Between all the icy roads, snow piles, and below-zero temperatures, it’s easy to think winter will never end. But, believe it or not, spring is right around the corner. When all the white powder melts into puddles and the thermometers inch to the positive double-digits, some Yorktonites will have one thing on their minds: Gardening.
Green-thumbs will soon buy new spades, fresh soil, and a bevy of seeds. Dinner tables and farmer’s markets will (hopefully) be overflowing with fresh vegetables and flowers.
When people think about growing their own plants, they typically picture huge squares of fertile dirt. But it’s hard for some would-be gardeners to acquire that much space. Horticultre guru Frank Woloschuk says you don’t need a huge acreage to grow gorgeous flowers; you just need a container.
Woloschuk led an instructional seminar about container planting at the Gallagher Centre on Apr. 7. The class was part of the Spring Expo over the weekend. The Yorkton and District Horticultural Society hosted the event.
“I’m a member of the Horticultural Society, so I’ve given talks on numerous topics,” Woloschuk said. “This is one of my favourites.
“I’m kind of a container addict.”
Container planting is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the practice of using a container to hold and grow your plants. People use pots, tubs, barrels, baskets, or anything else they can get their hands on. It’s a trendy type of gardening for people without much physical garden space.
“A lot of people don’t have gardens anymore, so the only way they can grow plants is in containers,” Woloschuk said. “Also...if you have a lot of brickwork...[containers are] the only way you can grow plants and get some colour in those areas.
“That’s why they’re popular.”
Woloschuk told the gathered crowd to start container gardening early in the season. He said gardeners should keep a fertilizer journal and they should only use a soilless medium as opposed to actual soil.
“If you use just garden soil, it packs like cement, because you’re watering pretty well every day,” he said. “It compacts the soil.”
Woloschuk encouraged the audience to tour greenhouses and research which plants work best in containers.
“There are special plants bred for this purpose,” he said. “Too many to list.”
Woloschuk has very simple advice for anyone who wants to start gardening with containers.
“Go visit somebody that has containers and talk to them for an hour,” he said.
