy is also a Navy Seabee veteran, and a Master Gardener in Centre County. He and his wife, Andrea, have two teenage sons, Zander and Spencer, that are active in ice hockey and enjoy all things outdoors.
Molly Sturniolo has been a Master Gardener Coordinator for Penn State Extension in Centre County for nearly 17 years. Her primary goals are to bring horticulture outreach to the residents of Centre County and beyond, to provide continuing education topics for volunteers, to train new volunteers, and to manage outreach requests and events across the county. Molly’s personal garden focus centers on native plants, gardening for pollinators, and entomology.
>> Good evening, everyone. Welcome to thePennState alumni Association tonight. Drop inthe chat where you are joining fromthis evening and if atany point if you have questions put them intheQ &A andplease remain on mute unless you have a questionsoit makes it easier for everyone to hear. We will be gettingstarted momentarily. Live aclose-captioned are available forthis event. You can access them by hittingthe close-captioned button atthe bottom of the zoom window andclick show subtitle. Youcan customize your caption view byclicking the linkin thechat box. Iwould like to introduce Andyand Molly who serve as master gardenerswithPenn Stateextension. >> Thank you, James. >> ThanksJames. Good evening everyone I’m gladyou mentioned that everyone to drop that inthe chatwhere you are from. It’s good forus to knowas presenters what zone you are in. Whatgrowing zone you are in. Looks likewith folks fromMaryland, Maine and lotsof folks from Pennsylvaniaand >> North Carolina. Florida. Excellent. Welcome, everyone. >> Welcome. I will share my screen and wecan startthe session. >> Again, good evening everyone and welcome and thankyou James, for having us back hereagain. The master gardener program is certainly excited to behere tonightand continue to providehorticulture to PennState alum . I’m an alum as well and it’s greatto have you here and see everyone puttingin the chat where you are from. I would loveto see what zone you are in. Growing zonewise. Andwhereabouts the country you’re resuminginfrom tonight. Again, my name is Andy andI work for Penn State extension inthe horticulture unit. To cover ourprograms inthe Northwest region, in the northwestof the state. I’m also Penn Statealum andgraduate from the College of ag andlive here in happy Valley. You alwayshave friends inMolly and I here. Joining meis Mollyare master gardener here incenter County. >> High, and thankyou forjoining us to talk aboutcontainergardening. >> So like Mollysaid our subject is container gardening. Iwant to share more about extensionand the mastergardener program. Who is Penn State extension? Weare part ofthe College of agriculture and theextension including Mollyand I and Associates work with facultyto bringPenn Stateresearch to Pennsylvania communitieswhere you live. We have an office ineverycounty. 67 counties inPennsylvania andan office in each one of them. We are educatorsand live in the communities that weare serving. We have many differentprogrammingspecialties covering everything ringfrom4H as you’re familiar with. Developmenttoanimal systems. Food safety and agronomy naturalresources and weare partof thehorticulture unit. And the guiding principleiswe believe all people should have accesstoscience-based education. What is our mission. The missionof the master gardener program? The mastergardener volunteer program supports theoutreach extensionbyutilizedon bileunbiased research-based informationto educate the public and our committees. We focus on bestpractices and sustainable horticulture andenvironmental stewardship. Asa program we have almost 4000 master gardenersacross the state of Pennsylvania did a lotof volunteers acrossthe state. And here we are. Youcan seethis heat map showing our geographicalfootprint acrossthe state. As youcan see, we are in every countyshown in blue and the larger concentrationofmaster gardeners are in the orangeand red that you see. In Pittsburghyou couldsave the large programs in the westernpart of state. The southwestern parttwo traveling SouthCentral. Lancaster. Harrisburgmarket and to the east in Philly. Andup towards Scranton inthe top right and then here in center County wherewe are in thecenter of PA. And a large groupup in that area as well. Almost 4000strong across the state. And I have tosay again we are ourcommunities. Master gardenerslearn. Mastergardeners teach. And we grow withour committees. Andwe educate through many of the thingsyoucan see on thescreen through presentations. We do aton of workshops and radio spots. Wedeliver writingand articles. We do a lot ofresearch collaborations, school programs, just to namea few. onthisannual report and impacts light from2022 and2023 are gardenersfromacrossthe state. Contributingto almost 200,000 volunteer hours. That isreally