welcome to artful aging with amy where i
ask caregivers and professionals the
difficult questions that will give you
guidance on your life's journey support
is only one conversation away and this
is your first step let's go
good morning everyone i'm amy friesen
and this is artful aging with amy it's
gardening season again and i know many
of you are ready to get out and get your
hands dirty i can remember as a little
girl one of my favorite things to do
with my nanny was to go outside and help
her with her peonies and look at the
tulips and often she would cut some
tulips for me to take home and now her
peony bush is in my yard and so when i
get to see that bloom every year it
invokes all those memories not to
mention i got specific tulips she used
to always have red and yellow tulips so
those are also in my yard and it brings
such a happy feeling every single year
many new gardeners were born in the last
few years as gardening has positive
effects on mental health including
reducing anxiety connection to the earth
and learning how to be more present
lana doss also known as the fine
gardener has spent 30 years in
leadership roles in horticulture and now
runs her own business where she
specializes in horticulture
consultations small space design and
installations
growing
in containers as well as live plant
workshops and educational presentations
welcome lana thanks so much for joining
us today
oh thanks for having me it's a pleasure
i'm so happy to have you i'm glad that
you chose to do the recording outside
because it's obviously a beautiful day
and and will bring some color of the
flowers and that's also why a lot of us
love flowers right it's just they're so
colorful and especially after the winter
and it's usually pretty drab so let's
get some extra color in oh yeah and i i
i garden outside but i in my off time i
still want to be outside as much as i
can wonderful wonderful atlanta could
you tell us more about you and why
you've chosen horniculture as a career
well it's so funny i was listening to
your story about going up with your with
your nan
and i got my start early as well i
always followed my mom around she grew
up on a farm
and she always
planted
flowers every single year and i think i
was the only one of my siblings that
ever was very interested in that so i
got an early start by helping her and
then
actually as a as an adult i started
working in a garden center it was just
kind of a bit of a fluke summer job and
i loved it so much that i decided to
stay
and the more i learned the more i wanted
to learn so then i took a lot of
horticultural courses and i stayed in
that industry for a long time
and i spent uh well almost 30 years in
retail management and then i just
decided that it was time for a change
and the more i got into management the
more i was getting away from my
horticultural roots so i decided to
start focusing on working solely for
myself and and gardening full-time for
other people that's wonderful it's it's
so it's kind of similar to my line of
work and the fact of what you just said
that you know you as a career a lot of
us want to advance and do other things
but what i found even in my own career
when i was working in retirement homes
the more you advance and the more you
look at getting different
positions and different things like that
the further away you get from what you
love for me it was working with the
seniors for you it's working in the horn
culture you know directly um and i found
that as well and so i love that you were
like you came out and started your own
um business and you're doing what you
love is same with me i started when i
started my business eight years ago
right back into doing exactly what i
want right so
awesome definitely yeah i agree um i
thought it would be a great uh great to
show folks who might not garden a lot
but may want to a few tips that they
could use this year as well as teach our
audience about container gardening as
many of the folks i work with are
seniors in retirement communities so
atlanta for those who are unfamiliar
what are some of the benefits that
people find from gardening
oh my gosh well you know what for for me
and like as i age i
wanted to do something for work that
kept me physical first of all and it's
amazing how in shape gardening keeps me
not just physically but mentally uh i
find that any time that i just go work
in gardens i start to zone out
if i had an issue or a problem that i
was thinking about as i start to garden
within no time i completely forget about
it as i'm just focusing on pulling the
weeds or whatever i'm doing so
physical health um
definitely
mental health just
it's such a great de-stressor
and
um i just find that uh i and i've talked
to a lot of other people who garden as
well and they're just genuinely fairly
happy
and you know you know i mentioned about
working with my mom and helping her like
one of the um
one of the flowers that i remember she
always grew every year was pansies so
this is an example of my happy face
pansies and like how can you not
feel good when you're surrounded by
flowers and the beautiful smells and uh
just pretty pretty little uh faces like
that so yeah just just general overall
uh well-being is just such a a great
thing that i get from gardening and many
other people do too of course yeah
wonderful and i and i've been talking to
you and a couple of other folks and i
think i really need to get my green
thumb going because
