Planting a salad urn

[velvetpage]

My house has a wide porch on the front of it, and perched on the railing of this porch is a built-in urn that was one of the selling features for me. I found it so stately. The problem is that I've never done much with it. It's a bit too high for me to reach into it easily, at least to do any actual mucking about. I often forgot to water the things I did plant there. It gets at least half a day of full or almost-full sun during the spring and summer, which makes it probably the best garden spot around my house, but I've never really made use of it.

This year I'd like to make use of it. Furthermore, I'd like to plant something very useful in it. I want to plant edible things, and things I will actually eat. (Unfortunately, the two are not necessarily the same - I would be willing to try almost anything, but I'm likely to forget to use it if it's not among the foods I've made use of in the past.)

And of course, since it's right out in front for all the world to see, it has to look good. I do not want it to be obvious to non-gardener types that I've planted a vegetable garden on my front porch.

Criteria: 1) has a wide range of kitchen uses; 2) is hardy, and could withstand a lack of watering for a day or so here and there; 3) looks pretty; 4) can be picked a leaf or two at a time and thrive with such treatment (i.e. doesn't have to be harvested all in one go; I want to decide, "I'm having such and such tonight!" and go pick it) 5) goes with the other things that meet this criteria.

So what should I plant? I was thinking kale for starters, maybe some red swiss chard, and perhaps a couple of herbs. What would I have to do to the soil in this urn to make ready to plant these things? (The soil has been completely neglected for six years now, but it was probably potting soil before that.) When should I plant them?

Any advice is much appreciated and will be taken under advisement by myself and my team of friendly local gardeners. I'm sure some of you can guess who those are, and they're likely to answer this post. :)

Hmm, I don't have a good gardening icon. If this works out, I'll probably have to make one. Maybe I'll take a picture of the planted urn. :)

Comments

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

Dill is hardy, versatile and loves sun. It looks fernlike if you keep the flowers picked, and can be harvested a little at a time.

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

You'll need to pinch the center stalk, and succession plant it since it WILL go to flower eventually.

[curtana.livejournal.com]

Whenever I've had herbs in planters outside, the parsley has absolutely taken over the box. It's quite happy if neglected (as long as it's occasionally watered by me or the rain, I've never done anything else to it) and you can cut off as much as you like and it just grows back. I've had good luck with chives in the past too, though they're not quite as ... aggressively successful ;)

[urban-homestead.livejournal.com]

How big is your planter? Do you have room for several things?

Rosemary (http://www.lattaplantation.org/images/vtours/inter_garden/rosemary.jpg) is so gorgeous it's frequently planted as an ornamental, and if you grow your own it is much more versatile than buying the little sprigs in the store - you can use it as a meat basting brush with built-in flavour, and it even works well as a skewer for soft-fleshed meats and seafoods, which is handy in barbecue season. Thyme and sage both come in a number of beautiful varieties and a wide variety of colour.

I love Richters (http://www.richters.com/Web_store/web_store.cgi?page=SubIndexPages/Rosemary.html&cart_id=1913829.13586) for herbs, because the selection is unbeatable. You can choose based on flavour or appearance, depending on your priority.

Red swiss chard is good. Kaleidoscope has multiple colours (orange, pink, red, yellow, white) all in one seed packet, which I like even better. You can plant a dozen seeds and then thin to the ones in the colours you like best.

Kale is very difficult in this region - the bugs eat it right up. You pretty much either have to be prepared for eating moth-eaten looking leaves, or spray the heck out of it with pesticide.

Alpine strawberries (http://www.richters.com/Web_store/web_store.cgi?product=X6080&cart_id=1913829.13586) might be good too. They have pretty white flowers all summer long, and the teeny-weeny berries have great flavour. I would plant them all around the edge as a border because they're very low-growing. Here's a pic (http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://images1.snapfish.com/347867276%257Ffp357%253Enu%253D324:%253E472%253E2%253C2%253EWSNRCG%253D3233:57795366nu0mrj&imgrefurl=http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fruit/msg082241377698.html%3F6&h=318&w=480&sz=71&hl=en&start=16&tbnid=LqqjBDHTHE-jMM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAlpine%2Bstrawberries%2B%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG).

When mixing plants in a planter, consider watering needs. If you have something that loves moisture (like strawberries, kale, or swiss chard) next to something that doesn't (like almost any herb), you should clump the water-lovers together and just pour any water directly onto them. The residual water that trickles through to the drier rooted plants will be enough. If you are alternating wet, dry, wet, dry, you have a bit of a maintenance challenge.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

The planter is about 18" in diameter and perhaps a foot deep in the centre, less around the rim.

sassy_fae has had good luck with her kale so far, so I might be able to make it work. But I'd be happy with the chard instead.

So I could plant, for example, four strawberries around the rim, and the chard in the middle, and leave it at that with no problem? Maybe I could do a little hanging basket with herbs - hanging baskets don't retain water very well, which makes them perfect for most herbs.

[girlydoll.livejournal.com]

hang your planter overtop with the dry plants, then overwater. A good basket is the ones that have the mesh instead of plastic sides. What spills out will water the plants beneath.