Wishing for summer

I haven’t written much about the garden yet this year.  It’s been extremely cold, windy and wet – even by the standards of our high altitude weather! 

We do have a lot of “frost-free” growing days (up to 130).  The problem is that at LEAST 50% or more of those days the temperatures hover in the 40’s and low 50’s… okay for grasses, trees and hardy perennials, but not nice for warm weather gardening!

So while I wait for something photo-worthy to happen in the garden, I thought I’d show you how to make a tiered planter.

You will need: 
3 pots - small, medium and large (I use clay pots.  They’re less likely to blow over in our heavy winds :) 
2 smaller, but sturdy plastic pots
Filler 
Potting soil
Moo poo
Your plants :)

I first painted the pots and then sealed them with clear spray paint, but plain is just fine, too.  Take the biggest pot and place a smaller pot upside down, to later support the medium sized pot. 

Stuff your filler all around the pot.  You can use newspaper, packing peanuts or soda cans, anything light that will fill up the space.  The roots don’t go all the way to the bottom of the pot and you can save all that potting soil for other containers!  I use crumpled newspaper because it can go into the compost in the fall without having to pick out the packing peanuts first ;)

Repeat for the medium pot and stack – see the potting soil in the bottom pot?

There’s no need for a plastic pot inside the smallest clay pot at the top.  But I do still crumple some newspaper in the bottom before adding the potting soil. 

And finally…the planting!   Don’t forget magic moo poo.  A small handful mixed with the potting soil in each planting hole and your beautiful plants will thank you!  

Here they are all stacked together with a few of the plants in place:

More photos to come, as they grow…