i we're going to talk about some of the
other benefits in a minute but um i feel
like i would as a business owner also
be able to benefit from some of those
you know aspects that you're talking
about
before we get to that could you maybe
let us know what are some of the
advantages and disadvantages of growing
plants above ground in containers
because i want to show people that you
know container gardening is live and
well and you know the folks that can't
get out to gardens maybe
you know there's other ways to do it so
maybe you could talk to us a little bit
about the advantages and disadvantages
oh for sure um so maybe first i'll just
i'll cover some of the disadvantages
because i can really elaborate on the
advantages
but one thing
um that i can think of for sure is that
you just have to check on watering more
you may have to water more
plants and containers will usually dry
out faster than if they're in the ground
first of all
and
uh you really do need to
make sure that you're using the right
type of potting mix as well where in the
garden you can just pick up garden soil
you may already have garden soil but for
containers you really need a special
potting mix and there's reasons for that
and we could chat about that a little
bit later
um what do you think uh feeding as well
so
containers will definitely dry out
faster so you need to water more but as
you water then sometimes you're leaching
out nutrients from the pot so you may
have to feed them more to get the same
nutritional benefits than if they were
in the ground
so on the other side of that um for
advantages well first of all it's uh
you have a mobile garden
so if you find that you thought you had
enough light for let's say tomato plants
and it's not getting enough light we can
just move
move your containers to where there is
more light so mobility is awesome
for people who have mobility issues as
well you can just have like some
plants and containers on a table and
maybe uh you're you're not very
comfortable getting down on your knees
and on the ground so you can garden at a
at a height which uh which is great for
anybody with mobility issues um other
advantages uh very few weeds in the
garden you are going to get a ton of
weeds and containers it's generally not
an issue
and same thing with reduced uh pest
insect pests as well
when you're gardening in containers
and then the you know the assortment is
just endless like the assortment of
styles and colors uh you just got a lot
of great options those are some really
great tips like even just knowing about
the soil and things because again i
don't have a green thumb so i'm you know
learning as i go and and when you said
about the watering too i noticed that i
have a basil plant i always get a basil
plant at the first of the year and it
dries out really quickly so before i can
get it into the ground i'm you know
watering it constantly but so many
things grow differently and need
different waters like from my orchids to
my basil are completely different right
so
um are there any certain plants that do
better or worse in containers that we
should maybe like encourage people to
lean towards the good ones that will be
you know bountiful
yeah oh for sure so and if we're talking
plants in general so we
i mean we've got flowers and then we
have vegetables so
most of the flowers that die at the end
of the season they're called annuals
they are well suited to containers as
opposed to
perennials and bushes that come back
every year
so
annual flowers are well suited to
containers so you've got a huge variety
perennials not as much so
any of the flowers that you get right
now from the garden centers
as well as as it relates to vegetables
let's say there are definitely certain
types that are do better in containers
than others oh excuse me i've got a
little wick happening here
and then you know and this is the thing
about outside right you just uh you go
with the flow of the birds and the and
the wind but that's another great
advantage of gardening um
so with uh vegetables so if you think um
you know plants that are more suited to
containers and in the ground so you're
probably not going to choose something
like a corn plant to put in a container
so size you don't want large plants like
corn
squash
pumpkin that type of thing
so
others that do fairly well are
tomatoes
within the tomatoes even there there are
some plants that are really really big
and if you choose that to go that route
with large like these steak tomatoes
then you need a really really big pot
but there are smaller tomatoes like
cherry tomatoes and there's newer
varieties of patio tomatoes which are
bred to be fairly contained and just
like about
pot size like about a foot and a half
high so those do really well
and
speaking of the patio tomatoes there's
lots of new variety of vegetables that
are actually dwarf varieties that do
really well in containers
cucumbers is another example there are
lots of new varieties of dwarf cucumbers
that do better in containers
um
so those are just a couple to name a few
but other than that like um
shallow rooted vegetables things like
lettuce
spinach
radish those do really well in
containers as well
and so if you were new to
to gardening and especially vegetable
gardening start with some of those and
maybe start small with maybe just one
one that one vegetable this year maybe
like a nice cherry tomato or a patio
tomato
and then the others that do really want
