How to Make a Garden: The 7 Essential Steps for the Canadian Gardener Hardcover - 2007

Top Ten Tips for Designing with Containers

1. Use containers in transitional areas (porches, doorways, entry courtyards) to continue colours form house to garden.

2. Move large containers around while they are empty to get them in the right spot. Once filled, these things weigh a ton.

3. Make sure any container is raised off the ground on bricks or chocks to add drainage and to keep them from freezing and cracking in winter.

4. Put poolside containers on casters so they can be easily moved out of the sun — the heat reflection from the water can be brutal — or out of the way at pool-party time.

5. To make a garden appear longer, place large containers in the foreground and set increasingly smaller ones behind.

6. Avoid using silly, little containers. Buy larger ones than you think you’ll need; little pots dotted about look haphazard and uncomfortable.

7. Match the pot to the plant’s ultimate size. Don’t place a small plant in a huge container or vice versa.

8. Never put big containers on pedestals. It is unsafe and unnecessary.

9. Make sure containers sit absolutely level. It is visually insulting to see containers listing sideways.

10. Use a gravel mulch in containers to hold in moisture and discourage squirrels.

Praise for Marjorie Harris:

“I like a book that makes me feel the writer is talking directly to me, perhaps from across the back fence. Harris has a wonderfully readable style and dispenses down-to-earth advice.”
—The Globe and Mail

“This is the kind of garden writer Canada needs – hardy, practical, and colourful.”
—Calgary Herald

“Harris’s honest, straightforward style makes good reading.”
—Toronto Gardens