awesome. And it’s good to startoff with a poll question. James willlaunch this poll question. We wonderif you engage with themaster gardeners where you live inPennsylvania. And those of you notzooming in tonight from Pennsylvania,many states haveextension outletsand horticulture units. Make sureyou are utilizingthe services where you live. We wanttoknow, have you engage with the mastergardener program inyour community inthe past by attending a workshop. Have you maybe contacted ourgarden hotline and answered a question. Have youread about our content on the website thatwe havedone? Have you attended a plant sale. Have you attended a master gardenerwebinar? If you haven’t engage, letus know. Looks like it’s interestingto see this. Sofar it looks like we have 38% ofyou have engaged with master gardeners inthe past. That’s goodto know. We have lots more workto do. >> It looks likewe are up to 77% have answered. If you have not answered yetplease go in and youcan choose all thatapply withthis poll. It’s interesting to see the resultscoming in and Andy, when you are ready toshare them, very interesting information. >>So far in the poll here,basically have itsplitat 25% of you have attendedworkshop. 20% answered questions. 35 attendeda plantsale. Many of you are visiting acrossthe state and youcan all share the results and you can seethat. Great. We have work to do. 35%of you haven’t engage with mastergardeners. Goodto know. I would be onthe lookout for the extension officein your area and maybe connectwith that office and visit the website andget to know thefolks there if you have questions pertaining toany of the units we have or horticulture, feelfree to reach out. We will closethis down. Andmove on. Andagain, you too can become a mastergardener in your county ifyou like. Basictraining is open to individuals thatare 18 and older interested in becoming volunteers andcheering with thepublic through community outreachand education. Like you said, youcan contact your county extension office fordetails or goto the website to learn about theprogram. Andreally contact the coordinator inthat county to learn aboutnext steps. The basic training classis winding down for the year now. But we will be back up in our Toberof 2024. You could use the QR code to takeyou to our website or learnmore about our program andabout the master gardener program orjust GooglePenn State extension master gardener as well andtake you toour website. Okay. Tonight , what arewe going to focus on? We are focusing oncontainer We want to spendtimewith you to sparksome creativity. And show you some examplesof container gardening. And inspireyou to try this at And focuson best practices implanting acontainer garden and at the timeat the end you can plug questions into theQ & A. We can answer those questions andprovide resources for youas >> One more poll question. Alittle more about why you are interested incontainer gardening. Let’s launchanother quick poll. James if youcould launch that for us and we canunderstand Why is container gardeningof interestto you? Tell us why. Is it becauseyou have limited Isitbecause you have limited time? Youare pressed for time. Oryou enjoy growingpatio Maybe want to enhanceyour outdoorspace. That’s awesome to do. You liketo experiment with plants and differenttypes ofplants. I don’twant to spend a lot of money. Right? Maybecontainer gardening fits for this. Maybe you have poor soil. It lookslike we areat 80% participation. Good. Lookslike right now it looks like a lotof you got 75% are looking to enhanceyouroutdoor space. We will close the pull down andwe canand that and then look at these resultsfor a minute. 75% of you are lookingto really enhance your outdoorspace providing somedesign, landscapedesign techniques. Flashes of color. Scale. Texture. Those are principles ofdesign. I like that. Looks like 50% of youlike to experiment with differenttypesof plants. Half of you havelimited space. That’s good to know. Maybe you live ina condominium or townhouseor apartment. Not a lot ofspace or property to do that. Good. What do youthink Molly? Good informationto know about the audits tonight. We willclose that down and getinto things. >> From looking at thepollresults, it’s pretty clearto see how container gardening can bring somevalue to you. We have manyconversations with community folksandthey say similar things. Theysay Andy, I want to domore gardening. And I want to improve my landscapeand I really don’thave this case. I don’t have the time. I just growingvegetables outside. Butmy soilis terrible. Or they just don’t want to spend a lot ofmoneydoing this. For these reasons andmany others, container gardening canbe a solution and perhapsit’s underutilized. Maybe it is. Molly,what you think? Is container gardening underutilizedwhen you look at >> Ithink that people love to see beautifulcontainers either on your porch andAndy,I will justinsert a tip