No garden is too small or too large for fabulous plantings in flowerpots. Now's the time to plant them, and it doesn't take long to get them started.

Pots give gardeners in small spaces room to grow. In large gardens, flowerpots are a great way to develop the detail and to grow delicate plants that might otherwise get lost; pots focus the eye just as a frame sharpens the impact of a picture. In gardens of any size, pots are important architectural elements: They might mark an entrance to a garden or march two-by-two up the front steps. They allow you to bring spots of garden color up onto a porch. Pots are stylish and sculptural, whether their design is avant-garde, traditional or whimsical. No matter what style you favor, they'll always be fun.

The gardeners at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wis., plant more than 500 flowerpots for the gardening season each year. One collection of a dozen or more pots is an instant burst of inspiration right at the entrance, and other flowerpots can be found in every part of the garden. Jeff Epping, the garden's horticulture director, teaches a popular class every year on planting flowerpots, helping gardeners put together sparkling plant combinations.

"We try to show artful combinations. We look at how plants work together, and we work with foliage as well as flowers," Epping says. "We don't always have to have what's brand new -- we are looking for new stuff if it fits our designs."

Part of the class focuses on building the confidence of beginning gardeners, who often don't know quite where to begin. Epping talks about deciding where a pot will go and then filling it with plants that are adapted to that location and that all have the same requirements for moisture and sun or shade. He advises his classes to pay close attention to foliage because flowers aren't always blooming, and because the colors and textures of leaves make any combination look more lively.

"Some of our pots don't have a single flower in them, and I'm fine with that," he says. "Foliage really is more important in any container than flowers."

Beyond that, Epping doesn't adhere to strict formulas. Pick some flowerpots you like and get started, he says. A single large flowerpot makes a strong statement, but "sometimes it's way more interesting to put pots together in groupings."

Terra-cotta pots are classics, but they dry out more quickly than plastic or glazed pots, Epping says. Big flowerpots have plenty of room for plants' roots to grow, so they do not need as much attention to watering through the summer as small pots. They also naturally suit the scale of larger plants. Every shape, size and color is represented at Olbrich: there are terra-cotta pots, tabletop pots in a courtyard, big bowl-shaped containers and pots full of roses dotted around the rose garden.

The horticulturists assigned to different areas at Olbrich design the plantings in the pots for their gardens, but they all get together formally to talk about the pots and combinations. Gardeners show slides, discuss their plans and ask their colleagues for help and suggestions. "It's fun," Epping says. Ideas for dazzling combinations often emerge from these sessions.

People who attend container classes at Olbrich always want to know what kind of potting soil to buy, and whether they can fill the bottom of large pots with Styrofoam peanuts or crushed aluminum cans to save on potting soil. Epping advises buying top-quality potting soil. Don't skimp, he says: Fill the pots with potting soil, not with cans. In the course of a summer in the garden, plants' roots will extend deep into the soil, and good potting soil retains the moisture the plants need.

When it comes to planting, don't limit yourself, Epping says. "I get tired of the same old annuals, annuals, annuals," he says. Gardeners at Olbrich plant all sorts of small trees and shrubs in pots -- half-moon maples, smoke bush, evergreen boxwoods, yews and gold-mop false cypress.

"We're using a lot of bolder tropical things, too," Epping says. Big elephant's ears and bananas are dramatic, stately and luxurious. In the rose garden, flowerpots are planted with romantic pink, blue and purple flowers. Elsewhere, in the perennial garden area, orange, red and yellow blooms predominate. The pots in the herb garden are naturally full of herbs, but the gardeners also spice up the combinations with bright edible flowers such as calendulas and nasturtiums, as well as with kale, lettuce and even okra plants.

"We don't rely on one group or a single plant," Epping says. "It's always a little of this and a little of that." Let the selection of plants at a garden shop inspire you -- you can start putting together intriguing combinations right in your shopping cart. "There is so much stuff out there," Epping says. It's time to get growing.

SIDEBAR

HAVING FUN WITH FLOWERPOTS

Here are some tips from Jeff Epping, horticulture director at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wis.:

-- Fill your flowerpots with good, brand-name potting soil.

-- You do not have to throw away the potting soil in your pots every year. In his garden at home, Epping mixes old and new potting soil. "I sweep the garage floor, empty the containers, and then I just mix in new potting soil and shovel it into the pots."

-- Some potting soils include added fertilizer or moisture-retaining crystals, but you'll still need to water and fertilize. A slow-release fertilizer may also have to be supplemented with occasional water-soluble fertilizer. Look at your plants, Epping says. "They should always be growing. When they stop growing, they are starving."

-- Water thoroughly. "Everyone wants to give their plants just a little sip," Epping says. "Water until it comes out of the drainage hole."

-- Plant densely, and let plants lean on each other and grow together in their pots, just as they would in a garden bed.

-- Experiment: Epping planted some small, scraggly pine trees from a garden shop (he paid $3 each) in pots in his own garden, and pruned them to look like bonsai. "I've had them for four years, and I love them," he says. He grows low sedums around the little trees.

-- Don't abandon reliable plants that work for you. "It's hard to beat petunias," Epping says.

