Container gardens do the trick for small spaces

[Chefnot]

By JANE MCBRIDE, The Enterprise
04/03/2008

Updated 04/02/2008 1157 PM CDT
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	Bird Mangles poses alongside her container herb garden in her townhouse’s courtyard in Beaumont. A container garden is well suited for small spaces, she said. A mix of color and texture (of both plants and containers) adds interest. (Tammy McKinley/The Enterprise)

When it comes to designing a garden for today's over-scheduled overachievers, less is more.
A garden doesn't have to be huge to carry a lot of visual impact. Bird Mangles' Beaumont townhouse patio is a feast for the eyes as well as the tongue. Wrought-iron ornaments provide a backdrop for herbs planted in pots of various sizes and textures.

The Beaumont Enterprise - Container gardens do the trick for small spaces

Ok, who is gardening this year? Big or little, makes no difference.

[BerryBaby]

I will definitely be planting a garden on my patio. I use to have a bigger one next to the house. It's fun to see all the lush plants from the kitchen window, and when it was next to the house it wasn't visible from any window.

I plant cherry tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, all kinds of parsley and herbs and we even have an apple tree in a huge pot. I bought red paver bricks last year and built a wall of sorts in different levels. Put the pots on the wall at various heights and it is really beautiful.

The birds also have their own area off the patio and it is lovely to sit out there, watch the birds and be surrounded by the plants. It's almost a tropical feeling about August and September.

[Food Network Fan]

I don't think I am even going to be able to keep my flowers safe much less vegetables. The deer are taking over, they are starting to be so numerous here they are eating everything. I don't know what they are going to do about them, I almost hit one on the main road on my hill. He jumped right out in front of me and the roads up here are curvy and the landscape has lots of hills and drop downs they seem to come out of nowhere.

The lay of the land doesn't afford me a lot of sun so it's hard to put the plants in an area where they get enough sun and are safe from deer, I don't know if anything could survive here.

[Chefnot]

I bet your soil condition is another obstacle. Bummer. I see fences here to keep the rabbits out, but with deer it would be hopeless.

[Food Network Fan]

I can bring in soil if I had a nice spot to do it. The shade really is my biggest problem getting things started. But once it barely pokes thru the ground it gets chewed off.

I did find some little stinky pellets at lowes that seem to be helping. It's supposed to keep them away for 2 months before I have to do it again. They had a spray but it was 40 dollars a can and you had to keep re applying it.

[BerryBaby]

Sunset Garden books have a list of plants that deer don't like. When we lived in Eugene, we had a herd of them in the woods next to the house. They would graze on our plants and lawn so we had the landscaper put in things they didn't like to eat. We kept things they could eat on the perimeter and they seemed happy.