Overhauling a townhouse backyard after a renovation is a fairly common assignment for a New York City landscape designer. For one recent project, Julie Farris, the founder of XS Space, was given different a task. “Rather than erase and start anew as most projects do, the goal with this project was to identify the aspects of the previous garden, and to try to magnify those aspects in a more targeted and precise way,” says Farris. The results are a garden that felt deeply personal from Day One.
Farris’s clients had lived in their Brooklyn brownstone for some time before deciding to add an addition to the ground level. The family loved their home and slightly wild yard, where they had built many memories. “It sort of had this secret garden kind of feel,” says Farris. But as is so often the case post-construction, the 20 x 45-foot garden was left in a sorry state in need of a total overhaul.
“They wanted it to feel very natural and organic—sort of revealing what was there rather than inventing a new landscape,” says Farris. The clients requested a stretch of grass for the kids and a little more privacy from the nearby neighbors, but they didn’t have a laundry list of outdoor rooms and functions they wanted to cram into their space. What they wanted was simply a garden.
“It was more about having a quiet sanctuary for their family and some friends and not being a showy kind of garden,” says Farris. The family was also intent on doing it as sustainably as possible. “They wanted native plantings, birds, and butterflies,” says Farris.
The resulting garden is something of a sleight of hand: It honors the spirit of the previous garden, but almost every inch of it was built from scratch. It’s a lesson in the power of restraint and resourcefulness: All the sustainable materials and climate-appropriate plants make this garden feel like it belongs here. Now it’s ready for decades more memories.
Above: Architecture firm Bangia Agostinho Architecture designed the two-story rear extension and deck on the house. The renovation resulted in three different outdoor spaces for Farris to design: The backyard, a new deck, and a little terrace off of the primary bedroom that sits on the roof of the extension. Above: Farris describes designing the garden as a process of “sculpting the edges” to draw the eye outwards. “There’s this negative space, and then you’re just kind of feeling how you want to structure the space in terms of hierarchy and softness,” she says.
This week, we’re revisiting some of our all-time favorite stories about gardening in New York City. Cultivating plants in the Big Apple comes with challenges—yards tend to be small and shady, and privacy is rare—but if you have the patience, these urban gardens can produce some big-time magic. Behold…
Most renters, especially if they’re not planning a long stay, prefer not to spend too much time or money fixing up someone else’s property. But what if they still want a nice outdoor space? We asked Brooklyn-based garden designer Brook Klausing for recommendations for finessing a space that you don’t own. Not only has he done it for clients of his company, Brook Landscape, he also has plenty of personal experience, having fixed up several rental gardens for himself.
To start, Brook suggests, figure out what your goal is and how much time you’re willing to commit. Maybe you only have a year’s lease, and just want a weekend project. Or maybe you plan to be there a few years, and you’d love to spend the summer playing in the garden because you enjoy the process. Either way, don’t get overly enthusiastic and embark on something you won’t finish. Assess your own ambition and organize a project that’s right for you.
His other directive: Go big. “Don’t get distracted at the nursery and pick up a lot of random small things just because they’re cute,” he advises. Better to start with strong moves to organize the space.
Read on for 10 more rental garden tips from Brook:
Photography courtesy of Brook Klausing except where noted.
1. Accentuate the positive.
Above: Take note of what’s great about the space and find a way to accentuate it. With judicious editing, Brook created focal points in a backyard garden.
“If there’s a great view or a tree you’re really into (even if it’s in your neighbor’s yard), clear out any weeds or shrubs that are in the way and position your seating and enhancements to maximize the sight lines.” By the same token, identify what you don’t love in the space and remove or, if that’s not possible, downplay the distraction. (See below for suggestions on dealing with ugly walls and fences.)
2. Prune boldly.
Above: A smoke bush (at L) is a visual focal point in a backyard garden designed by Brook Landscapes.
I’ve been on the hunt for artful vases all summer—and I think I may have just found the perfect ones. When I spotted the work of artist Danya Ahmed, of Gray Gardens Plant Studio, I was immediately captivated and needed to learn more. Originally from the US, Danya relocated to her ancestral homeland of Lebanon, where she now handcrafts stunning sculptural vases, planters, and bowls that embrace raw and brutalist elements.