here, if youdon’t mind. In my garden beds, if Ihave anempty’s base, I will plant a containerand put right in thatgarden bed. It makesa pleasing sight to see thewhole gardenbed flowered. And you can change the lookof yourbeds and containers. >> Absolutely. >>No doubt about the plants add value and beauty. That’s whatyou’re talking about to the landscape. They can draw attention tofeatures ormaybe hide some unsightly views. Utilizingspaces to incorporate plants intoa space canbe created, it can be healthy. And itis rewarding. And exciting toenhance your property. There’s somany different ways to usecontainers. Backyard gardening forvegetables continues to build momentum. We have so manypeople that call and they want tostart theirbackyard garden. And it is importantto learn how todo that. A couple of pictures we haveup. I will use my pointer toshow you these. This first picturehere, it’s more fromahealthy lens. An example of vegetablesbeing grown in a raisedcontainer bed. These containers areactually made of the rain barrelscutin half. A good way to utilizea container and grow vegetablesfor health. Maybe you enjoysucculent plants. Is there way you are lookingto display them. Anothergood example. How creative is thisexample withthe petunias in the side of the mailbox. Using small wooden planters. It really emphasizes and brings valuetothe mailbox. Pretty neat to see. Container gardening isn’tjust for annuals and perennials. Right, Molly? We can use themfor ornamental plants. You can see thephoto here. Youcan highlight or make a focal pointusing thisis boxwood inthe planter next to the garden bench. You can utilize it indifferent ways. And also helps to softenthe Ifyouneed to have a pop of color and thoseof you say you want to enhance yourproperty. This flushed out set ofpetunias is bringing that coloredforward right now soit certainly does thetrick. >> There’s also uniqueand ornateplanters like these that are shown here. scale to thespace and create a focalpoint. The scale is an element of designthat reallybrings balance so you can utilizethose inyour landscape. Something else that’spicked upmomentum the pastseveral years our grow bags. Haveyou ever use thesebefore? Grow bags. Theyare basically growing containers typicallymade of some type ofporous fabric. And they offer advantages from portability to croprotation. Harvesting vegetablescan be easy and the banks canbe placed just about really anywhere. Inthe past 5-7 years orso they have gained popularity forhome gardeners. Improving on theirpredecessors, the empty plastic orburlap bags. Thiswill up the ante asfar as using containergrow bags. morerigid. They’re availablein many sizes and forreally excellent In themake it easyto grow shrubsandsmall spaces. It makes good senseand can be alternativeforallkinds ofurban gardeners. Those of you whoare heretonight that are in an apartment complexor kinda main and smaller yards. Like Isaid apartments andyou can draw growyour fresh tomatoes and perennialsright there on your patio anddeck and enjoy it for all seasonlong. Essentially you can locateyour garden. This is a gamechanger. Because you can have an assortment ofthese onyour backdeck and patio. You can literally moveyour garden and relocate them. And youcan research grow bags they’re notthat expensive. And youcan get to gallon or five gallonor up to 15 gallon which is really big. But evenfor the smallest cut 25or $30 you can get yourself a pairofthree bags and use them. Plans tocomeacross from friends or family anddrop it in the grow bag and add yoursoil and monitor it throughout theseason. So experiment with theseand no that try to incorporate athe landscapespecially for professionals. If you reallywant to expand, here you go. There’s alwaysa place for plants. I have a goodfriendof mine and he said every time I seeplantson someone’s bytheir garbage pickup they grab themand take them backand I’ve done thatmyself too. Given aplace to live. This is an example and had toshare this with everyone. All right. Here’san example of a planterand we can talkthrough this. March is right aroundthe corner. It’s actually on Friday. Everyone’s gettingspring fever. Here’s an example of a planter thatwas purchased in early March and backin 2020 froma colleague of ours in the Delta. Was purchased at a garden center ofa local box store and it’s an exampleof companionplanting. Companion planting is thepractice of going several types of cropsor plants near oneanother to enhance crop productionor it makes better use of space. I like to useit to make better useof the space but you can plant fruitsor vegetables with flowers orherbsand vegetables. Herbaceous vegetables. Provideseveral natural resources to the gardenerto that space. Thus sense of the bright colors ofwhat you are planting can oftentimesrepeland confuseharmful pests that might be coming intoyour property. And also can attractbeneficialinsects including