containers as well you mentioned you
always do a basil plant so herbs are
phenomenal um you can add herbs in with
your flowering uh
pots as well or you can
add herbs even under a large tomato if
you decide to do like a large container
so there's little ways that you can just
mix things up and and make uh make your
edibles really pretty by adding
vegetables to your herbs and herbs
to your flower containers
that's a really nice
idea as well and then you know container
gardening can be indoors and outdoors
and sometimes what i do for i have some
containers on my patio
and just make kind of like an assortment
right and i put lavender out as well
because lavender has been really good
for mosquitoes to get those away as well
you had mentioned the dwarf tomatoes i
grew tomatoes last year in my outdoor
garden and they were crazy they took
right off
but one of the ones that came to mind
when you were talking about it are the
hanging basket ones that are upside down
yeah um how about those types of are
those
you know easy enough to grow
i always found those interesting because
it's kind of like coming down at you
instead of coming up i guess but
so i i have tried them because i needed
to test it and it makes perfect sense
what they really love about it is that
uh there's a lot of heat right on their
roots so they they're heat lovers from
tomatoes from the mediterranean um they
uh are warm weather lover so they love
that aspect the challenge i find is that
the um
those containers that you can buy like
that um
they might be a little bit too small for
how that tomato how big that tomato
wants to get
so i did actually see
an interesting spin on that where uh
people have taken something like a five
gallon bucket
instead like a bigger container and put
a hole in the bottom of it and put the
tomato in the bottom and that was that
that had a longer a longer lifespan in
the summertime but for the um the other
ones that you can purchase uh at the box
stores uh
if you do choose something like a very
small variety of tomato and it will tell
you right on the tag like how they grow
uh that would definitely be more
effective for sure in those ones yeah
interesting yeah i just wanted to ask
you because it immediately came to mind
i'm a little bit shy about growing
tomatoes inside just because every time
i grow them i either pick the wrong
variety or they just go bonkers so yeah
it's a lot of patio yeah look for one
that says patio tomato i'll give you one
uh particular name that's really common
out there you can get it at most stores
but one that's called tiny
it's a little cherry tomato and it does
really well in containers awesome
awesome
lana where would we start if we wanted
to do a container garden i know we
talked about you know soil and water is
there like
how do i stir i know that you know when
you when we grow stuff outside
uh especially in the spring and
especially with food like vegetables and
stuff where where sometimes we're
seeding and things like that so we're
prepping all the seeds to bring them out
what do we do with container gardening
is it just as easy as getting the soil
like you were talking about and just
picking a smaller variety or is there
anything else that we should know
what i would start with is um look at
your space for lighting
and
right now it's very cool you don't want
to be putting anything that's uh that's
a heat lover outside anyway so if you've
got the gardening itch and you want to
do something on these nicer days uh
before putting
heat sensitive plants outside then start
just looking at your space looking at
the light so when it comes to vegetables
most vegetables like a lot of sun so
start to assess your your space that way
if you don't have a lot of sun like if
your
space space is north or northwest that's
a kind of a lower light area then maybe
um just opt for
some flowers that are shade loving and
again it'll it'll always tell you on the
tag and if you shop at garden centers
there's a ton of knowledgeable staff as
well that can help you um with your
plant selection so i would start with
that um if you have containers already
dig those out uh start to arrange them
in your space to see how you like that
and then start to freshen the soil
for uh containers year after year you
don't have to get rid of all of that
soil a soil
the soilless mixes that are and potting
mixes that are for containers can get
quite expensive so what i usually do is
maybe just remove some of that and then
freshen it a little bit and mix it all
in so that's another thing that you can
start with by getting your containers
ready
and then
shop with a plan like i know
many of us just like to go out into the
stores and buy what we see that we like
that's so pretty um but uh the marketing
industry and all of the stores know this
about us just like grocery stores and um
you're gonna buy things that won't
necessarily go well in your space
if you do if you shop an impulse so
i would say start to create a plan if
it's for vegetables consider what you
like to eat so if there are certain
herbs like you like chives if you like
lettuce if you like cherry tomatoes
start making a list and then the same
thing with flowers if you have a shadier
spot then
just start making a note that's okay i
i like these colors so maybe i want a
white and a red for a shady spot in
morning sun but so if you make that list
just like when you're going grocery
shopping as
