And he’s not the only one at the show to have created lofty pots; several booths showcased the slimline containers in a variety of materials, including classic terra cotta and colour-washed ceramic. I like these svelt urns for their freshly elegant look. But they also do something we haven’t seen since the advent of the hanging basket: they put plants at eye level where we can appreciate their colour, texture and fragrance. Gotta try this at home…

But, for intrepid urban gardener, Gayla Trail (and her online persona You Grow Girl), ingenuity and frugality combine with a passion for plants to transform garbage cans to containers, dresser drawers to planters and rooftops into gardens filled with heirloom vegetables and unusual herbs. Recently, Gayla spoke at a Parkdale Horticultural Society meeting and showed how she does it and what she grows. Here are 12 good things she said that have inspired me to try converting a corner of my yard into a mini-veggie garden this year.

1. Shiso, or perilla, is a herb plant with wonderful purple foliage. Brew the leaves into an iced tea with a fruity, minty flavour. It’s also used to dye ginger pink (the kind served with sushi).

2. Whippersnapper is one of the earliest tomatoes to mature and grows well in containers. Gayla harvests hers in July.

3. Gayla reuses her potting soil from year to year, amending it with compost (especially vermicompost) and rotating her crops.

4. To conserve water, she grows in very large containers which don’t need watering as often as smaller ones do. She also places tall plants at the back of her rooftop garden as a wind break.

5. She hardens off seedlings by placing them in a sheltered gazebo; first for a few hours a day, and gradually increasing their exposure to the outdoors over two weeks. Although it takes extreme patience to do this, she says it really pays off in healthy plants.

6. Clear plastic takeaway containers with lids make great mini “greenhouses” for starting seeds.

7. Peppers, either sweet or hot, need deep containers to accommodate their roots. Gayla grows them in her collection of sap buckets.

8. All of her containers have holes in the bottom for drainage. To make them, she hammers a large nail through the metal bottoms of sap buckets, garbage cans and other metal containers.

9. Yes, she manages to grow strawberries in a strawberry pot! But she also recommends growing Dianthus, which can take the dry conditions.

10. Purple bush basil has tiny leaves that burst with flavour — try it!

11. Sow lettuce in “lettuce balls” constructed of two wire hanging baskets, lined with coir, filled with soil and wired together. Covered all over in leafy lettuce, they look like giant, edible green powder puffs!

12. Grow potatoes in garbage cans by placing a bit of soil in the bottom (don’t forget the drainage holes, and Gayla places the can on top of the upturned, brick-lined garbage can lid which serves as a saucer); then plant the bits of potatoes and cover with a thin layer of soil; as the potatoes sprout, add more soil until it reaches the top of the can and the potato leaves tumble over the rim.

Galya’s working on her next book, so watch for it soon!

Cabbages and kales for fall containers

With fall in the air, all gardeners’ thoughts turn to autumn planters – right? Like opening the closet to examine the state of our fall wardrobes, planning a container of autumn plants signals the change of season from the fun, but toasty days of summer, to the energizingly crisp cool days of fall.

Each year it seems that nurseries offer a greater variety of plants for autumn containers. There are myriad grasses that wave and whisper with the breezes, heathers that last well into winter, mums, pansies and asters that add splashes of colour and boldly textured ornamental kales and cabbages. Here’s a roundup of some great plants for your fall containers.

Grasses
Purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’) still seems to be the popular choice, and why not? Its beautiful burgundy foliage is perfectly complemented by graceful coppery flower tufts. But there are others, too. A green version of fountain grass, P. alopecuroides ‘Hameln’ has pale green feathery flowers flushed with red, and the nodding heads of northern sea oats (Chasmanthium letifolium) shimmer in the sunlight of bright autumn days. Although more of a grain than a grass, ornamental millet (Pennisetum glaucum ‘Purple Majesty’) is a handsome deep purple-coloured upright plant that adds much-needed height to containers.

Heather
White, pink, lavender, lilac, rose and violet – these are just some of the many pastel colours of heather that you’ll find at the nurseries this season. A semi-evergreen subshrub, heathers last well into the winter. Give them good drainage and plenty of peaty soil (they love it on the acidic side) and they’ll be happy.

Mums, pansies and asters
Stalwarts of the autumn garden, mums, pansies and asters come in a rainbow of colours from bright yellows and rusty-hued oranges to purple, white and pink. At a local nursery, I spotted some dwarf asters that are easy to tuck into containers. Look for the magenta-coloured Aster x dumosus and A. novi-belgii ‘Puff’, a frilly white aster, and its pals, the lavender-blue ‘Magic’ and ‘Dragon’. Icicle pansies have become popular both in the garden and in containers. I can’t resist their happy faces! I’ve fallen for ‘Autumn Sun’, a combination of violet with a sunset yellow blotch that looks perfect paired with purple fountain grass and ornamental millet. ‘Rosy Red Ruffle’ and ‘Fire n’ Ice’ are also good strong colours for fall.

Kales and cabbages
Traditional favourites, these cool season ornamental vegetables add texture to a fall arrangement. When visiting a friend’s garden last year, I was bowled over by a towering ornamental kale that she had grown from seed. ‘Red Bor’ is its name, and this spring I found some seedlings at the Toronto Botanical Garden’s sale of annuals, so this season it’s now towering in my garden. But lucky for you, it can be yours too. I found some pot-grown specimens at Fiesta Farms Garden Centre on Christie St. – so if you didn’t grow it from seed this spring, run, don’t walk, to pick up one of these fabulous bold plants!