I'm Trace Barnett and welcome to Garden Party.

Today we're making an edible container scape.

What's an edible container scape you ask?

It's a garden container that you can eat.

Well, the contents, not the container itself.

Let's talk containers.

This is the most important aspect of your edible container scape.

I tend to usually gravitate towards large galvanized containers.

The galvanized containers lend themselves to being sturdy.

They last quite a long time.

They also come with built in handles so you can move them around your garden.

Drainage holes are essential in any container scape as well as any potted plant.

The easiest way to put a drainage hole in the bottom of a galvanized container is simply using a drill bit, or just a nail, and gently hammering that through.

You want to space your drainage holes out so that it drains evenly.

Now, a lot of times with these larger containers, they just are too large to fill with pebbles or rocks.

So I love to save a little bit of landfill, and I like to line the bottom of large containers with simple plastics that would go into the recycling.

You really need this step because it's really going to help with drainage, and it's going to allow those roots to have the nice ample oxygen supply up through the drainage holes.

Now let's talk dirt or get a little dirty.

Take your potting soil and put it in your hand.

You can see that it's rich just from the color, but it also holds a really good amount of moisture because I can ball it up in my hand.

You don't want a container mix that's filled with bark or chips or anything like that.

Pour your dirt into your container.

Can't believe we did that so smoothly and even out that top layer.

Let's start planting our vegetables.

We're going to start all of our vegetables today, mostly from seed, simply because these are seeds that are easy to germinate and will really relish the natural heat that comes from this container as the sun hits it.

My favorite container plant is crook neck squash.

It's also one of my favorites to cook with, especially if you grew up in the South.

I mean, who doesn't love fried squash?

Now to plant a squash hill, I'm going to dig down into the dirt.

And this can just vary depending on the depth of your container.

I'm going to put some eggshells directly in there so we can have that a little bit of calcium and a little bit of phosphorus that squashes love.

I'm going to mound the dirt up just like that.

Make almost a ball.

Let's just raised up from the container just like that and give it a pat.

I'm going to do the same thing over here.

Now when you are planting squashes in a container, you don't want any more than probably two squash hills in a galvanized container this size, because they will really take this over.

And now it's the fun tip that I've always loved.

This is how my grandparents taught me.

Take your finger and just one finger length deep.

Dig yourself three little bowling ball holes.

Almost.

So you want that bowling ball to look like it's just perched on top of the dirt.

And now let's add our seeds.

Now, squash seeds are easy to pop up.

They don't require any soaking, nicking or anything like that.

And then just simply cover them and tap that dirt down.

Squashes are typically very quick to germinate.

So give this about 11 to 12 days and they'll be popping their little heads up.

Now this is one of my favorite tips whenever I'm planting direct sow or in a container.

And this is just simple flour.

I'm going to take my flour and I'm going to go around our squash hill there.

And that's going to denote that I have planted a squash.

Right in the parameter.

Even when you water this container, the flower will still sit on top of the dirt and will show you your denotation lines.

Now I'm going to follow the Holy Trinity of the Native Americans which were beans, squash, and corn.

And I'm going to plant some corn seeds just to the side.

I'm going to plant two corn seeds on each side.

So now that we have this edible container finished, I'm going to grab just a little bit of pine straw.

And I'm going to just loosely scatter that over our container.

Now what this little bit of pine straw does is say if it comes a heavy rain or if you're watering, it's not going to mess up the dirt as much.

And it's also going to hold in just the tiniest bit of moisture that our seeds need, while allowing the sun to perk them right on out of the dirt.

Another great companion planting group for an edible container scape would be tomatoes, basil, oregano, and some scallions.

Our tomato plants are just not quite ready yet.

But what I'm going to do to ensure that we save enough room for our tomatoes is I'm going to put our tomato cages directly into our container here.

I'll know to leave room for them later.

Basil is a wonderful companion to tomatoes, and if you think about it, the flavor combination there is a match made in heaven.

So why wouldn't they grow together?

Basil is also remarkably easy to grow by seed, so it's a wonderful option for a container scape.

I'm going to just loosen up the dirt here in my basil corner of our container.

Just loosen it up so it's not just so flat, sprinkle the basil seeds on to the dirt and basil seeds are incredibly tiny.

This is not going to be one of those times where you're just individually planting the seed.

