Plant Shopping to Refresh a Large Summer Container Garden \ My Rustic Garden Zone 8b

Today, we are visiting one of my favorite nurseries in Woodburn, Oregon called S&K Nursery, in search of some beautiful flowering annuals for a large container garden. This container is an old galvanized watering trough and the strawberries it holds dwindled and the planter needed a refresh for the rest of the growing season. We’re touring through this amazing nursery that has fabulous plants at remarkable prices, and are then planting our finds into the watering trough. It is early August and with a few months left before our first frost this is definitely worth the effort!

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Hey there. Welcome back to my garden. Today we’re going to be going to go do some plant shopping. I have one specific spot in mind that’s right behind me and um but also looking for maybe some plants to go into that new space that we’ve just started to create um down in the lower gardens. But let me show you the spot that we’re primarily shopping for today and give you just some thoughts on what I’m what I’m looking for and um then we will head out to one of my most favorite garden centers and hoping that they still have in stock what I saw last time I was there that I’m hoping to pick up today. All right. So, we are right here on our driveway. This is what I guess what I’d call my driveway raised bed garden situation. Um, this bed right here is full of this clatus obviously, but also um a bunch of annuals. So, we have superbina, sparkling amethyst, and some lemon coral sedum that’s getting a little bit swallowed up by the verbina there. Also some gar and some suncredible sunflowers. Then over here in this one, which has just absolutely blown my mind because there was a period where it looked so terrible that I was thinking of just taking it all out and just having it be bare, but it is so sweet now. And it’s um I’m I’m just absolutely loving it. And I honestly I wish this bed was right here. And if I could, I would replicate what I have going on here. But I know that it took a couple months for this spot um to get this beautiful and I and I don’t have that much time. So, in this one, we have the smitten pink caliber koa down there on the bottom. And then we have some oh, some NIA. I’ll have to think on what it was. It’s uh oh, it’s escaping me. Which which variety this white one is, but it is just it is just filling in. I don’t know. Co coconut appeal some rings a bell for some reason. I’m not I’m not entirely sure. And then we have the plain play in the blue salvia. There’s four of them in here. There’s two on this side of the Dalia and two on that side. And then this gorgeous Dalia. I don’t recall the name of this one either, but it was one we picked up together and planted up um in a video that I got from Bowman’s. And yeah, this this bed has just has been such a delight. I absolutely love it. And like I said, I really wish that that planting was over here. Um in this bed, I have had strawberries. I had the seascape strawberries in here and they’ve grown beautifully. They’ve not produced beautifully. I had I had I don’t know maybe maybe a couple pints that came off of this bed and it could very well be because I don’t have it on water. Um I’m not exactly sure. But for the rest of the season, I really want to plant this up with some beautiful things that will be, you know, in the foreground to this garden that’s on on the back side of the of the driveway. One thing, obviously, as you can see, I have some holes that I’m going to have to address. I don’t know exactly what I’m going to put there, but I’ll have to line this um this container with something so that it doesn’t lose soil primarily. I mean, these holes are big enough that that they would lose soil. And with that being said, I’m going to be getting some soil to raise up the edge of this bed. I want to get it all the way up. You can see it sunk down quite a bit. So, I want to get it all the way up to here. And the reason it sunk down so much is that when we put this these raised beds in um on the bottom of them, we did use some some firewood and some debris and you know, wood debris and stuff like that to make it so that we didn’t have to put as much soil. So over time, obviously that has composted down and so therefore obviously the soil level has has dropped considerably. So I need to get some soil to raise that up so that the plants will be nice and um high in the in the planter. I did have to do that in the one that’s that’s behind me that’s looking so beautiful as well. Just raised that up and I think it makes a really big difference also to refresh the soil because I’ve not done that yet in this one with the strawberries. So, as you can see, I did cut back the strawberries. They started to look really mangy as soon as they were done producing the berries. So, I cut them back and it’s going to be kind of an experiment because I’m going to cover the strawberries that are still in there. I’m not going to pull them out. I’m going to cover them with soil. If they make their way up next spring through the soil, great. If they don’t, that is fine, too. They’re probably I think this next spring will be their fourth season being in here. And so, I would expect them to um start not producing as well as even they were this year, which was still not great. So, if they don’t make their way back up and they don’t um they don’t come back next spring, that is okay. I will probably come in and replant with some new strawberries possibly. I don’t know. Um it’s fun to have the