Above: You can choose between horizontal, vertical, or natural texture, as well as one of seven colors (pictured is Brick). All Vases hold water for fresh flowers; $190.
While you might think these pieces are ceramic, they are, in fact, made from glass fiber reinforced concrete. This material allows for the added height and width, plus the weight of the material helps anchor taller and more unwieldy arrangements (think: branches).
Above: Danya’s background is in fine arts, with a BA in drawing and sculpture and an MFA in fibers and textiles. “While I wasn’t trained specifically in pottery, I guess you can say I had a strong training in motor-muscle creation, crafting things by hand.” These Bucket Planters start at $98.
Danya approaches concrete much like one would with clay, forming and sculpting it by hand. “Combining the strength of the material, with the sensitivity of the hand, each piece is imbued with its own energy. The vases are a great example of this strength and sensitivity. They have the hand-formed, tactile marks of the maker and their softness is balanced by their weighted down, brute strength,” she says.
Above: Terra Planters are available in a host of sizes; from $398.
When Danya finally started Gray Gardens, she focused on potted plants. “I was making the planters and also planting in them, the pot and the plant were one entity. Creating the planters, playing with the material, texture, shape, proportion and color, as they all combined in relation to the plant was quite exciting for me. It was fun to create for, and respond to, a living thing—something already in existence and natural. Essentially combining my two favorite things, nature and plants, with hand-crafted sculpture; playing with the form of the tree in relation to the planter and vice versa.”
Above: Danya working on a custom oversized piece.
The color palette used in all the work is ten years in the making. After much experimenting and trying out new colors and putting them in context with plants, she still continues to explore. “I introduce new colors seasonally,” she says. “And these stay in production for shorter periods of time, as something fun to play with.”
Above: Danya’s planters can be used indoors or outdoors and each comes with drainage holes. Photograph by Tanya Traboulsi.
African Blue Basil, Ocimum kilimandscharicum x basilicum
Whether you garden in-ground or in a single windowbox, there is a plant that will lure every pollinator in the neighborhood to your green space. African blue basil’s myriad flowers, in bloom for months, guarantee a flurry of constant and diverse pollinator activity from morning until twilight, and from early summer until frost. There is never a dull moment. And with the right plant for pollinators, even a tiny urban space can contribute to a pollinator pathway—a pesticide and herbicide-free corridor of plants that provides food and shelter for pollinating insects, which are in decline due to loss of habitat and to widespread pesticide use.
It doesn’t hurt either that spending ten minutes on a bee safari is a very effective way of disconnecting from digital noise and reconnecting with the small things that matter.
Above: Windowbox-grown African blue basil in late summer on my Brooklyn terrace.
In a small space every inch counts, and the ideal plant has to work hard: It should be low-maintenance, bloom for months, have fragrant and edible leaves, and offer an irresistible nectary for a host of beneficial insects. That’s asking a lot. A very small handful of plants checks all those demanding boxes. African blue basil comes out pretty much at the top.
Above: A native carpenter bee visits African blue basil.
Native plant advocates might frown at a non-native being promoted for pollinators, but there are some mitigating factors to consider. Not everyone has the space for a collection of native perennials chosen for a bloom-sequence staggered for months-long interest (with a couple of exceptions, most perennials tend to flower for just a few weeks). And some perennials, like milkweeds and bee balms, resent being potted and perform best in-ground. City gardeners are often confined to containers, while most urban dwellers have no more than a windowsill to grow anything. African blue basil fits this demographic perfectly.
If you’re a regular Gardenista reader, you’re likely already familiar with Sarah Raven. But if you’re not, here’s the easiest way to describe her: She’s the Martha Stewart of the U.K. A tireless gardener, writer, cook, TV personality, entrepreneur, and general arbiter of good taste, Sarah has spent a lifetime crafting beauty and meaning in the domestic realm. She hosts workshops at her floriferous farm Perch Hill in East Sussex, England. She’s written stacks of gardening books and harvest-focused cookbooks, the latest being an updated version of Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook (with a new cover and introduction). She runs a respected mail-order plant nursery. And she hosts the podcast Grow, Cook, Eat, Arrange with colleague Arthur Parkinson.
Despite all her commitments, Sarah found time to answer our Quick Takes questions. Read on for her expert gardening recommendations—including her genius tip for using lemonade to keep cut flowers fresh!
