Felder's Edimental Garden

Love combining "edimental" plants, both pretty and nutritious, even in fall and winter. And to sweeten the scene, some of mine are grown on the porch in recycled containers.

With frost not far over the horizon, which will take out the last of the summer flowers, veggies, and herbs, I am already tucking frost-tolerant winter replacements between plants, and preparing pots off to one side for a smooth transition. Why suffer a complete do-over when basil, peppers, and zinnias can be underplanted early with small kale plants, and along with pansies, violas, dianthus, snapdragons, and dusty miller and other cold-tolerant annuals?

And let's have a little fun. This old recologist plants stuff in cast-off containers, from whiskey barrels and painted buckets to tires (yes, they are safe), shoes, seashells, a football helmet, an old saxophone, a worn-out Weber grill, and my great-grandmother's claw-footed bathtub and pedestal sink. Anything that can hold a little potting soil and has drainage is fair game.

I know a lot of folks turn up their noses at this, but it is very popular in areas which feature big annual flower shows where visitors can see unusual combinations of plants and odd containers in nice garden settings. In fact, the children's garden at the Memphis Botanic Garden features an entire bathroom - tub, sink, mirror, waste basket, and even toilet - brimming with flowers. Kids get this more than most adults, but they will grow up thinking it is acceptable.

The trick for grown-ups is in creating a scene, not just sticking one recycled container out by itself. My latest project is pure kitchen. I started with Granny's red-rimmed porcelain kitchen sink wash pot with rusty holes for drainage and then added a beat-up old colander. Both hold plenty of soil for shallow-rooted fall lettuce and other leafy greens.

Using a potting soil with a little extra perlite to drain away excess water, in one pot I threw together a colorful, textury mesclun mix of green, deep burgundy, and speckled lettuces and radicchio, mixing both smooth and frilly leaves, then stuffed in upright orange and yellow Swiss chard and a single super cold-hardy blue kale. I would have added purple kale but ran out of space.

In the other pot I went more herbal, with a small rosemary, trailing oregano and thyme, and a burgundy mustard. It will all fill in quickly, but I already see room for some upright chives and ferny-looking parsley. In an old bean can to one side I just planted cloves of taller garlic along with some pretty edible-flowered violas.

All these grow well together over winter with just a half-strength dash of fertilizer and an occasional soaking when the top of the soil starts to dry. These all will tolerate hard frosts; the kale, chives, parsley, rosemary, chives, and garlic can actually take hard freezes even if left outside on the porch (low teens, might drag them indoors).

All in all, growing winter edimentals is almost too easy. Other than heat stress when first planted, mulching to cool the soil, and keeping small plants moist without overwatering, all I worry about are a few insect pests and squirrels. It's mostly aphids on undersides of leaves, and green caterpillars on the kale, both of which generally disappear after the first frost. To keep squirrels from digging around and occasionally munching kale leaves I set out reusable chicken wire cages.

Finally, I play the accessory card to create a smile-evoking scene; my kitchen containers are adorned with cooking utensils.

Why can't we have a little porch pot fun, and eat well too?