Tom: Have you ever constructed a container garden. You know, it’s a lot of fun. We’re going to show you how.

Joani: Hi. I’m Joani McCubbin.

Tom: And I’m Tom McCubbin and welcome to HisAndHersGardening.Com. And Joani, we’ve got lots of container gardens and we’ve got all different kinds and we’re going to show you how to make some of these great ones here for you. I’m going to show you how to make one container garden for $0.99 or less. How about that? Isn’t that a great deal? All you have to do is just get to plant the garden center and look at these great impatiens here and you put it right down to the center of the container. I’ll put some more soil a little bit later on. You add a hanger, just kind of snap it on, and you’ve got a hanging basket. Isn’t that kind of neat?

Joani: And you put it in the shade.

Tom: And you put this one in the shade. How much is that you would say, $0.99. You got the old container and everything.

Joani: That’s all you want. You can’t put more—or shouldn’t put more I guess you could say.

Tom: Yes. It fills it up. Show us that one container down the sidewalk and put some things off to the side over here.

Joani: This is a nice decorative pot. It’s plastic so it’s nice and lightweight. You don’t have to worry about it if you have to move it from place to place.

Tom: Yeah. But that one there doesn’t have something in the bottom that we need, right?

Joani: That’s true. There is nothing in the bottom. And the first thing that you should do if you ever buy a pot is to get your drill out and cut a couple of holes in the bottom, drill a couple of holes.

Tom: Most of these containers like this come with little spots that says drill on it and makes it easy for us gardeners which works out pretty well. I’ve got a couple of other containers here. Look at that nice little kind of a window box. Window boxes are becoming more popular, aren’t they?

Joani: Yes. We have some and we really liked them.

Tom: Yeah. I have our heavy one down there. And I got to show you my favorite one here. I know that this is not one of your favorites but it is mine.

Joani: But it’s pretty. It’s nice.

Tom: It’s pretty. Give me that. Okay.

Joani: I will give you that.

Tom: But what you’re going to need here is a plant that goes upward like this and I think a Cana would be nice in here.

Joani: That would be nice.

Tom: Nice solid color, but I like the color. Sometimes you buy just because you like it and it told me where to drill it, right there for the holes. Now we’re going to do something that’s kind of neat. We’re going to have a little contest and you can judge. We’ll see who makes the nicest little container. So you got your container, there is a hole on the bottom, I’ve got mine.

Joani: So you won’t need it.

Tom: I’m going to need the container. It’s got a hole in there.

Joani: But I’m going to win.

Tom: Well, I don’t know about that. The audience would judge.

Joani: Okay.

Tom: So get ready, get set, go! Okay. I’m going to start off here with what we call the thriller in the back here. What have you got?

Joani: I’m going to start off with this nice dusty Miller and I’m going to put it in the back too. Well, that wasn’t intended.

Tom: Well, we’re married, what can I tell you? But anyway, and this is my Croton. So you can use things that are perineal if you want to. What else do you have there.

Joani: I’m going for a Petunia. Mine will all be in the sun type plants.

Tom: Yeah, this is going to be pretty much in the sun too. Now, I got my thriller here, this is what somebody told me I need to do, but now I got a spiller which is a mint. And a spiller goes over the front sun. I might need a little bit more of soil there. I can see that. We’re using by the way—there is a lot of different soil mixes. There’s only a few that I really think work well and this one here happens to be the Fafard 3B that we’re using now. So if you want to mix…

Joani: That’s the best soil.

Tom: Yeah, it’s a great mix. And you want something that’s nice and loose. See all those great particles there, nice and loose so it will drain well. Okay. I got my filler, my spiller, and now, I’m going to put some thrillers on. What are you doing?

Joani: I did just the opposite, of course. I did my spiller last.

Tom: And look, I got some fillers here. They just happen to be exciting. What I’m doing is bringing the color out of the croton here. This happens to be a Marygold. And now, we got a begonia going down. Take the tags out, it makes them look a lot better, I think.

Joani: It does.

Tom: We’ll put that one over there. I’m going to need some more soil there. But I think we had everything going. What are you going to do now?

Joani: These apparently don’t look to good, the little flowers, so I’m going to prune off the dead ones and we’ll put them in that pot that I like.

Tom: Okay. That’s looking real nice.

Joani: I think that’s perfect.

Tom: That’s pretty good for a sunny area. I love that flocks all over the side there. And what we’re going to do is add a little bit of slow release fertilizer. This one here is a dynamite that will last for nine months. There are many other ones over there that would go. We’ll just ad d that around the pot. Follow the directions on the label to work out real well for you. Isn’t it nice not to have to fertilize for a long period of time. The slow release products would do that. All we have to do is keep it moist. Okay. Which one do you think is best?

Joani: Mine. Well, I guess that’s all there is for today.

Tom: For more how to videos, visit HisAndHersGardening.Com