Back to Basics: Design a Great Container

Whether you garden on a sprawling suburban lot or on a small urban balcony or patio, in full sun or in shade, you can design and plant a pot with stunning results. That’s the great thing about gardening—as long as you know a few basics, you can flex your artistic side even if you can’t draw a straight line.
First the basics. You’ll need a pot with drainage holes to shed excess water, otherwise the roots will rot and the plants will die. Buy a good, all-purpose potting mix—one with fertilizer granules mixed in to save time. Choose a container that complements the style of your home. For example, a classic iron urn looks great with a Victorian home, while a tall, contemporary glazed pot can enhance sleek architectural lines.

Create impact with color. Pick a pot in a color that enhances your garden, patio furniture or backdrop. Many garden centers carry new lightweight resin pots in a range of Crayola-like colors—red, blue, chartreuse, grey, or purple, for example—and in many sizes. Pots smaller than 14 inches across will require frequent watering, so the bigger pot you choose, the better. Last, determine where the pot will go and how much light that space receives during the summer, and select plants based on their light requirements (shade, part shade, sun).

Next comes the fun part—choosing the plants. I use the terms ‘monopot’ and ‘combopot’, says Ray Rogers in his new book, “The Encyclopedia of Container Plants: More than 500 Outstanding Choices for Gardeners.” (Timber Press, 344 pages, $34.95). A monopot contains one type of plant while a combopot includes two or more different plants. Garden designer Patti Kirkpatrick of Joliet plants several containers of monopots and combopots for her deck. A container filled with one type of coleus or an ornamental grass, such as Pennisetum ‘Prince’ (purple fountain grass), can give you a very dramatic and contemporary look, she says.

One easy formula for a mixed container planting is to use a thriller, filler and spiller, as shown here. The striking shade-loving caladiums are the thrillers, the tallest plants in the pot, which add visual interest with their coarse, colorful leaves. The fillers are the New Guinea impatiens with their rose-colored flowers and light yellow streaks down the center of the leaves. And the spiller is a variegated Plectranthus, ‘Troy’s Gold.’

What works well here: the plants offer leaves with contrasting shapes and textures—broad and pointy, oval, and long and slender. There’s a limited color palette—green, rose, white and golden-yellow. (Adding a few orange or pale blue flowers would surely take away from this put-together ensemble.) The container’s color and shape are neutral. And, perhaps most important, all of the plants prefer the same type of culture—light shade, good drainage and occasional watering with a liquid-soluble fertilizer.

Use the same formula to create a full-sun planter with some red fountain grass, dragonwing begonias and sweet potato vines—a thriller, spiller and filler. Or, for a contemporary look, plant a monopot using only begonias or petunias or calibrachoa. The possibilities are endless. On your next visit to the garden center, pick up a pot, some plants and start designing in your cart. Becoming a garden artist was never easier.

Thinking outside the pot--Squash and Sweet Potatoes for the Holidays

Simple. Straightforward. And, the “oh, I can do this” kind of recipe that tastes good and doesn’t need multiple hands to produce something that looks like a ‘Picasso on a Plate.” That’s Penny Newkirk’s philosophy when it comes to cooking, whether it’s for family and friends or for students at Country Garden Cuisine (www.countrygardencuisine.com), her cooking school, located in an 1847 Greek Revival-style house in St. Charles, Ill.

Holiday meals can be tasty, effortless and palate-pleasing instead of the usual run-of-the-mill—watery sweet potato casserole, wedges of head lettuce or mashed squash.

“Good food is grown locally and prepared with love,” Newkirk says.” It’s a simple concept and that’s the direction I’ve chosen to take.” For Newkirk, that means getting back to basics with uncomplicated recipes that let the savory flavors of autumn stand out. Much of the produce she uses comes from her own herb and vegetable gardens but local farmers markets and farm stands are good sources as well.

Butternut squash and sweet potatoes represent some of the season’s most savory flavors in Newkirk’s kitchen. Both vegetables are a staple when her family sits down to celebrate Thanksgiving.

But, you won’t find Newkirk using a bag of mini marshmallows to gooey up the typical sugar-filled, sweet potato dish. Instead, she suggests using sweet potatoes in other ways, such as a hearty soup that can be served as a first course. “The sweet potato soup is a recipe I’ve used for 25 years,” she says. “It’s a great way of using them even if you’re not a sweet potato fan and it’s fast to whip up and tastes yummy.”

