Spring, the time of year that we all start to feel the stirring desire to dig in the dirt. Every year I am filled with hopes and dreams of the abundance my garden will produce. Gorgeous vines and sparkling blasts of colorful blooms, not to mention the basket of veggies that are sure to grow from all of the precious starts and buds that began in a greenhouse.
I have an ideal image of myself as a gardener. Wind whipped hair, a healthy sun dappled and dirty patina on my face, a competence and resourcefulness that is apparent from the gleam in my eye to the tips of my mud caked gardening clogs. I come by this delusion honestly. My dynamo of a mother, who worked full time and had me, my 2 sisters, her husband and mother-in-law to care for, tended a full quarter of an acre devoted to herbs and vegetables as well as many ornamental gardens around the perimeter of the house. However, in truth my dreams and desires simply do not match my knowledge, ability, available time, wallet or actual space.

This year, I am taking a different approach. I am going to cut myself and my garden some slack. And although I have a 10×20 foot rectangle plowed, I am going to cover the whole plot with straw and focus on container gardening. There are many reasons that I feel container gardening is the way to go.

Containers offer the fantastic benefit of being moveable. This is great because it allows you to give your plants the right amount of sunlight as well as being able to move them to your porch should you have a herd of deer eyeing your crops like a five year old who’s spied his Easter basket. The second most effective way of achieving a non-deer gobbled greenspace is to erect an 8-foot high fence. Local gardening experts and authors Cheryl Moore-Gough and R.E. Gough say, “A fence around the garden is a more permanent solution, but it must be at least eight feet high and slant outward from the protected area at a 45 degree angle. You may want to top it with another foot or two of electric fence, but this has the effect of turning your garden into a fortress and is exceedingly difficult to work pleasingly into the landscape.” I’ll say!

In my idealized image of myself as a gardener, I have a supremely organized toolshed that is filled with many time and back saving devices. A roto-tiller, a rolling seat with big nubby wheels, knee pads, many fashionable sun hats, along with the tools that I actually do have: a spade, rake, hoe, some hand trowels, gloves, sun-block and a baseball hat. I know myself, and I know that I do not enjoy weeding. With small containers the time spent weeding goes way down. Weeding could actually be something that one does idly while sipping on a tall cool lemonade while the sun is setting.

Containers and seeds are a very affordable way to get going on your garden. So many different options for containers are available. I was able to find a couple of dozen plastic chip bowls at a local discount store for 25 cents a piece, as well as 3 for a dollar plastic salad bowls. They are simple, durable, colorful, and arranged in multiples are rather beautiful in and of themselves. To create proper drainage in plastic, drill five or six holes in the base and place a few large rocks in the bottom before filling with the proper potting mix. There are of course larger and fancier containers available as well, but this year I’m keeping it cheap and cheerful. But, you can find some really lovely terracotta pots or make the containers yourself out of wood. Terracotta and wood are very organic looking and may work better with your particular design sense but they are heavier.

One benefit of smaller bowls or pots is that if an entire pot of Blue Fescue or Bee Balm or Sweet Peas dies, I can empty the pot and spread the other pots out, claiming that I intended all of that extra space around the plants, giving them breathing room in a design sense. Instead of having a brown patch mocking my self-sure expertise. I mention these plants because they are some of my personal favorites. Blue Fescue is an ornamental grass that grows particularly well here. Bee balm has lovely red blooms and attracts butterflies. And Sweet Peas, could I really call myself a Bozemanite without at least attempting to romance and train this pretty little vine?

If you are successful and plan well, at the end of the season many of your plants can move indoors. Some plants that tend to do well inside as well as outside are, herbs, ferns, ivys, and many more. After all, outside is where houseplants came from to begin with…. Happy Gardening!

Additional Tips

Deer resistant plants that do well in our zone:

Your favorite garden center will have many options to choose from but here is a short list of plants that I have had success with in the past: Lily-of-the-Valley, Pachysandra, Yarrow, Astilbe, Purple Coneflowers, Sunflowers, Lavender, Lungwort, and Yucca are all rather showy and cheerful.

Many vegetable plants are beautiful as well but, the deer love them as much as you do. Containers are a great way to be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor. I have had a salsa garden every year for over a decade now and everything you need for fresh tasty salsa can be grown easily in pots!

Potting mix:

Regular garden soil is too dense for containers, but good packaged potting mixes are easily available and probably a smart choice for smaller projects. If you happen to find yourself with an abundance of pots, consider making your own!

Sunset’s Western Garden book recommends this as an option: Combine 2/3 cubic yard nitrogen stabilized ground bark; 1/3 cubic yard washed 20-grit sand; 6 pounds 0-10-10 granular fertilizer; and 10 pounds dolomite or dolomite limestone. Mix all ingredients in a wheelbarrow.

Sam Farmer is a reluctant high altitude gardener in Bozeman who battles a short growing season and intermittent summer snowstorms.