Tomato Plants and Container Gardens

Plant Selection:
Choose plants that you love or plants that produce something you love. If you don't enjoy the plants in your garden, you won't give them the care they require.

I began my garden out of necessity becuase I love tomatoes, but can't necessarily afford the high dollar produce from the grocery store. I bought Better-Boy Tomato plants from a suggestion from my horticulutre teacher.

I also picked out flowering plants that I liked and plants with pretty foliage to plant together in a pot, creating a container garden. When you plant a group of different plants all together in one pot, commonly called a container garden, you should have a mix of different textures and shapes to create an interesting and eye-appealing mixture. My horticulture teacher, Dr. Terri Hamlin suggested planting "Thrillers, Spillers, and Fillers." Thrillers are large and interesting. In my container garden my thriller is the Alabama Sunset Coleus becuase of its brightly colored, large foliage. Spillers are plants that fall over the side of the pot. In my container garden my spiller is the Bacopa as its small green foliage and white blooms fall gracefully over the edge of the pot. My Fillers are the Vinca, Profusion Zinnas, Dusty Miller and Duranta. They are pretty, flowering and take up the rest of the room in the pot. One important tip about container gardens is to grow plants in the same pot that require the same light and water requirements. For example, all of the plants in my container garden require full sun.

Lastly, I wanted to grow some flowers that look good in a cut flower arrangement. For these I picked out Black-Eyed Susans, a yellow cone flower, and Echinacia, a pink cone flower, that are hardy perennials (meaning they will grow year after year and not die). These perennials grow large so I spread them out amoungst 5 pots and will probably have to transfer them to my parent's yard in a few years as they may outgrow their pots.