Photography courtesy of Sarah Raven, unless otherwise noted.
Above: Sarah is a master when it comes to container gardening. Photograph by Jonathan Buckley, for A Year Full of Pots. (See our story on her new book here.)
Your first garden memory:
It was picking flowers for my father who was recovering from an operation—a small sherry glass of crocus and iris in February. It’s still one of my favorite ways of having flowers in the house. They’re mini simple jewels.
Garden-related book you return to time and time again:
Giardino_di_hera’s account shows their wonderful garden in southern Italy. It’s just like the garden I dream of and hope to make on a plot of land we’ve just bought in Crete.
Describe in three words your garden aesthetic:
Above: An overhead view of the Oast Garden at Perch Hill in spring. Photograph by Jonathan Buckley, for A Year Full of Pots.
Colorful. Jam-packed. Nature-filled.
Plant that makes you swoon:
There are three: Trachelospermum jasminoides, honeysuckles (many), and Sarcococca.
Plant that makes you run the other way:
They are also a few! Variegated, over-fussy leaves, hugely heavy double begonias with flowers so huge they hang their heads with the weight of petals and double bedding pelargoniums with no nectar or pollen for pollinators.
Favorite go-to plant:
Above: Dahlias at sunset at Perch Hill.
Always the dahlia—no doubt.
Hardest gardening lesson you’ve learned:
Dead-heading and staking are both essential—no garden can survive looking good until the autumn without quite a bit of both.
Gardening or design trend that needs to go:
Stumperies—they feel too contrived to me!
Old wives’ tale gardening trick that actually works:
You should put flat lemonade in your cut flower water. This has citric acid and carbonic acid (CO2 in liquid forms weak acid). By changing pH you decrease bacterial reproduction and enable the flowers to last longer.
Unpopular gardening opinion:
Above: Her gardens are driven primarily by color.
Color is everything, not architectural and structural plants.
Every garden needs a:
Source of water, even if it’s a shallow plate/tray with stones in. The birds and pollinators need tons of water on a hot day. The plate/tray also needs a lip so the insects don’t drown. Keep it full and keep it clean.
Favorite hardscaping material:
Soft, reclaimed red-bricks.
Tool you can’t live without:
Hori-hori knife. It’s brilliant for weeding, even better for planting, and great for teasing open the structure of the soil
Go-to gardening outfit:
A dress always!
Favorite way to bring the outdoors in:
Above: A freshly picked winter salad from her greenhouse.
To have cut flowers around the house and use cut-and-come-again easy salads and herbs like Salad Rocket and Flat-leaved parsley in recipes.
Favorite nursery, plant shop, or seed company:
Mine!
On your wish list:
Lovely huge citrus trees as much for their winter blossom (and its magnificent, seductive fragrance) as their fruit.
Not-to-be missed public garden/park/botanical garden:
Keeps me happy, content, engaged, calm, centered. I’d be a much lesser person without gardening and nature and walking out into it for an hour or two every morning at 5am in summer.
There are two main reasons that you might consider planting a pollinator garden in pots instead of in the ground: Either you don’t have a garden bed—or you’ve run out of space to plant anything more in your garden. In either scenario, a container garden can support pollinators just as well as an in-ground garden. Even if you aren’t dealing with space constraints, you might consider adding some pollinator pots, says Alicia Whitaker, a master gardener and a co-leader for the Suffolk Alliance for Pollinators’s South Fork chapter. “If they’re near an outdoor seating area, the gardener can see and enjoy the wildlife that will be attracted.” Plus, she notes: Containers are also a great option if the gardener has a mobility issue or other handicap that makes gardening in the ground difficult.
Above: A bumble bee nectaring on goldenrod. Photograph by Kim Eierman.
Here, nine tips on how to garden for pollinators in pots:
1. Be prepared to water often.
The most common mistake with any container garden is underwatering. “The soil in pots dries out faster, especially in a very sunny and hot environment, such as a windy deck or brick patio surface,” says Whitaker, who notes that people often underestimate the water needs of container plants because they are accustomed to worrying about overwatering indoor houseplants.