pollinators. Soit’s really fun experience with companionplanting. This example wehave daffodils. In the backside. Wehave cauliflower vegetables. We havea perennialhere. Bulb. The daffodilsand cauliflower. Viola’s which arethe pansies. Allpansies are miles and not our goalsarepansies if you didn’t know that. Thisis an example. Threedifferent plants. Let’s see how this progressesover time. I want to share this. Look at this transition. That wasin early March. Thatwas planted. May 11th. You can seethatthe cauliflower is getting largerandcoming out the side ofthe planter. And by the end of May, youbasically have something that youcan eat. Ithinkit says a lot. This picturesays a lot. We could have small spaceand bought at theboxstore. The local landscape store. It wasalready planted. And look what came outofthis. You have beauty and maybe morethan beauty,right? Maybe something you could have for dinner. So think about that. How can you incorporatecontainers forbeauty but also plug-in vegetables. Why not. Do some companion plantingand experimentwith that. Why not. It might be a great addition to yourlunchor dinner. So let’s take a few minutes andgo through five keystocontain your gardening What aresomeof the five keys. Location, numberone. Plant selection. Usingthe appropriate container. Potting mix and waterand fertilizer. Will take a coupleof minutes goingthrough these. Location. What’s missing here? What’s missing from this photo? Take a look at the full sun and thepart shade. At the sunlight. We are missing a lotof sunlight and it matters. So oftenwe get calls and someone says it’snot growinggreatso we asked them how much sunlight are youactually getting? Do you know? And many times the answeris I don’t know how many hours of sunlightI am getting. If you want totake your plantsand planters and container plantsfrom good to great, be in the noteofthe light requirements. Doyour research. Identify theplant needs. And alwaysask yourself, where do I want to putmy container. And what is the sunlightconditions there. How many hours. Full son is 6+ hours. Part son is 4-6. Partshade is 2-4. Jade is lessthan two hours per day. So make sure you knowthat. Dosome research and walk outside andlook atyour space. And timeit. See how much sunlight you areactually getting. Sunlight is real important. Next isplant selection. When selecting plants,it’s often beneficial to have a themein mind. You want to have a themefor your container. And maybethe theme is color. Maybe it’s a typeof plant that is thetheme. The containercan have on mammals,cyclists, herbs and vegetables are the typesof plants. The most importantthing in the matter of the theme is theselect plants requiresimilar growing requirements. Howwould youknow that? How would you know thegrowing records ofplant. >> I would read the tags >> Yes. Make sure you read the tags and spendtime doing that. A succulent cannot be planted with thewater loving plantand theplant that requires full son can’t coexist inthesame container with a shade loving plant. Make sureyou do your research and read the labelto make sure you are select theproper plants. Here’s a couple ofexamplesof annuals. Annual plants. Pansies. You can plant vegetablesin there may be Swisschard or broccoli. Lettuce, peas. Acouple examples of spring annuals youcan plant. In the example Russia beforewe had daffodils. Andspring bulbs. So you canincorporate those. Daffodils andtulips. Bluebellsare great. Incorporate those in your containers. The third thingis containers. Containers should be, just from this. The container should be able to fit the rootsystemof a fully grown plant that you intendto use. So think aboutthat. Do you know how big the plantscan get. Picture of the containerwith it theroot system is a fully grown plant. Larger plants and plantsthat need more routine space. Theyare fora larger container is required butthe biggest pitfallI’ve seen is not having drainage. Yougot to talkabout more about that in a littlebit. Gottahave drainage. Expect potting mix. Numberone Wilcott don’tuse topsoil. Why shouldn’t you use topsoil? A couple ofthings. First of all if you usetopsoil you probably won’t have greatdrainage fromthe pot. Special depending on whereyou live. Ifyou have a high clay soil. Versusa silt. It won’t drain well. Andyou have problems with your So useasoil lessmedium. A blend of material suchas part, perlite,vermiculite or coconutcore and add 50% compost. Makesure you use a soilless medium. It’sreally important. And of course waterand fertilize. So at aslow release fertilizer. It’s usually a small pellet ora thrill. Once it’s establishedyou can go back and usea water-soluble fertilizer at typically 4-6 weeksafterwards and be sure you check thewater daily depending on your sonrequirements. This is just for comparisonuse and not an endorsement ofmiracle grow but it works SoMolly, I will turn this over to youandyou can share the next