A mass planting is better and we'll thin it later.

I'm going to rake a little bit of dirt over that, just like so.

Make sure all of your little seeds are covered if you can see them.

Basil doesn't need that much dirt to grow or germinate.

And then I'm going to just lightly tamp it just like that.

I'm going to go in again and just mark this area off and show that I have planted some basil there.

Another great option is green onions.

It's a wonderful combination.

These also flower.

And these are just the same green onions that you buy in the store.

Simply save the little ends here and they will grow for you for years.

And I'm going to plop those here in the back and really think about the visual appeal as of the different height of vegetables and plants as they grow, and feel free to intermingle them.

Also, I really like things that grow vertically and also spill over in these edible container scapes too.

I'm going to throw in.

This is the time of year in your garden to thin some large perennial herbs that may get a little overgrown.

Oregano being one of them.

I plucked this up out of the ground, reserving as much of the root system as possible.

Oregano grows on top of the dirt for the most part, so it's an easy one to pluck up.

You can see that there's some old vegetation here, and I'm just going to use my gardening scissors.

I would say professional gardening scissors, but they're not.

They're just my denoted ones for the garden.

Clip all of these off that may have any yellow, any brown or any dead.

Just because we don't want to carry any sickness, pests or disease into our container.

And this is a rather large clump.

So I'm going to use a same scissors.

And I'm going to cut directly through the plant and make two oreganos And this is going to be that spilling feature of our container.

That's really pretty.

Oregano almost just sits on top of the ground anyway.

So make a shallow hole and just allow all of the branches to be on top of the dirt rather than buried.

Once our tomatoes reach a maturity of having two fully mature leaves on them, we can plant those directly into our container here.

If you're going to create an edible container scape at home, some things to keep in mind that are super important would be you need to look and scope out your location.

Look at this location for sunlight, because you need 6 to 8 hours of sunlight for any kind of flowering or fruiting plant.

Another thing is you want to see how much rain runoff you get.

For instance, you don't want to place that directly under a gutter or a roof line because that's just going to beat your plants to death.

You also want to go ahead and decide on what plants that you are going to utilize and most.

Write those down.

Take a little bit of time research and see if those plants are compatible and are conducive to an edible container scape.

Now let's plant this small one here and front.

This is one of my favorite ones.

I love to plant okra and okra is going to vary in... hold on I need the okra seeds.

okra seeds!

Where did those come from?

I'm going to plant my okra.

Just a few seeds, into this container.

This is a type of okra here that is specifically for container gardening.

So it's going to be a little bit smaller.

Plant those toward the back of the container here.

And this is a good time before that okra starts really growing.

And really starting to bloom is I'm going to plant some Swiss chard and lettuces.

So by the time the okra starts filling up our container, we have already harvested, enjoyed, eaten and moved on from our lettuces.

But until the okra starts to really come into its own and grow, it's going to give us a really pretty plant backdrop there.

Now let's talk water.

I prefer to water every other day, and you just want to keep this watered until your seeds start to germinate.

Never allow those seeds to dry out.

If you're transplanting any plants, such as oregano or herbs or scallions, until those roots become fully mature, just make sure that your soil and ground is wet.

This is a great time to use a mister if you have a water hose or a wand.

Use that on your lowest setting so you don't disrupt any of your plants.

After all of our seeds are planted now, we need to put a little marker so we can identify them.

And my favorite way to do it instead of a popsicle stick, is to just simply take a wine cork.

Now put a toothpick right into it just so it's secure.

I'm just going to write Squash.

You can go a little bit more specific if you want, but I always hold on to my seed packets so I know just what they are.

I'm going to do the same thing for the rest of our plants.

Also.

But I love the wine corks because they are water resistant.

They are a little bit cuter than a popsicle stick.

And I mean, if you drink wine, you got plenty of them around.

In just a couple short months You'll have yourself a beautiful garden.

Wherever you're growing your container scape, be sure and "lettuce" know how your gardens are growing.

What you're growing in your containers, and also let us know what you use for the container itself.

Get creative.

Edible container scape.

And what was that line again?

It's a container garden that you can eat and I'm going to remember that this time Oh God, that had grit all over it.

I thought it would be cute to eat it.

Or garden, wait I just messed that **** up.

I love that though with the.

ding, that's so good.

That didn't make any sense did it?

Yeah.

Cut.