Prize container garden in Colorado

Sunset, June, 1999 by Marsha Tatroe

Designer Annie Huston mixes up colorful pots to paint a landscape

* On a cycling vacation through the Italian countryside near Assisi, Don and Nada Graves were captivated by the profusion of container plantings they saw in every village. The couple wanted to re-create this Old World charm in the adobe-walled courtyard of their new home near Denver. So they enlisted landscape designer Annie Huston of Columbine Design in Englewood, Colorado. Huston helped the Graveses achieve their vision by creating a garden composed entirely of container plants. The resulting design earned Huston's firm the grand award for use of color from the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado.

In the plantings shown here, Huston mingled alyssum, marguerites, marigolds, petunias, yellow archangel (Lamium galeobdolon), and trailing Vinca minor with showy vertical plumes of purple fountain grass. Burgundy-leafed 'Red Emperor' canna erupts from the container at top center, while 'Purple Wave' petunias and silvery licorice plant (Helichrysum petiolare) tumble over the rim.

Originally, the Graveses used clay pots, but they switched to terra-cotta-colored plastic containers 28 to 30 inches in diameter. The plastic containers hold moisture better and weigh much less than clay, making them easy to stack and store over the winter. To further reduce weight, the bottom third of each container is filled with plastic foam "peanuts," which are covered with weed barrier fabric. The plants are in a soilless potting mix amended with controlled-release fertilizer, supplemented by biweekly doses of liquid fertilizer to keep them growing strong all season. The Graveses do their watering by hand.