stage of thepresentation tonight. You can loadyours up. Again if anyone has questions go ahead and enter them inthe Q& A and will have time at the endto answer questions. I hope it helpedto stir creativity for yourcontainers and maybe give yousome ideas for thisupcoming season. So, go for it. >> Thank you,Andy. Helloeveryone, I Molly and so happy to behere with you this evening totalk about container gardening. Let’slook at location first. If I weregoing to puta container garden onthis porch stoop, thereare a few things I would like to note. We can see thatit’s got part son, part shadedue to the overhang of theroof. fromtheDogwood tree that will call causemoredappled shade. Wecan see there on the right there is ashrub. It may be somewhat protected fromthe wind. Let’s talk aboutcontainers. Almost anything is fine as longasit has a drainage hole asAndy mentioned. You can see on the top rightpictureof thedrainage hole. There’s many optionsto purchasecontainersfrom inexpensive to fancy. Have achart on the next page that will comparesomeoptions. Or you canconsider using unusual things that youhave around the house. I haveseen old boots. Don’t throw them away. Drilla hole in the bottom and plant them with some smallplants. I’ve seen galvanized wash tubs oreven bathtubs. Haveyou ever come across a bathtub insomeone’s flower garden that isjust filled and spellingflowers? At least that one has a drainagehole. I’ve seen some bags with pockets thatyou plantfor a cascading effect. And also I’ve seenkids toys like the big Tonka trucksplantedwith flowers. It’s very interesting. Containerscan be reusedfrom year-to-year. If you plan toreuse for anew planting, it’s best to remove any ofthe old plantdebris and/or the media that was inthat pot. Wash it witha 10% bleach solution and then rinseit thoroughly. This will sanitizeit reducingthe potential spreadof disease or insects. So hereis my chart. Comparisons ofcommon containers. This has a lotof informationbutit really shows the difference ofeach typeofcontainer. There are many to choose fromand you want to know how thatcontainer is goingto treat your plants and how itwill contain your plants. So just looking at a couple popularonce. The plastic ones,of course, are very lightweight and easyto find. You can find lots of shapesand sizes and colors. And they lastedprettywell. Maybe notas long as some of the others because theydo break down over time. Theymay not have drainage holes. Youwant to check for that. Andalso plastic pots are very light. Theycan blow orfallover easily. And the colors can fadein the sun. Looking at terra-cotta, that’sa medium to heavy weight pot. It’s easyto findand fairly inexpensive. And what’s fun aboutthese pots as you candecorate them. Give the kids markersandpaints and have them decorate theirown flowerpot and plant their own plantsin it and that’s a great way to teach kidsabout gardening. Terra-cotta pots can requiremore frequent watering. Terra-cottaisporous. So they will dryoutquicker. So I’m givingyou a little time to look over thischart. If you want to come back and viewit again, we cando that. And you want to pick theright container. Using theright pot sizecan mean the difference between havingthriving plants with lots of roomtwo redtheir roots andstruggling root bound ones that can’t reach theirfull potential. A traditional 10-12 inch flowerpot canhold 3-4annuals ofaverage vigor. What does that mean? Thinkabout geraniums — these areplants that just have an averageroot mass. Extra vigorous plantswhichthe 12hot 20containercan contain. Large rootsystems or one potted perennialor shrub in a 10-12 inch pot. A fruit a traditional14-16 inch, but canhave 4-6 plantsof average vigor. Or a single oneor two gallon pottedperennial or shrub. And looking atthe 16-20 inch flour pot, you canfillwith 6-8 annuals of averagevigor. Four extra vigorousplants are single to or threepotted perennial or shrub. For shrubs, you wantto select a pot that holdsat least three gallonsof soil or potting mix. And for trees, five gallon pots are bigger,will workbest. So plant selection. You may have heardof the termthrill, Phil, spillto best fill a container. About thegrowth ofeach plant. -With, information canbe found on the planttags which you always want to read. Ifyou’re using bulbs, spring bulbs areusually short-lived and mayfizzle out during the growing season. Withthe other plantsfill in on your container can you pop anotherannual plant in there to fill the space. There’sa suggestion on here to choose somethingedible. I am personally fondof putting herbs in containers. They smell and a lot of them you walkby them and you runyour fingers over them and they smelldelightful. Having that atthe front door is so convenient notonlyfor the fragrance butto clip off what you might needfor dinner. So I’m going backto the thrill, fill anddispel concept, looking at this drawingwecan see each element in the line