2. Go big.
Above: Susan Nock, a Boston-based garden designer with a specialty in container gardens, filled a large pot with tall grass, agastache, foxglove, daisies, scabiosa, verbena, angelonia, and sweet potato vine for a dynamic, pollinator-friendly design. Photograph by Susan Nock.
Garden pros recommend choosing the largest container possible. “A higher volume of soil will dry out less quickly,” explains Whitaker. But there’s another reason to go big: The more plants you cram into a pot, the better the chances the pollinators will find them. “When we use large pots or gang pots together in groups, we create some floral targets for pollinators,” says ecological horticulturist Kim Eierman, the author of The Pollinator Victory Garden and founder of EcoBeneficia. “That’s really important. Having a larger target makes it much easier for the pollinator to find the resource.” If you’re worried about weight, you can use a false bottom planter.
3. Amend the soil.
Both Whitaker and Eierman suggest mixing compost into the container’s soil, to nourish the plants and encourage root growth. “I apply a limited amount of compost a couple times a year to beef up the soil biology because there’s no interchange with any other soil,” adds Eierman. “I just put it on top and let rain do its thing.” Whitaker adds, “We often hear that native perennials prefer leaner soil and don’t require fertilizer, but the artificial environment of a container calls for better soil and the regular use of organic fertilizer.”
4. Consistency + variety is key.
Just like humans, pollinators need a diverse diet, but that doesn’t mean you need to run out and buy dozens of different plants. Eierman says to aim for a balance between diversity and sufficiency of given plants. So, rather than having many tiny plants of a wide variety of species, focus on a few types. “It’s better to have a more substantial amount of that one species,” says Eierman. Whitaker adds, “Think drifts, not polka dots.” When pollinators forage they’re looking for that one plant species, so a repetition of bloom from container to container can attract them without having one massive target, Eierman notes.
5. Give the bugs color cues.
Above: This composition of ‘Giga Blue’ pincushion flower, ‘VIBE Ignition’ purple salvia, and S’unSparkler Firecracker’ sedum by Monrovia demonstrates how you can do a monochromatic pollinator design using one color but different plants. Photograph via Monrovia.
“We know that pollinators have their color preferences,” says Whitaker. Hummingbirds are attracted to red flowers, while many bees love purples and yellows. Butterflies are drawn to a wide range of colors, but moths are attracted to white blossoms. “it’s good to have a variety of colors, and a variety of shapes,” says Whitaker, noting, “There are almost no wrong choices.”
Above: The blind-baked pastry shell is filled with custard and ramp leaves.
Ramp Leaf Quiche
Makes 1 x 9-inch quiche (springform pan)
Equal parts luxury and restraint, the savory and creamy custard for this ramp leaf quiche is so good that I like to use a springform pan that holds a far-larger-than-traditional quiche. The blind baking step is essential for that crisp-bottomed crunch. If you don’t do cream and milk, canned coconut milk is a good substitute.
For a spring party, this recipe also makes 22 tartlets, if you use all the pastry-scraps, a 3¾-inch cookie-cutter, and bake in a 12-slot muffin tray (still using beans for baking blind). The quichelets take about 20 minutes to bake once filled with custard.
Pastry
6 oz flour
3 oz cold butter
½ teaspoon salt
1 large egg, whisked
2 Tablespoons cold water
Extra butter for the pan
Ramp Leaf Filling
1½ cups whipping cream
4 large egg yolks
1 large whole egg
¼ teaspoon salt
3 mature ramp leaves, rolled into tubes and sliced very thinly
Pastry: Grate the cold butter into the flour in a large bowl (if you don’t have a grater, cut the butter thinly). Rub the butter and flour between your fingers until the mixture resembles even crumbs (some larger pieces of butter are fine). Add salt and toss with your fingers. Make a well and add the egg with the cold water. Using a fork to whisk the egg with the water together in the well, then slowly incorporate the surrounding flour mixture. When larger clumps form you can bring them together with your hands. Knead a few times to blend, then pat into a fat disc (about 1½ inches fat), wrap, and chill for two hours.
To bake the pastry: Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.
Butter a 9-inch springform pan. Line the bottom with a round of baking parchment. Roll the pastry out thinly. Wrap the pastry sheet around your roller and lower it gently into the pan. The pastry will hang over the sides. Transfer to the fridge to chill for 15 minutes. After it has chilled, trim the overhanging edges carefully, leaving some overlap, with a very sharp knife or pair of scissors. (You can save the scraps and bake them into crunchy canapés seasoned with herb salt or cheese.)