opposed to buying all the junk food
that's not good for you um you'll be
buying things that will work well in
your space because you've already
thought it out so that's where i would
start
and one more thing on that note too
like right now we're in the
you know
beautiful weather we're having uh great
great sunny days in ottawa here and
next week looks even nicer no rain in
the forecast but we've got some really
cold nights so even though
a lot of this material is available for
sale
for mother's day it doesn't mean that
it's going to enjoy going outside and
staying out there at nighttime so
i would also just resist
purchasing a lot of plant material just
yet because we're still going to have
some really cold nights
and that they won't be very happy with
that that's some great advice thanks for
that and one of the other things that
came up to mind when you were talking is
do we need to put any um pebbles or
anything in the bottom of our and our
bottom of our planters for drainage
that's a really really good question so
the one one concern
when it comes to watering
in containers outside
is
whether or not there are drainage holes
and
if
let me see the best way to explain this
if your pots are going to be exposed to
the sky so if they're if we have a
really heavy rainstorm and there are no
holes um
then those containers are going to
overflow with water so no amount of
stones um or drainage is going to help
that situation so i would recommend
always having uh drainage holes in the
pot like i just have to have the part
right here i'm going to assume that
there's holes in the bottom
and any pots that are sold for outdoor
gardening usually give you the option
they may
not come with the holes but you might
see a mark where you could you actually
are expected to punch a hole
so that being said
when it comes to even large containers i
don't i don't use anything necessarily
for drainage um because i always have
drainage holes and that's where the
extra water can go
um but one thing that i do do is i cheat
on the amount of soil that i add into
containers because i like to use large
ones
and i use um fillers like empty water
bottles or i've actually used pine cones
i've used styrofoam peanuts um for space
fillers in the bottom so they can act as
as as drainage for sure but it's more
just because
i don't want to fill all those big pots
with a
with uh stones and a lot of expensive
soil and so i like to use some
lightweight uh
space fillers i call them because most
of the roots of your flowers and veggies
are in that top like 12 inches
of soil they don't need to go down two
feet if you're have really large
containers
so does that answer your question yeah
that's really good advice i didn't even
consider because
because i've done stones before because
sometimes you just pick up stuff around
life and you're just like oh stones in
the bottom for drainage but then
like stones and rocks are also really
heavy
and it never occurred to me to actually
just put some like empty bottle or
whatever in the bottom because you're
right you know most times if you're
having those big planters they don't
need all that space but it's like you
know just for some extra drainage and
some extra not i guess not using all the
expensive soil specifically
yeah for sure awesome when i was uh
researching the show i found it very
interesting um there was an article that
was targeted at people who do not have a
green thumb like myself
it was talking about how gardening
teaches you how to practice acceptance
move beyond perfectionism and develop a
growth mindset and to be honest as a
business owner and a caregiver that
appeals to me very much and it actually
makes me want to learn gardening more
because i didn't actually
think of it because some of us who don't
actually have green thumbs or you know
are trying our best out there it can be
frustrating it can be frustrating for me
right and not all the plants take and
whatnot but if you look at it in a
different way it does teach you you know
you know not all if you plant 10 plants
maybe not all 10 will take and so you
know you have to move with that and you
have to understand and you can use
different um facets of your life and
different learning in gardening as well
and that's why it was really appealing
to me land i'm not sure if you're a
caregiver and we actually haven't
crossed that off so let us know if
you're a caregiver but also i know that
you're a business owner so do you find
that gardening helps with these types of
behaviors
oh my gosh yes and um i'm not a
caregiver right now that i've had kids
and uh
so what gave care to my little my kids
when they were younger and now that
they're adults i still have to to give
some cure to them for sure
but i but i do work with a lot of
seniors as as well and some special
needs people um
and it definitely definitely helps um
one thing that you're just talking about
when you mention that it helps with
perfectionist tendencies and i think i
can relate as you said as a as a
business owner um even before i had my
own business i definitely have
perfectionist tendencies and it really
does help you embrace failure for sure
um it's it's so i don't know if you've
ever heard the saying like 10 percent
loss is acceptable in certain con
situations um i'd say it's even more
more than 10 loss uh when your gardening
is acceptable and
i have killed so many more plants that
you'll you'll probably ever grow in your
