Designing your container for winter

Itโ€™s time to bid farewell to our displays of mums and ornamental cabbages and think about designing winter containers. Whether you cut boughs and branches from your own garden or buy them at the local nursery, here are a few design ideas and practical considerations to keep in mind.

Itโ€™s time to bid farewell to our displays of mums and ornamental cabbages and think about designing winter containers. Whether you cut boughs and branches from your own garden or buy them at the local nursery, here are a few design ideas and practical considerations to keep in mind.

โ€ข โ€œDesigning a beautiful winter containerโ€ offers creative ideas for container choices, as well as practical tips for placing cut branches in soil or florist foam.

โ€ข โ€œMake your own winter arrangementsโ€ and โ€œCutting your own boughs for holiday decorationsโ€ include more suggestions, especially if youโ€™re cutting branches from your own plants.

Beautiful holiday container with berries, greens, pods and curly branches. (Garden Making photo)
Beautiful holiday container with berries, greens, pods and curly branches.

Time to tuck in those woody plants for winter

It has been a glorious fall here in Southern Ontario, but who knows what winter will bring? Newly planted or borderline hardy conifers may benefit from a little extra protection โ€” namely a protective covering โ€” to get them through a harsh winter. โ€œWinterizing woody plantsโ€ describes the best way to do this.


Developing a new Canadian apple

โ€œOn a mission to find Ontarioโ€™s appleโ€ is an update on Vineland Research and Innovation Centreโ€™s efforts to develop a new apple for commercial production. More than 28,000 unique apple trees are in the program, which began in 2011. The goal is to have a commercially viable apple exclusive to Ontario growers by 2028.

Most of the apples we buy were developed in the U.S.; the popular Canadian-bred โ€˜Ambrosiaโ€™ is an exception. โ€œSome varieties imported into Canada can only be grown in the U.S. and can be accompanied by high royalty fees,โ€ according to the article. โ€œLast year, 206,252 tonnes of apples were imported into Canadaโ€ฆcompared to 36,772 tonnes exported.โ€


Survey says you had a good season

Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out our short survey in last weekโ€™s newsletter. I truly enjoy reading your accounts which are full of enthusiasm, positivity and experimentation. Not everything worked out, you say, but making the best of it with good humour is the overriding theme in your responses. It just confirms what we all know: gardeners are resilient and optimistic.

In the first batch of entries, 175 of you say the new plant or technique you tried this season was wonderful, while 52 call it so-so; only 11 of you say โ€œnever again.โ€

Generally, many of you grew more vegetables than ever before, expanded perennial and shrub borders, or made raised beds (because you had the time!) and tried different container plants. Several of you mentioned adding more pollinator and native plants..

Here are a few of my favourite comments:

โ€ข โ€œI planted three pink turtleheads in a newly dug garden bed. I saw the plants at the Royal Botanical Gardens and loved how the bees went right inside the flowers. As soon as I planted them, the bees found them.โ€

โ€ข โ€œWe grew heirloom tomatoes for the first time this year. Had a great yield and enjoyed some delicious tomato soup.โ€

โ€ข โ€œMy morning glories get terrible spider mites, so I swapped them for passion flower vines on the same trellis. They are still flowering in November on my southern sixth- floor balcony in Toronto. What a great success!โ€

โ€ข โ€œMixed in veggies with my perennials in locations that were handier to access and had lots of sun.โ€

โ€ข โ€œStarted my dahlias in pots in the spring and then planted them out. Very successful.โ€

โ€ข โ€œTried the โ€œFlorida weave” to support my tomato plants. I found tomato cages werenโ€™t strong enough, so this method of posts and string worked very well.โ€ [I looked this upโ€”I may try this myself next year.]

โ€ข โ€œEspaliered fruit trees. Easy to care for. No climbing or high reaching for care. Great for aging gardeners!โ€

And possibly my favourite:

โ€ข โ€œI havenโ€™t changed my technique for a number of years (if it ainโ€™t broke, donโ€™t fix it), but I do try different plants each year. 2020 was the year for trying Ricinus communis โ€˜Red Giantโ€™ [castor bean] just to see what would happen. It practically took over the raised bed. My husband was so taken with it, that there will be more of them planted in 2021.โ€

Next week, Iโ€™ll cover your responses to the other question in the survey: โ€œIn the years youโ€™ve been gardening, what has been the highlight?โ€ Many of these answers were especially heartwarming.

If you haven’t yet done the survey, there’s still time. Go to the survey now.

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