KAREN WIGHT -- No Place Like Home

Free-standing pots are like a blank slate. Each decision you make

gives them a personality that enhances the ambience of your home. Whether

it pertains to the container, plant material or location, your choices

create a mood, a design statement and a tone that helps you set the mood

for your home and outdoor living space.

Before you head out to the garden store, take inventory of what you

want your pots and plants to accomplish. Do you want seasonal color for

the front door area or simplicity with boxwood that stays green all year?

What kind of maintenance time are you willing to spend? What size fits

best with the area you want to fill? Is it shady? Is it sunny? How will

it get watered?

Let’s start with the pots. Unless you are creating a water garden, be

sure to select a pot that has a drainage hole. Choices are abundant and

include terra cotta, glazed ceramic, concrete, cast iron, wood and

galvanized steel.

I often tweak the retail look of my pots to give them a unique, custom

flavor. If you like the patina of aged pots, you can mimic the look of

accumulated moss and leeching minerals by applying a mixture of

fine-sanded stucco tinted with a little brown and green pigment. Apply

the mix in an uneven pattern to give your pots an well-worn look.

Creation is a process, and I’m not shy about experiments. I recently

bought four large concrete planters for the backyard. I have been

coveting these beauties for ages and decided the new backyard deserved an

upgrade from the terra cotta pots I have had for 15 years. When I got my

new pots home, they did indeed look big and beautiful, but a little too

new and slick for my liking.

My first thought was to dirty them up a bit and give them a mossy

green look, so I lightly applied some old concrete stain that was

gathering dust in the garage. Now the pots took on a surreal Martian

quality. Not good. I tried to tone down the green with a mixture of gold

(actually raw sienna) tint. This gold-on-top-of-green mixture gave me a

rather shocking chartreuse color, which was not the subtle “old” look I

wanted.

When all else fails in my house, I go to black. The third coat of

pigment was a charcoal wash I created out of water, lamp black pigment

and some copper metallic additive that I’d bought years ago and hadn’t

figured out how to use. The third coat was not the charm, but the second

time I reapplied the charcoal wash (which, yes, brought the count up to

four coats of pigment), I was thrilled with the result. I sprayed on two

coats of matte sealer to make sure the color didn’t rub off and called

the project complete. They look unique, a little old and crusty, and are

a perfect foil for the outdoor furniture.

After you select your pot, be sure to fill it with a premium potting

soil. Dirt from the garden will lose its moisture too quickly and compact

too dramatically. Get a lightweight potting medium and, for extra

insurance that the dirt won’t dry out, incorporate some water-absorbing

polymer-gel crystals. This is especially important if your pot is going

to have full-sun exposure.

Select a vertical plant for the center of the pot and surround it with

plants that have a low-growth habit or cascade down the sides. If you

choose not to add accent plants, get a ground cover -- such as shredded

bark, pea gravel or decorative stones -- to help minimize moisture loss

from the pot.

Plants in pots need to be fertilized frequently to replace nutrients

that are absorbed by the plant or leak out the bottom. Adding an extra

dose of the appropriate fertilizer will keep your plant healthy.

Plants in pots need to be well-watered, especially if they are placed

in full sun. A drip irrigation system is the most foolproof way to

guarantee watering. This requires some planning, but the effort is worth

it.

My drip system is highly technical. I’m the drip, and I water

everything by hand. But this has its advantages. I can monitor the

plant’s growth, give it a little encouragement, admire my pots (at least

in the backyard) and have a moment to realize that any time spent in the

garden is time well spent.

* KAREN WIGHT is a Newport Beach resident. Her column runs Saturdays.

PO This horsetail is a good choice for a pot: The container limits the

spreading root system. Decorative stones placed on top of the planting

mixture help reduce moisture loss.