Line the inside of the pastry with a large piece of baking parchment that comes up well over the sides. Add 3 cups of dry beans (or rice), mounding the beans towards the sides. This helps to keep the pastry edges in place as they bake. Transfer to the oven and bake for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes remove the pan from the oven. Carefully lift out the lining with the beans, taking care not to damage the sides of the pastry shell. Return the springform pan to the oven for another 10 – 15 minutes. It is done when the base and edges are golden and crisp. Remove from oven and place on a wire cooling rack. When it is cool, loosen the pan sides and peel off the parchment lining under the pastry-base. Return the pastry shell to the springform pan.
Filling: In a bowl, use a fork to beat together the cream, milk, and eggs (I find that an actual whisk makes too many bubbles). Add the salt, and beat again. Add the slivers of ramp leaves and stir.
Pour the filling gently into the pastry case (still in its pan) and transfer to the oven. Bake for 35 – 40 minutes, until the center of the custard custard does not jiggle when given a slight shove (an inserted skewer should come out clean). Remove from the oven.
Loosen the sides of the springform and gently remove it from the ramp leaf quiche. Either cool it on a wire rack, or serve hot: Use a long spatula to slide the quiche from the base of the baking pan onto a serving plate.
Gardening should be as easy as playing in dirt. But if you’re a beginner, you may be intimidated by the seemingly limitless options out there: what to grow, which tools to buy, how to build a raised bed, and so on. And if sustainability is a priority (and it should be for everyone), there’s the added element of making sure what you choose is earth-friendly. Vego Garden, a leading manufacturer of stylish, eco-conscious, and durable modular garden beds, takes the guesswork out of container gardening.
Vego Garden carries everything you need to start a vegetable garden—from actual seedlings (like tomatoes, melons, and more) to garden tools and soil. In the five years since the company launched, Vego Garden has become the leading choice for stylish and long-lasting garden beds. And now, they’ve come up with a new product line designed for indoor gardeners as well.
Here are eight reasons to go with Vego Garden for your growing needs. And read to the bottom for a special Gardenista reader discount.
1. No outdoor space? No problem.
Above: Vego Garden started as a maker of sustainable raised garden beds, but now it’s entered the indoor container gardening market—to great success. The company’s line of Self-Watering Planters received a 2024 iF Design Award as well as a Red Dot Award for its innovative design. The collection includes an herb planter box with trellis, a mini planter box with trellis, as well as a rolling tomato pot with trellis.
2. They’re great for beginner gardeners.
Above: Vego Garden’s planters are all self-watering. Fill it once with water to provide moisture for up to several weeks. A handy water gauge shows the water level—so you’re never at risk of under- or over-watering, both common beginner mistakes.
We are longtime admirers of English writer, cook, and gardener Sarah Raven, so we were super-excited to learn that her newest book, A Year Full of Pots, is now in bookstores. In this how-to guide on all things container gardening (the third installment her series that includes A Year Full of Flowers and A Year Full of Veg), she gives detailed instructions for planning and planting in pots for each month of the year, along with color groupings, tips for what to plant where and when, and detailed plant lists with stunning photos of her own pot-filled garden at Perch Hill.
Above: An overhead view of the Oast Garden, teeming with potted plants, at Perch Hill in spring.
Raven makes it easy for neophytes and experts alike to create a beautiful container garden, no matter the size. Here are six tips from her book on how to capture ebullience and beauty in a pot.
Above: Raven planning her garden with pencil and paper.
Pot planning goes old school. While there are plenty of fancy online garden planners, there is a wonderful satisfaction that comes with pencil and paper. Raven recommends sketching out the bones of your garden, the spaces, hardscapes and major plants and then overlaying tracing paper (or even baking parchment) and then cutting circles to represent your pots and arranging them where you think you’d like the pots and plants to go. Pro tip: She recommends cutting out photos of the plants you’re considering to make sure you can visualize the best you can what the garden will look like in real life.
2. Plan for a Bride, Bridesmaid, and Gate-crasher.
Above: This pot features tulips ‘Muriel’ as the Bride, ‘Nightrider’ as the Bridesmaid, and ‘Orange Favorite’ as the all-important color-contrasting Gatecrasher. Photo by Jonathan Buckley.