drawing. The tall grass asthe thriller grabs your attention anddrawsyour eye. A thriller is the main focalpoint of the container. It might bethe tallest plant and it might havethe largest show we asked flowersor have interesting foliage. It shoulddraw themost attention of all the plants withinthe container. Thefiller, and I can’t see what the plantis in the drawing there inthe middle, but if it were me, I wouldprobably put the coleus in there. You can see the coleus on the rightside onboth containers. Have coleus in both containersas fillers. They are beautiful. Many colors of a plant thatreally is the leaf isthe It has nondescriptflowers but theleavesare beautiful. The fillet usuallyhas moredainty flowers. I’m sorry. More flowers. The filler has moreflowersthan the Spiller orthethriller. If it has any at all. It’sshorter thanthe thriller may not trail over thesides like the Spiller. The filler isthe unifying containergardenand supports the othertwo elements. Then the trailing petuniasthat you see inthis sketch finish the look withgraceful cascades as the Spiller plant. Spiller plant is a plant that spillsoverthe edges. The foliage drapesover the side of the container and it really softens ofthe look. These plants elongate the overallappearance of the container garden andbalance out the heightof thethriller. It–many spellers have flowers but theytend to be simpler or smaller thanthe thriller. They’re typically planted alongthe front and sides of thecontainer garden. Even in this middlesketch, you cantell this container would beaestheticallypleasing. Implanting your containers. Depending onthe location of your container, youmay wantto organize the plant so it will be visuallypleasingfrom all sides as in figure 8. Youwant toknow that you will need to spend thispot or container tokeep thegrowth even. If it’s against the backdropas infigure Byou can plant it so the plants arefacing the front ofthecontainer. >> Plant selection. Your local nurseries will usuallyhavemore knowledgeable employees thanmost rock stores. I’mnot dissing any box storiesbut nursery workerswilloften be moreknowledgeable because they thoseplantsevery day. Inspect the plants when youare purchasing fromanywhere. Sometimes pests and diseasesmay slip through their inspections. Andof course you want toshopat master gardener plant sales. Most counties herein Pennsylvaniaand probablythroughout other dates have plant salestoextend horticulture outreach to thepublic and it’s also a fund Tosupport educational outreach in ourcounties. This isapicture of the 2023 plant salehere in centerCounty. Son requirements. I can’t berepeated enough to be sure to read thetext. Be sure whatyou are planting hascompatible light andwater requirements. If you are addinginvisible to your container, you willneed probablyfull sun. So here are the final choicesfor a container planting. They chose thedaffodils for height. isedible. In the viola or pansyand alyssum which has smallclustered flowersfor color. Hardening off is theprocess in allowing a plant to transition from aprotected indoor orgreenhouse environment to the harshoutdoorconditions of fluctuating,spring andfullsun exposure. And your pottingmix. Use regular potting mix. Some pottingmixes are labeledfor containers. Never use soil dugout ofyour ground, especiallyif you’re here inPA where Andy and I are. We have somuch Clay. Want to mix thesoil with compost ifyou can, to add some nutrients. And don’t fillthe container all the way to the top. You will need roomto add the plants. Aslowrelease fertilizer is recommended for thetop threeinches. So it’s time toplant. Plantingis messy. Newspaper is a good wayto protect your surface. And whatI do,I have an old flannel backedvinyl tablecloth. And that is myplanting tablecloth I will spreadit outon the lawn and spread it out on the porchwherever I have to be. Maybe in the garage on a rainy day andplant and do my repotting implantingnew plants onthat tablecloth. Some plantingtips. Work the roots loose withyour fingers you can score them ifthey arepot bound andcircling. As you see in the middlepicture here, breaking someof the roots will not hurtthe plant. It’s going tobe sad and that is okay. This isnot about instant gratification. It will take a few days for the roots tobecome established in the transplant shock towear off. Some tips for aftercare. Want to cover your containerwhen night temperatures are below40degrees. And the last freeze berriesand changesevery year. Where Andy and I are herein central Pennsylvania, the lastfreeze may notbe until the 20th of May. And you wantto watch for microclimates. A microclimate isthe climateof a very smallor restricted area. Especially when this differsfrom the climate of the surroundingareas. Mountains, rivers and our topographycause differentmicroclimates even within your ownyards. Want to be surenot to overwateror underwater. And be sureto fertilize everyfour