By Denise Crane

I suspect I will continue to learn lessons from my attempts to grow things. At least I hope I will. I think nature is a great teacher if we can stop and pay attention. That’s what a contemplative stance is all about I think.  

Show Up, Pay Attention, Cooperate with God, Release the Outcome (Elaine Heath). 

Nature teaches about seasons, about balance, about abundance, about invading or sharing, about bee-ing (couldn’t help it) and not overthinking, and about sustainability as we let nature be natural. And another thing I have learned from my gardening attempts is the importance of the container. You may have surmised, if you have read other articles in this series, that I like to repurpose things whenever possible. This includes the various containers I use for planting which mostly means I have a hodgepodge collection of containers that I have rescued from people’s curbs while out walking. I sometimes repaint them to give a pop of color in a place that beckons for some.

My husband reminds me that the containers should not block the sprinkler heads by being the incorrect height or too close. I am grateful for that attention because managing water in extreme heat is as much an art as a science.

Containers have also modified my approach to tomatoes. I have still not mastered growing large tomatoes in my garden, and I read that it’s good for tomatoes to be cycled out for a season or two because they can deplete the soil of nutrients quickly. So I have opted to try growing just mini tomatoes in pots. Mini tomatoes are my granddaughter’s favorite food. Meal planning often ends with her laughing and saying “and a side of tomatoes.” I got fresh soil, a variety of rescued pots I had on hand, and a good tomato food mix. The first time I started with three plants in my Aerogarden, transplanted them early, and they did great! It’s now part of our weekly sleepover routine for the grandkids and I to bring in the harvest. We rarely take any back into the house. The three of us can put away a good amount of mini tomatoes while we hunt the plants for them. This season we are up to nine plants and I even get to harvest a few in between sleepovers. Please don’t tell my granddaughter I eat some of them without her.

And then there are things that should only be grown in pots unless you want them to become their own garden. Mint is like that and basil is like that. Over time they will multiply in our climate and hardiness zone season after season. Be prepared to have other small pots available that you can fill with some soil and give away the little persistent babies that both these plants produce. I mistakenly tossed some soil into the main garden from a container that used to have basil in it. I was only trying to put fresh soil in the container to grow some potatoes. I now have basil growing around my bell peppers, strawberries, eggplant and squash. ( Yes, I am trying squash again, and, so far, so good). I am planning to gently dig some of that basil out and pass it along to friends and family. I regularly do the same with mint—it leaves me enough mint for some cooking and for my ice tea, and lets me share what I cannot use. I often wonder what it would be like if we could all just try a little bit more often to give away what is more than we can use.  

Once your container is full, what more do you need?