Raven breaks down one of the more complicated challenges in deciding what plants go into the pot in regards to choosing a color combination. Think about the colors as the Bride, Bridesmaid and Gatechrasher, she says. The Bride is the center of attention, the one that gets all the focus. The Bridesmaid plays a supporting role in the pot, as one would play in real life—same color as the bride but not as showy. Finally the Gatecrasher adds a bit of drama with contrast. Pro tip: Get some paint chips and play around with them to see what color combinations work together.
above: An example of some of the Boiled Sweet color palette.
For those who need a bit more guidance, Raven even provides specific color palettes to try: Dark & Rich, Boiled Sweet Brilliant, Warm and Soft, and Soft and Cool. Included are extensive photos for each palette for easy reference.
3. And don’t forget the Thriller, Filler, Spiller, and Pillar.
Above: Dahlia ‘Totally Tangerine’ with Salvia ‘Amistad’ and Panicum elegans ‘Frosted Explosion’ syn. Agrostis ‘Fibre Optics’ syn. Panicum capillare ‘Sparkling Fountain’ in a metal container. Erigeron karvinskianus grows in the terracotta pot.
We generally save the “before” images for the end of our articles, but in this case, it’s helpful and inspiring to see upfront the space pre-remodel. Take a look at this entirely drabby and exposed rooftop. If a tiny, depressing roof can be transformed into a private urban oasis, one that invites lingering and relaxation, then anything’s possible.
The incredible terrace makeover is the work of London-based landscape designer Lis Eriksson. Her client gave her free rein over the design but did have a few requests: 1) adequate shade as he is fair-skinned; 2) low-pollen plants on account of his allergies; and 3) flowers in shades of purple, his favorite color.
Above: The roof of the Victorian coach house pre-transformation. Skylights protruding onto the roof made it unusable for the homeowner. The entire space measures just 9 square meters (or 29.5 square feet).
After
Above: The client can now walk out directly onto a tranquil rooftop deck. Partitions composed of Sapele slats, lightly brushed with Rustoleum paint in Chalk, provide privacy.
Above: Everything, from the plant design to the custom built-ins, was designed by Lis. A pergola offers ample shade, as promised. “I also added a heater hanging from the pergola so that he can comfortably enjoy the space in the colder months,” she shares.
Do your plants need to be repotted? What are the signs they have outgrown their pots? How do you actually repot anyway? Will repotting hurt your plant? Repotting isn’t hard. Let’s get started. N.B.: Featured photograph by Justine Hand, from DIY: How to Care for Aloe Vera, the Plant of Immortality. What are the signs your […]
Living in a city, your gardening options can be limited. So our interest was piqued when a friend shared a video from Plant Traps. In it, a woman hooks a minimalist wire contraption onto a metal railing to create a support for a potted plant. The mechanism was delightfully simple, removable—and it absolutely transformed the space with greenery.
We reached out to Plant Traps founder Deborah Holtschlag to inquire about her ingenious device, and it turned out that we were among several million people who’d recently found her RailScapes Plant Clip. Since debuting her invention last March, Holtschlag has been hustling to create Instagram Stories and TikTok videos to promote it, but it wasn’t until two days after Christmas that one went viral. “The Reel on Instagram that got 100 million views was a blessing, but we also blew through our reserves,” Holtschlag says. (Don’t worry, they’re finally caught up on inventory.)
Above: Each RailScapes Plant Clip can hold up to 15 pounds (25 pounds if at the foot of the railing).
We’re not shocked that Holtschlag found gardeners hungry for her plant support. Often the products sold to hang plants from railings are ugly, require drilling, or only work on certain types of fences. Her version uses tension to sit between railings (rather than draping over the top), and it can be adjusted to fit at a variety of railing widths. Renters can take it with them when they move—and at $20 a piece, it is relatively affordable.
Above: The contraption uses tension to stay in place.
What did come as a surprise was that Holtschlag herself is not a gardener herself. It turns out she invented the product for her gardener husband, whose plants were taking up what she considered to be too much of their precious space patio.
Above: Each RailScapes Plant Clip is $20.