weeks. And I lovethis picture of the garden journal. Having notes torefer to is so veryhelpful. Especially ifyou are garden journaling from year to yearwhere you can look back on your successesorfailed plants or notes thatyou may have made that would probablybe helpful. And embrace seasonalchange. It’s so interesting to watch the progressionof multi-plant containers. One plantmay take over and needto be reined in with printing. Or something maydie out as you see here in the middlepicture. If I can draw your attentionto the picture on the right,this is one of my own planters. Itwas after I planted all my annualsand put ina few new perennials that I realizedI had twolarge porch plantersto fill. I gathered up everythingIhad left over and just divided itin halfand what I ended up herewithwas calla lily . They have a longerbloom time and willblow later into the season. Augustthrough September. And thenI added a purple petunia forthe spill because I had it. Andthe white on the rightside, that turned out to be agreat filler. It grew bigger and filled in aroundthe bottom of thecalla lilies. The other part was totallydifferent andequally beautiful. So somecommon mistakes. Things to beaware of. And to watch out for. Over or under watering is a reallybig one. Because there is moreroute competition implants are competing forspace in a The soil willdryout faster and you willneed to water containers more frequently. Containers willdry up quickly during the heat ofthe summer. And you may even, I’vehad to water twicea day to keepthem robust and blooming. Especially if you’reusingthe terra-cotta or clay pots as we talkedabout. Those being porous containers. The wrong size containeris a bigmistake. We talked about the numberof leadsus to thenext point in packing too many plants intothe container. Overcrowding theplants can lead to competition fornutrients, resultinginstunted growth or evenlosing theplants. Forgetting to fertilize isa big one. Allthose roots packed into the tightspace need nutrition from fertilizer. Anddon’t forget aboutit. If you go on vacation for a week inthe heat of August,have someone stop by to water. Youmay comehome to aspent container otherwise. Your container garden success dependson you. And if somethinggoes wrong, master gardeners arehere to helpyou. I want to close my portion to date witha recommendationfor our county gardenhotlines. Our hotline is a free serviceprovided by extensively trained mastergardener volunteers in every county. Youcan call or email us with anygardening question. Even ifyou think it’s silly, we will provideyouwith research advice and getyou back on track. If you wantto email, here in Pennsylvania,use your Countyname plus MGat PSU. EDU. You will emailthe garden hotlines with that linkyou justbe sure to put your County whereit says center onthe page. And also please subscribeto our newsletter for more greatgardening advice, articlesand information. You can choose your topicsof interest if you wish to sign upfor extension information. Andhorticultureand gardening is one ofthose choices. And we will allowyou to receive themonthly newsletter with a wide variety of topicsto spark your interest. And if I can just makea plug. In an upcoming newsletterin the next few months, therewill be a list of plant sales happeningacross Pennsylvania inthe spring. , Thank you for joining usthis evening. Now I will invite Andyto come back so wecan answer any questions youmight have. >>Thanks, Molly. >> I will stopmy share. >> A great blog for theplants. That’s goodfor you inPennsylvania here which are >>A greatplace to buyplants. >> I want to say thank you toboth Andy andMolly. I really appreciate your time. Thisevening and we do have some questionsherefrom some attendees. I would justgo start right if the first onecomingfrom Lynn. Her question is what plantsare good for container gardeningthat are also deer and >>That’s agreat question. >> Especially wherewelive, andprobablyone of the number one things thatwe get. What do I do? Ihave dear everywhere. I’ve rabbitseverywhere. How do we keepthemout. Recommendations for plants thatare more deer resistantfor containers. That come tomind. Lavender. That’s agood one. >>Daffodils. Yes. Daffodils are good. >>Anything with a strongscent. Anything in the mintfamily which should only go in containers. We didn’ttalk about keepinginvasive plants in the containers. But anything witha strong flavor. And I willsay that withthe caveat that if deerare hungry, they will eat anything. Theywill eat the spiky Hollyif >> That’sa good point. If they are hungry theywilleat. Cornflower. That’s anothergoodone. The plants I would focus on thesum of those perennials. Allie himis agoodone. It’s a showy and unique type ofa plant. So I hopethat helps. Any other come tomind, Molly? >> I was just going to sayI have had deer eatevery Lily bulb thatI planted. So there are plants you can avoid. And again, look