-- If a plant isn't thriving, pluck it out. "If it looks like heck, tear it out and put something else in," Epping says. "Do yourself a favor."

Source

Olbrich Botanical Gardens, www.olbrich.org

Put a pretty frame around your garden by planting in a raised bed. Raised beds define a garden neatly and lend themselves to easy, striking garden designs.

The simplest raised beds involve just mounding soil up so it is higher than the level of the soil around it, but framing raised beds with bricks, pavers or standard lumber holds the soil in place and keeps the garden looking tidy, even in high summer.

Raised beds are typically only three or four feet wide and eight to 12 feet long. They're just the right size for first-time gardeners of all ages -- easy to manage and maintain, even for children planting their first seeds or transplants. They appeal to experienced gardeners because they overcome the problem of poor soils -- you fill a raised bed with a fertile combination of soil and compost. Raised beds also can be planted densely.

Raised beds are not a new concept, but they have grown in popularity in recent years, especially among vegetable gardeners. The soil in raised beds warms up before the soil in the ground, so crops can be planted a little earlier in the spring. Because they are higher than the surrounding soil level, raised beds typically drain better than regular garden beds. Raised beds are also easy to take care of: you'll still have to bend over, but not as far, and because you never have to walk on the soil, it doesn't become compacted. Raised beds are also easy to weed and to keep looking sharp.

Front-yard vegetable gardens designed around raised beds can be very stylish indeed. Josee Landry and Michel Beauchamp took out their front lawn in Drummondville, Quebec, a year ago and replaced it with a checkerboard pattern of raised beds with gravel paths between them. The couple unexpectedly found themselves in the middle of a controversy about the propriety of growing vegetables in the front yard, but their good-looking garden quickly convinced skeptics that a well-designed and carefully tended vegetable garden, even out front, is an asset to the neighborhood.

My own community garden plot in Kansas City is on a city lot with dozens of raised beds laid out in a grid, leaving about two feet between each bed. It's a convivial arrangement: We all have plenty of room to grow our own crops or flowers in the 4-by-12-foot plots, but we're close enough together to learn from each other as we compare gardening techniques. Because we're all part-time gardeners, we appreciate having a garden that's not too big. But I have learned not to underestimate the possibilities: My plot produced an impressive salad garden in spring and then a summer's supply of tomatoes, peppers, basil and zinnias. I had lots of produce to share with friends and neighbors.

Maree Gaetani, a spokeswoman for Gardener's Supply Co., a mail-order gardening company that has offered raised bed kits and supplies for more than 30 years, says small raised beds are by far the most popular among customers. A typical order is for 4-by-4-foot cedar beds, but "these gardens are so easy that they're really addicting," Gaetani says. And adding another is not much trouble; even if you build a raised bed yourself from scratch, it's a Saturday project.

Over the years, Gardener's Supply has developed kits for really elevated raised beds -- three and four feet tall -- an easy working height that requires no bending to plant or tend. The company also makes raised beds on legs with casters that can be wheeled into a sunny spot. These are especially nice for decks and patios. Cedar beds are popular because they look so natural, age gracefully and last for years, Gaetani says. Beds made with steel panels and recycled plastic lumber are also durable and popular. The company even helps customers with planting guides that take the guesswork out of choosing plants for vegetable, herb, and flower gardens in raised beds.

Arrangements of raised beds may be the shape of things to come in the front yard. When you design a whole garden of raised beds, keep simple shapes in mind. The easiest beds to maintain are square or rectangular, no wider than four feet across, and accessible from both sides. Parallel beds along a garden path and foursquare plans bisected by wide paths are easy to lay out and look effortlessly great, right away. They look very pretty enclosed with a low fence. First lady Michelle Obama's kitchen garden at the White House, designed with raised beds at sharp angles to the central path, is proof that right angles are not the only option. If they work at the White House, they'll work at your house.

SIDEBAR

GOING UP

Raised beds can be made with any material. When Organic Gardening magazine's deputy editor and test-garden expert Doug Hall put together plans for the magazine's raised-bed garden, he experimented with beds framed by straight logs, concrete blocks, planks, sandbags and woven twig fences. Rocks or field stones, stock tanks (you'll need to drill drainage holes), timbers made from recycled plastic, galvanized steel panels set in wooden frames and even bales of straw can all be used to create raised beds. Plans for beds made with lumber and other materials are widely available on the Internet. (Search for "raised bed plans.")

Many gardeners are concerned that long-lasting, pressure-treated lumber is not a healthy choice for raised beds, but Oregon State University researchers, working on a project specifically addressing treated lumber for vegetable gardening, concluded that the health risks to humans -- and plants -- are small. Untreated cedar is the best choice for gardeners who want to avoid all risks associated with treated lumber.

Garden shops, builder's supply stores and mail order companies, including Gardener's Supply Co. and Raisedbeds.com, offer raised bed kits, plans, and planting plans.

