Spring is around the corner and a great way to capture a smidgen of it is in a plant container.
Despite the recent freezing and ice age weather, perseverance tells us that spring will be upon Marshall County before we know it. A great way to capture the magnificence of spring is to get prepared to do some growing and container gardening. Planter designs can range be created from the simplest of items to the most complex in design and material.
In preparation for an article on planting containers, a few clicks on the World Wide Web led to some interesting, recorded facts. The first notable growing containers stemmed from France and were referred to as Versailles, which translates to orange growing containers. According to Wikipedia, Versailles where around in the seventeenth century and most likely created by the landscape architect Andre Le Notre, gardener for King Louis XIV of France.
Plant containers were used to ship Bread Fruit plants from Tahiti to The West Indies, and Africa to North America as early as 371 to 287 BC. Many 18th century pictures in Indian Territory show a glimpse of plants in containers. Even trail cook on wagon trains seemed to use planter containers. Their grocery lists included living herbs and greens.
To bring things up to the 21st century, a look around at the grounds of local houses and businesses in Southern Oklahoma and North Texas reveal a real cornucopia of containers. A glimpse will reveal soil and plants in just about any item that will hold dirt. Some of the most practical - though not fancy - are old bathtubs, toilets, wash tubs, old BBQ grills, buckets, one handled wheelbarrows, boats, and even boots. Although these old articles make some of the most practical planting containers, a plethora of the most elaborate are also seen. Some of the more obvious are pottery containers, those made of masonry and tooled stone, and some of the most architectural theme crafted by obvious master carpenters.
This brings to mind some of the most interesting containers I have built on commission. One such commission a few years back was from an iconic company anchored in the old Maple district in downtown Dallas. The commission was for a simple brick planter box placed directly on the front side walk of the corporate office just off of Maple Avenue. The box was about two feet wide, and ten feet long crafted of Oklahoma bricks.
The exciting part was the container existence was an addition to many different growing containers in a historic gardening neighborhood. The neighborhood had the power of taking a person back in time to an era that depended on home gardens and flowering plants to survive.
A few simple ideas for planting containers that can be seen all over Southern Oklahoma and in Marshall County. Metal 55-gallon drums cut in half and painted to satisfaction are among the best. Also, colorfully painted stacked up used tires, or native rocks can be used as containers.
There are many styles of planters/containers made from various types of material, but the gist of the matter is of simple origin. Spring is near and a simple crafty way to capture its emergence is to make or create a planter container of your own. Use your imagination and make one out of something you already have or venture out and collect the materials to build the most elaborate.
Creating a planter container and filling it with soil and plants is one of the things in life that must be experienced. Anybody who has not experienced it, is missing out.
It is a great way to liven up Marshall County and add some good home-grown food to the table. All the materials can be found locally. So, get creative and get to growing.