Cooked butternut squash stands in for croutons in her spinach salad. “Our family loves butternut squash,” Newkirk says. “I use it in soups, casseroles, even lasagna. Using that bit of squash in a salad brings it to life.” Butternut squash also appears in her hearty potato-and-butternut gratin, a colorful, satisfying and creamy dish. “Even new cooks will find these recipes easy to do and good to eat,” Newkirk says. “And, it’s all about spending time with your guests rather than in the kitchen.”

Sweet Potato Soup

3-4 sweet potatoes, baked

3 cups chicken stock or broth*

1 cup heavy cream (or use ½ cup fat free half and half, ½ cup heavy cream)

½ to 1 cup grated Swiss cheese

Salt to taste

Freshly grated nutmeg

*Stock and broth are often used interchangeably in recipes, although they are slightly different. Broth is a more concentrated form of stock. Newkirk uses whichever one she has on hand for this recipe.

Puree the sweet potatoes in a food processor and pour into a saucepan. Add the chicken broth and cream and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in the grated Swiss cheese, taste and adjust with salt as needed. Pour into serving bowls and garnish with grated nutmeg.

Penny Newkirk’s Tip: I like to cut out Swiss cheese shapes using a miniature cookie cutter shaped like a turkey or maple leaf and float on top of the soup in the individual serving bowls. Serve it hot for a great “first course soup” or a light dinner option.

Butternut Squash Salad

1 2-1/2 pound butternut squash (cut into quarters)

1/3 cup vegetable or olive oil

1/3 cup apple cider

1/4 cup cider vinegar plus 1 tablespoon

2 Tbs. sugar (1 for dressing and 1 for onion/leek dressing)

1/4 tsp. salt

Pepper to taste

1 - 2 pounds of spinach leaves

For dressing:

3 green onions (white and green portions chopped)

1 leek (white portion) rinsed and sliced thin

Fresh spinach greens (For large leaf spinach remove thick stems and tear the leaves into bite-size pieces. For baby leaf spinach, use entire leaf and stem.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the squash with the cut sides down on a foil-lined baking sheet. Roast the squash until barely fork tender (about 20 minutes); don’t overcook. Cool squash on a rack. Next, prepare the dressing. Sauté the onions and leek in olive oil over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar to help brown them, stirring to prevent burning. When the onions and leek are golden, remove from heat, splash a little balsamic vinegar (about 1 tablespoon to add a contrast in flavor) and cool. Peel and cube the cooled squash and dress with 2/3 of the dressing. When ready to serve add remaining dressing to spinach greens, add squash and onion mixture, and top with apple slices or sweetened dried cranberries, such as Craisins®, for additional color and fall flavor.(The onion leek mixture is for extra flavor it can be tossed into the greens or used as a topping with the apple and squash for color.)

Penny Newkirk’s Tip: The idea is to not overcook the squash and make it mushy, but to produce a vegetable crouton with less carbs and more fall flavor. Non-cooks may find it easier to peel and cube the squash into 1/2 inch squares, then toss in olive oil and spread on a baking sheet to be roasted in a 400 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Roast them until barely tender.

Potato and Butternut Gratin

2 pounds peeled butternut squash

3 pounds peeled potatoes (red, white, baking or Yukon gold potatoes)

1 tsp each fresh thyme, sage and marjoram finely chopped

Salt and pepper

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups heavy cream

4 ounces sharp Swiss cheese

Cut squash and potatoes 1/8 inch-thick. Lightly butter or use cooking spray to coat a 2-quart glass or Pyrex casserole dish. Layer the slices of squash and potatoes, alternating the colors. Sprinkle minced garlic with herbs, salt and pepper over each layer. Press down with the back of a spatula and add cream. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes. Remove foil, top with cheese and bake uncovered another 25 to 30 minutes. Add more cream if necessary to keep it creamy as the ingredients will absorb liquids.

Penny Newkirk at her Country Garden Cuisine Cooking School in St. Charles, IL

Penny Newkirk’s Tips: I use a mandolin to slice the peeled potatoes and squash so they’re all the same thickness and they cook evenly. You can cut down on the fat by splitting the amount of cream called for in the recipe so it’s half fat-free cream and half regular cream. That way it’s not fully loaded. Use a glass or ceramic casserole baking dish rather than a dark metal pan so you can see the colors of the vegetables.