Once your raised bed frames are complete, fill them with compost or a mix of compost and soil. Organic Gardening recommends filling raised beds with two parts soil to one part compost; Gardener's Supply recommends 60 percent topsoil, 30 percent compost and 10 percent soilless mix, and offers an online calculator (http://bit.ly/GRGU4R) to help you decide how much to buy. A small pickup truck holds about one cubic yard of compost or soil, enough to fill one 4-by-8-foot raised bed.

Sources

-- Gardener's Supply Co., gardeners.com

-- Raisedbeds.com, raisedbeds.com

Caption 01: Standing raised beds are great on a patio or deck: Your crops are at your fingertips, and you don't even have to bend over to take care of them. Gardener's Supply's standing garden is 32 inches high and has a 10-inch deep planting box with a four-gallon water reservoir. Credit: Gardener's Supply Co.

Caption 02: Raised beds made with recycled wood and plastic look like cedar, but will not split or splinter, and they last for years. The square and rectangular shapes of raised beds made with lumber or recycled plastic lumber are easy to arrange. These beds are about 10 inches deep. Credit: Gardener's Supply Co.

Caption 03: Coated steel panels can be put together in several configurations to fit almost any garden. The industrial-chic material looks great in city gardens and does not require any tools to put together into raised beds. These panels are 15 inches tall. Credit: Gardener's Supply Co.

Caption 04: Raised beds with a V-shaped soil box let you grow shallow-rooted greens and herbs around the sides, and taller plants with deeper roots, such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, in the center. The advantage is that they require less soil. Credit: Gardener's Supply Co.

Pergolas are classic garden structures. They're easy-going, open-air architectural elements that bring the comforting embrace of an interior room into the garden, and define and distinguish an outdoor space. A pergola is an irresistible destination, an unfailingly nice, lightly shaded place to sit and take the air.

James Van Sweden, a landscape architect and designer whose naturalistic work captures much of modern American garden style, calls arbors, pergolas, trellises and garden pavilions the "icing on the cake after the hard work of planning, building and planting a garden." A well-made and properly proportioned pergola adds "drama in the midst of repose," he says.

Katherine Brooks, a garden designer in Richmond, Va., added a pretty pergola to the front of her home, instantly setting the vintage ranch house apart. The structure extends all the way across the front of the house, over a new porch where there had been none. Instead of a brooding brow of a roofline, the pergola's open architecture is graciously welcoming. It shades the new porch lightly, frames the bright pink front door and reveals something of the outgoing spirit of the enthusiastic gardener who lives within.

A gardener in Williamsburg, Va., recently worked with garden designer Joe Hertzler on a freestanding pergola to provide an inviting destination in the backyard. Flowering vines clamber up the posts, and the only furnishing is a porch swing, heaped with cushions, hung from stout beams under the peaked roof. Eventually, the vines will provide dappled shade under the structure, but until they do, the crosspieces of the pergola cast graphic shadows on the grass. It's as pretty from across the yard as it is when you're sitting under it.

Whether a pergola is attached to a house or set out in the more open context of the garden, its style and construction should suit the architecture of the home and should be in scale with its surroundings, says Bob Schaffer, owner of Nantucket Trellises in Downers Grove, Ill. Plan ahead, he says, "and think about where you like to entertain, where does the sun come up and go down." If the pergola will cover a patio, the patio has to be big enough to support it gracefully. Schaffer prefers for the posts of the pergola to rest on the patio, not outside it, so the pergola and patio look like one unified concept.

Scale is important, especially if you have in mind that the pergola will shelter a dining table and chairs. "The whole outdoor furniture industry thinks big, and before you know it, your space will be filled," Schaffer says. If you favor outdoor sofas, lounge chairs and conversational seating, rather than cute bistro sets, it might be a good idea to shop for the furniture before you define the dimensions of your patio and pergola.

Schaffer likes to position the beams (or purlins, as the crosspieces are called), to cast interesting shadows as the sunlight moves across the garden. If you need more shade, a length of shade cloth (available from garden shops) stretched over the pergola will soften the light without turning the shelter into a dark closet. Annual or perennial vines (roses come to mind, of course, but morning glories, gourds and striking purple hyacinth beans are all good choices) will also cover a pergola and create dappled light.

Graceful proportions are critical, Schaffer says. A comfortable height for the header that supports the purlins is 7 to 8 feet, he says. Plans and designs for weekend gardeners usually show pergolas with an 8-foot clearance under the purlins. Internet resources for do-it-yourself pergola projects show plans with purlins spaced between 6 and 12 inches apart; you'll want to test this on your own structure to decide what looks best in your setting.

Before you get started, check local codes to make sure the structure you're adding complies with building and setback requirements. Professional builders will know whether a permit or variances are required, but if you're taking on the project yourself, it's best to check with permit departments while you're still in the planning stage.

Pergolas shape the experience of a garden, frame views in interesting new ways and create intimate spaces. It's a pretty neat trick for structures that don't really enclose anything: they just open up new possibilities.

Sources

-- Nantucket Trellises, nantuckettrellises.com

-- Katherine Brooks, landscape designer, katherinebrookslandscapes.com.

-- James Van Sweden, Oehme van Sweden Landscape Architects, ovsla.com.

-- Joe Hertzler, Hertzler & George landscape design, hertzlerandgeorge.com