Since launching the RailScapes Plant Clip, Holtschlag says she has been thrilled to see her customers use them in many ways, including on gates, spiral staircases, wood fences with wide-spaced pickets, and, as seen in her second most popular Reel, on an indoor stair railing.
Personally, this writer is looking at the bare wrought iron fence outside her window in a whole new light.
When Susan Nock, a garden designer based in Wellesley, Massachusetts, launched her business Thistle eight years ago, she didn’t set out to specialize in container gardens. “I just started doing them for fun. It’s like creating a little vignette, and I love them nestled in a garden or in front of a house.” Over the years, custom container gardens became a signature service alongside her regular garden design work. “I plant containers for all four seasons, and I love to have a fall container for Thanksgiving,” says Nock, who tells us there’s still plenty of time to design planters for the tail end of fall.
Here are her tips for late-autumn container gardening:
Photography by Susan Nock.
Plant a variety of leaf shapes.
Above: Nock likes to include a mix of textures and leaf shapes, including loose and wavy grasses and carexes, and trailing plants like ajuga and ivy.
“The number one thing to think about with container composition is making sure you have lots of different leaf sizes, shapes, and textures,” says Nock. “You want to clearly see the different plants against each other, like cabbage next to grass.”
Pick frost-tolerant plants.
Above: Ornamental kale and cabbages are frost-tolerant.
For fall planters, Nock relies on ornamental kale and cabbages, mums, and pansies, all of which will endure some frost. She likes to use tall grasses in her fall containers, too, noting, “Even when they are dormant they will look beautiful.” Nock also recommends weaving in evergreen elements now, with an eye toward reusing them in your winter containers. “You can put in a boxwood now and use it for the next season,” she says. Ditto on cypresses and English ivy, which she uses as a trailing element in containers, where the famously invasive plant can be kept in check.
Elevate those mums and cabbage.
Above: Nock proves that ornamental kales and cabbages can look super-sophisticated in a variety of compositions, including a bouquet-like design (left) and a nearly monochromatic pot that features solely shades of green (right).
While Nock is pulling from a very conventional fall plant palette, she uses these plants in unexpected ways. “Mums and cabbages can easily look a little old-fashioned,” she cautions. The key to making them look modern, she says, is massing. “We’re not used to seeing them massed in great big groupings.” Another tactic is to work in a tight color palette for a monochromatic effect. With cabbages, she says to look for ones with “fun shapes and textures.” And she says, “If you tuck mums in with other plants, as just one element in the container, they work better. They don’t look as stiff next to flowing grasses or spilling ivy.”
Shop the perennials sale.
Above: Perennials like heucheras and grasses have a place in planters.
Most nurseries have their perennials discounted right now, which Nock says you might take advantage of. In addition to perennial grasses, Nock looks for heuchera (“I love them all!” she enthuses) and carex, which she uses as a flowing, softening element in her designs. When you take apart your fall planters, you can plant these in the ground (even if it’s a little crunchy) and use them in the garden, or keep them in the containers for another arrangement.
Upcycle your pumkins.
Above: Reuse your Halloween gourds by tucking them into a container arrangement.
If you’ve got pumpkins and gourds left over from Halloween, re-home them to your planters (and if you don’t, these are likely to be on sale now). Nock especially likes to seek out interesting varieties and shapes and tuck them into the container among the plants. “They become just another texture in the design,” she says. Steal her trick to get them to sit where you want (and avoid rotting): Prop them up on an empty plastic pot from the nursery, which you can conceal with foliage or preserved moss.
Get creative when the pickings are slim.
Nurseries are often picked over come November, so “if you are not finding all the plants you want, tuck in Spanish moss or sheet moss for a fun texture,” says Nock, noting that independent nurseries and farm stands are more likely to have plants this time of year. Consider pinecones, lotus pods, and even some dried hydrangeas to fill in any holes.
Don’t forget to water!
Above: Nock will continue to water her planters until average daytime temperatures are reliably in the 30s.
“It’s really important to water in the fall,” advises Nock. “Yes, you have the irrigation shut off, but it is essential to keep pots watered going into the cold season. The more hydrated plants are, the more they can endure cold and frost.” Nock doesn’t stop watering until the daytime temperatures are consistently in the 30s, which is also when she brings her terracotta pots indoors.