life and it is it is humbling and we
don't of course we don't want to kill
live things it's a you know it it's it's
very sad but um
it does help to teach you that
yes this happens and it's okay and it's
not the end of the world and
the other thing about gardening is that
it's it's not an exact science it uh
you know what works for you today may
not work tomorrow what works in my
garden may not work in in in yours so
all of that together it really does help
you kind of go with the flow and
be a little easier less critical on
yourself and on others as well i find i
think that's good life knowledge too a
lot of people
say you know for social media for
instance don't compare your life to
somebody else's highlight role right and
it's like you're right
what works for you may not i might not
be able to pull that off but that
doesn't mean that i can't benefit in a
different way or do it in a different
way because my you know i think
differently than you for instance and so
maybe there's a way that i can do it
that really works for my life that looks
different than yours but both are
equally successful right
absolutely
do we before we finish up maybe um could
you give us maybe like your top three
tips i know we talked a lot about you
know a lot of different tips so just to
wrap up today maybe top three tips for
aspiring gardeners out there you know
what would be the top three things that
you would say
to go ahead and do
um
actually my my
my top top
chip of all time and it may not sound
like this you know this this inside
gardening uh information but
walk your plants look at your plants
often
daily even and the reason that i say
that is because you can catch
all kinds of issues if you are
spending time getting to know your
plants
and
if you are walking let's say there's a
garden or even if it's just a a couple
of pots
if you are looking at them every single
day well one you're getting to know
their nuances when
you'll notice when
leaves turn yellow or look a little sad
or you'll say hey you know why i didn't
notice that this is not flowering as
much today as it was last week and then
maybe you take a closer look um by doing
that
you'll catch any issues right away and
be able to
jump on them and action them
and i would say my other one i i know i
already mentioned it but it is so
crucial to
shop with a plan and
um just resist buying uh things on
impulse
those are the people that ended up
hiring me to go and fix their garden
when they just
shopped and put things here and there
gardens are
can be so unique depending on what part
of the city
they're in uh some plants are heartier
in different parts than others so just
even getting to know your heartiness
area and your lighting conditions what
kind of gardener you are if you're an
absent gardener and you do not want to
spend any time like those all all those
different conditions require different
kinds of plants so
having that plan knowing your space
knowing what you you're looking for
is key
and then
utilizing the garden center staff it's
uh it's amazing how much knowledge is
there as i mentioned i worked in garden
centers for decades and the independent
garden centers generally have like a
core group of people that are there year
round i don't think anybody can hire up
enough staff for the demand in spring
but um
year round there's a core knowledge so
that when if you go with your plan and
you say you know i want a you know a
purple pansy
for this area and let's say they don't
have any but a garden center associate
should be able to recommend the pseudo
substitution uh given your requirements
that you have
and within you know thinking about
knowledge um reading the plant tags as
well ton of information on the plant
tags i think a lot of times we see those
little tags and we just say okay well
it's got the color or the name but if
you turn that tag around it tells you
how high that plant grows tells you how
far to space them tells you whether it's
full sun full shade half and half so
utilizing those
those resources whether it's the
staffing
or the information that comes with the
plants and cells
just for that extra piece of piece of
knowledge is quite valuable
wonderful
well that is terrific could you let us
know where and how to contact you
atlanta
case people are interested in getting a
little help in their garden or are
looking for some extra knowledge
for sure so uh my email address is lana
thefinegardner.com
and i am active on social media i have a
facebook page a gardening page uh where
i share a lot of the tips that i come
across a lot of pictures and gardens so
i like to share uh share knowledge and
you can find me under the fine gardener
and i
on instagram as well as the fine
gardener terrific well thank you so much
for taking the time to come out
um and talk to us all about you know all
about container gardening but also
there's so much extra knowledge you've
given us today and even for me there's
so much value so thank you so much for
sharing that with us i appreciate it oh
my pleasure my pleasure happy gardening
thank you
well that is it for today i hope that
you found value in what land and i have
been discussing get your containers
ready folks we are on garden season now
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remember support is only one
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you i hope that you have a wonderful
wednesday
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