The deck came with a plant hanging hook that was perfect for the little pot of flowers. We straightened and sorted almost all day this past Sunday and early on I unearthed some cotton yarn, suitable for the purpose and in desirable colors (unlike the red/cream/ecru stuff which was all I’d found before). I made this up as I went along and it would be perhaps overly gracing it to call it “macrame,” but it is a plant hanger made by knotting yarn.

Instructions behind the cut (if you’re on a blog archive page).

My lengths were determined by what I had available, but they worked very well. My original yarn strands were about 14 1/2 feet long, which I doubled and tied overhand at each end. Then I crossed the doubled strands and tied them to hold them together. If I were doing this again that is the step I would change most substantially: I would cross two through two and then tie them each close to the crossover, instead of only crossing each through one or two of the others and tying them further out.

After that I would still make knots about 2″ from the crossover point, which is roughly where my first knots were (photo 1), and continue as I did: knots 4″ from the previous set (photo 2) and knots 3″ further out than that (photo 3). My pot was about 7″ across at the top and if you have a larger pot it’s the 3″ distance to increase.

Each time I tied knots I tied them between different pairs of (doubled) strands, partly for stability and partly for looks.

After I set the pot into the basket I brought all the strands up together, settling things so the pot would hang flat, and tied three tight overhand knots at the top. I trimmed my yarn ends (with the original knots holding the doubled strands together) above the third knot, and hung the pot by putting the hook between the lower two knots. The whole thing took maybe 20 minutes, and that was with photographing.

If you have a heavier pot I would add another strand to each doubled set, and if you have a much larger pot than mine, you should add more around. A fifth set of strands would take you far.

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The two-level herb pot pictured was the result of my craving: rosemary up top, sunk one or two inches into the soil of a pot containing spearmint and oregano. Since then we’ve started some vegetables, including a climbing spinach that I’m looking forward to seeing.

Of course what I really wanted (and resisted… for now) was something breathtakingly gorgeous. Let’s peruse some options for small and/or striking container gardens.

Succulents are a large percentage of my houseplants because they are very forgiving. You can plant them in tiny containers, including corks and snail shells. Of course this reminds me of last year, when I planted a seedling in a little gelato cup and made the mistake of placing it somewhere I couldn’t see from a distance. It is no longer with us. Now plant watering is on my to do list weekly, but the truly tiny containers still do not suit my gardening skills — which is a darn shame, because they are incredibly appealing.

If you get enough sun you can make wonderful collages or mosaics of many kinds of succulents in a single pot, or even in a wreath or hanging box (soil held in with chicken wire or hardware cloth). Chicweed features many such plantings in the container gardens category of their blog, including the one below.

Photo used courtesy Chicweed

You can readily root succulents from cuttings, which I’m in the process of doing with some broken pieces I brought home from the garden center with the herbs. Martha Stewart has a photo tutorial. For continuing care check out Succulent Gardens and The Cactus and Succulent Society of San Jose.

Another plant suited to tiny containers, or to landscaping larger containers, is moss. The gallery at Moss & Stone Gardens shows some larger plantings. I love the way multiple kinds of moss planted together look like a distant aerial view of a full size landscape, such as in the planting below.

Photo used courtesy Moss & Stone Gardens

Moss is a wonderful cover for the dirt around other plants, and Moss & Stone Gardens has a large archive of moss growing advice.

To branch out into other parts of the plant kingdom, Drought Smart Plants has two posts about plants with scale suited to miniature landscapes and fairy gardens (and very fancy model railroad setups). One has photos but fewer plants, and the other has more plants and care instructions but no photos. The Miniature Garden Shoppe has a large gallery of fairy gardens, miniature landscapes, and other creative container gardens (submitted by customers – that is to say, many works by people who aren’t plant professionals) that is enjoyable and inspiring to scroll through.

Finally, if you want something that needs literally no maintenance, you can make a faux terrarium, large or small (click that last link. You won’t regret it).

This was another tricky First Friday post, though it was for a different reason than last time. Photos of lovely container gardens seem to become detached from their sources quite easily, and even searching by image may not reunite them. In the interest of giving credit, I’ve only linked to photos in their original locations.

Incidentally, if you want gardening advice tailored to your area, I recommend looking first at your state university system’s cooperative extension. Unfortunately it doesn’t always work – University of Vermont links to a nationwide resource for container gardening – but in bigger states you’re likely to have luck. If you search on some combination of your state’s name, “university extension,” and “cooperative extension,” you should turn up something (though it might not be the state university per se; in South Carolina, look at Clemson). Here are a few links directly to materials about container gardening: from Texas, Ohio, Arizona, and two from Maine.

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