Green Spaces in Rural Places:

Many plants can be successfully grown in containers. Greenhouses do a thriving business selling both flowers and vegetables specifically for pots.

The advantage is versatility. Flowers may bloom on your front steps, or on your deck or patio, places where there is no soil for them. Those who don't have a yard they can dig up can grow tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, and flowers on their balcony or wherever they have enough sunlight during the day.

The disadvantage is the need for daily watering. Containers dry much more quickly than the earth. They may even require watering more than once a day. If the pot isn't large enough, the plants may become root bound. If the pot is too large the plant may spend its time trying to fill that space and not grow much above the soil. If the container doesn't have proper drainage, the plants may become waterlogged and drown.

Your planters may need watering twice a day during extreme heat. If they don't get enough water, the roots will dry out, shrivel up, and be unable to feed the plant. Conversely, if it rains a lot (as it did last week), the plants may drown. You may need to drain the drip trays under the pots. If there isn't drainage from the pot, you can try tipping the container on its side to let the excess water ooze out. But those containers probably shouldn't be used in the first place. If you see your plants wilting, or looking shriveled, they need a drink. If they are turning yellow and limp, they are probably drowning.

Most flowers in containers will also need periodic deadheading. If you don't remove the spent flowers, the plants will produce seeds. Once the plant produces enough seed to make more plants for next year, their purpose in life is done, and they will start to die off. For some flowers, such as petunias, you need only pinch off the bit of stem the flower is on. For others, such as pansies and geraniums, you should pinch off the entire stem. This encourages the plant to continue making long stems. Plus, leaving those steps sticking up is ugly and gives the plant a ragged look. You can use snipers for this, but I usually do the pinching barehanded. The exception would be roses.

Some hybrid plants do not make seed and don't require deadheading. This is the reason 'the wave' petunia is so popular. Some, such as the double petunia, while not making seed and not requiring deadheading to keep on blooming, look very unkempt with the dried up dead flowers on them, so I'll still remove the spent flowers.

Your plants in containers will appreciate being watered in the cool of the morning or evening, not during the heat of the day. I like to do my deadheading while watering.

This is the time of year I start pulling the leggy volunteer flowers I'd let grow between the rows of my garden. The bachelor buttons get top heavy and tend to blow over, covering the plants growing in the rows. The baby's breath has gone to seed, as have the California poppies and the larkspur. I can't keep up with the deadheading, so those plants all go to the scrap heap. I'm sure they'll all volunteer again next spring. Some will even start making a reappearance now.

Most perennial plants also benefit from deadheading. The leaves need to be left, though, to nourish the bulbs or roots, so they'll blossom again next year. And your yard will look much neater without the dead flowers. I didn't get to my Shasta daisies, so there will be tons of them everywhere the winds took the seeds. They are most prolific. The same is true of the Russian lilacs. Those plants are welcome to grow and bloom in those areas of my yard that would otherwise be weedy. These are welcomed weeds.

I will also start pinching the ends of the new growth on my cucumbers, squash, and melons. I want the plants to put their efforts into finishing the fruits they've started, not more vine and flowers that won't have enough summer left to produce anything edible. The side shoots on the tomato plants also get pinched off. The pea vines sometimes will have a second flowering, and might produce enough for a late cooking of creamed baby potatoes and peas, so I leave them in place.

My raspberries are slowing down, giving me more time for these other chores. They were hit hard by the rains, strong winds, and hail last week. I wasn't picking during the rains, but they were still ripening. The winds lashed the ripe and overripe berries against the thorny canes, scuffing and bruising them, and releasing their juices. When I was finally able to pick them again, as many were rejected as went into the containers. It seemed such a waste, though the birds and insects were rejoicing.

Even though I'd fed the raspberries bonemeal this spring for stronger canes, the 50 mph-plus winds were stronger, knocking many of the canes over. This made berry-picking a much more back-breaking chore. I had placed three whirly-gigs on fence posts so that they are above the canes in a vain attempt to deter the birds from helping themselves to the berries. The winds totally destroyed one of them. I'm still finding parts of it here and there in my yard. The hailstones scored a couple of direct hits on another. One seems to be intact yet. Next year I'm going to try sparkle tape, as suggested by my sister-in-law, Shyla. She says the apple orchards in Washington use that to great effect. (It's just as well I hadn't set up my scarecrow, or she'd be facedown in the mud.) I'll let you know how that works next year, perhaps.