at the tag. If it’sdeer resistant, it will >>Yes. Good. Hopefullythat helps. A good question though. >> Excellent. The nextone coming in from I don’tknow if this is aquestion but he kind of commented thathave gifts fromoutside Pennsylvania by chance wouldyou know ifother states have a master gardenerprograms. >> A lot ofland grantinstitutions have extension units. I would search formaster Youcan call your local extension office anddo Google searchesfor that. I see a lot of folks fromMaryland. unitand mastergardeners. Virginia is onthe call. They have a great program. Ohiodoes. >> Florida does. >> Florida. New York. North Carolina. NC State hasa fabulous extension office. Searchlocallyand the answer is yes. A lot of unitsand other states have programsas well. >> Excellent. Another question. One ofour guests has any tips on how to find andchoose good growbags? >> I’m glad we are talking aboutgrow bags. I guess I should say itmay be look for ones thathave a strongfabric. It’s really important. Becausewhat happens is, fabric and in kindof fabric that’s exposed to the sunovertimeand moisture will break down. I wouldrecommendlooking for oneof those touch type of products. Youhave to feelit and look for the twill and whatthe content is. If it’s a strongerfabric,I would go with that. And then thisis morepersonal, I like to have one thathave the handleson there to make sure the stitchingis good. And do some research onlineand lookatsome reviews. I don’t have a particular brand thatpops in mymind good but I would always lookfor the thicker fabric. Itwill hold up over time. And still havethat ability to drain the waterthrough. >> And I know where wediscussed deerresistant gardening. The questionis, is therea container that’sdeer resistant? >> Containers thataredeer resistant? specific forgrow bags. Ihaven’t had any issue with grow bagswith animals eating my grow bags. Mostcontainers arefairly animal resistant. You alwayshave –you could alwayshave some morals or any kind of rodentor a mouse eating through a plastic orsomethinglike that. But I don’t think there’stoo many problemswith those types of issueswith containers. >>No, I can’t thinkof any. No, I really can’t. As faras animalsdestroying containers, for the most part,I’ve neverseen that. But of course there arealwaysexceptions. >> You never know. >> I’m thinkingthis because Ihad lived in a farmhouse. And therewere cows next door behind the fence. Andsometimes those cows got loose andcamein ate all my bulbs. Iremember having a containerbeing kickedand >> Physically ruinedyour >> It did. >> Onething that happenswith containers too, and the one time,if you don’t put them inside or coveringthem. You have water in there andyou have a freeze and thaw cycle. Itcancrack plastic. If it’s concrete,you have issues there. It’s good tobe there. Take thecontainer inside. Empty thesoil completely and that’s another best practicefor >> And rememberto clean those usingthemagain. >> Yet. >> Lookslike there’s quite a few questionsthat came in. We are probably gettinglongtime but we could maybe take somemore. >> The next one up is wouldyou be ableto email out these slides. They areso helpful? >> Absolutely. We can certainly sendyou the PDF of the slides, James. You can share them with anyone orreach out and that’s probably thebest way. If anyone hasquestions, feel free to email myselfor Molly. And we can answeryour questions pertaining tothe lesson today. >> Excellent. Perfect. Any suggestionson how to dealwith aphids? >> Aphids. I’ll tellyou what, thisyear was terrible for aphids. A lot of theornamental trees We hadsomemajor issues. My birch tree thatwas outside the windowhere was just terrible. Youcan see the aphids. They were chewingthroughtheleaves. Curling takes place after thathappens. In this case started to defoliantthe tree. I think one thing to reallythink about at the onset isto just keep an eye on your plants. Andif you see some changes taking placelike I did with myhurt,aphids can be hard tocontrol. Right. It’s important tothink about thethresholdfor insects that other plants areround and how you cancontrol them. At times you mayneed to use it’sreachingthat threshold. I don’t really knowif anyotherbeneficial to control A lotof times inthe springtime if you can treat some of yourare mental shrubs of horticultureoil that will prevent themfrom destruct in the leafsurface. That’s something to thinkabout. >> SN. We areat the end oftimehere. Again I want to sincerely thank Andy andMolly for your timethis evening in presenting and I also want tothank those who attended tonight’sfun night. furtherquestions,I posted it in thechat Andy Emily’semail address. Inthis presentation has been recorded so willbe archived on thePennState alumni Association website. Stay tuned for that. And thank you all for yourparticipation this evening. And havea good night. >> Thanks James. >> Thankyou, James. [Event Concluded]