strawberries, but like I said, they they just don’t produce great for me. And it’s probably a water issue. I I get that. Um but we’ll see. So, it will be an experiment. I don’t want to pull these ones out on the off chance that they do come back. And I also don’t want to um make the soil level go down even further. If this stuff just wants to compost underneath the new soil, that’s that’s great. I I’m happy with that. So, I will have to, like I said, figure out something to put around the container to prevent soil from coming out. And I’ll be picking up some probably some raised bed mix, but I’m also going to put in some potting mix because I feel like that holds the moisture a lot better than just the raised bed mix that that I typically get. Um, and then we’re going to be looking for some pretty pretty things to plant into this bed. I’m probably looking for a dalia. I’m probably looking for some patunias. Um, super tunias because I still have so it’s the be it’s the end of July. I still have all of August, all of September, most of October until we get our first frost. We usually don’t get our first frost until um I don’t even know, end of October, early November. So, I still have possibly three months left to be looking at this container. And so, consequently, I I just really want to get it planted up with some pretty things. So, we’re going to head out to SNK nursery. That’s going to be our first stop. And see what we can find. Okay, I’m excited because these are here is what I came to look for. Um, so these are onegon Super Tunias that they have of the Proven Winners line. And I have been thinking about this variety here, Super Tunia Honey. And I just was thinking it would look so beautiful maybe even with some of the saffron finch planted around um a white dalia. So I’m gonna get a few of these and then I’m going to go look at the dalas that they have because they have some that are on sale also. That’s hibiscus. I’m going to get a few of these put onto the cart. So, here’s one that I’m considering. Just a very simple white dalia. So, have this sweet yellow one. Pretty. But I think I’m just going to do this white one. It’s interesting. Wonder what that is. This is huge. And this, you guys, is where I got my containers last year that are the um evergreen containers. This one’s only $50. And look at how sweet that is. Oh, I just love it. If this was a purple hooka, I’m sure I could find one that has that. If that was a purple hooka, I would probably snag it because these did so well for me last year into right now. I mean, they’re still beautiful. These are striking, aren’t they? Oh, maybe this one. Yes, this one I love. Looks like this is one of the platinum lawn um lavender and then I don’t this maybe this is a eucalyptus a wire vine a heeie under here some dicondra silver falls and a hooker. Oh, that is so pretty. I don’t see a price on it. So maybe it’s free. I think I said that last time I was here when I got my other ones, too. But, um, we’re going to go look around a little bit more. Look at this bumblebee, guys, on this Veronica. Oh, so pretty with this right in front of it. That color combination again. Just so striking. These Veronica are really very full and so I’d have to think on those ones as well. Definitely definitely a pollinator magnet. This is one of the reasons why I love this place. Literally me and one other car and then the employee car. So good. Here’s their perennial area. This is one shrub that I was thinking of. I’m pretty sure it’s a burning bush. Has a tag on it, but pretty sure that’s what it is. I might have to ask how much it is how much it costs because I don’t have a they don’t have a price on it. But this is one that I was thinking of for that new space down there just because I love the green simple during the season but then obviously it gets the beautiful beautiful fall color. So let’s look over here. These were one of the things that I was thinking of these guys. Oh, look at that bumblebee. He is huge. Oh my gosh. He’s bigger than my thumb easily. Um, but anyway, these were some of the butterfly bush that I saw when I was here last that I was thinking about doing in that new bed. Um, because I have these in another bed also down there in the lower gardens. And they have done so well. They’re really, really large right now. Um, after this is their third season down there in that garden. And these are only $8.99. See that? I just scared the bubble off. Um, but I was thinking of picking up maybe three of these for that lower space. Oh, look at that. This might be one of the varieties that I have. Yep. Fresco apricot. I have these blooming in my garden right now. Um, but anyways, I think I’m going to get a couple of these, maybe three of these, and then another one, which I always say I’m just going to divide of my own. But I think I’m just going to go ahead and pick up some sedum while I’m here. Their plants here are always so huge. I don’t know if you can tell. For $8.95, that beautiful sedum. And I would just love to have a very goodized patch of these in that new lower garden because I look around my yard right now and I see what is beautiful this time of the year, end of July, and it is definitely the sedum. And I know that they are just about to really start their show, but just their structure. It’s always always something that I enjoy. Here’s a couple more over here. These are just the sedum autumn joy. I’m pretty sure the probably the most common variety and these will bloom out to be a beautiful pink pretty soon. And yeah, they’re just they’re gorgeous. See them on Joy. So, I’m going to probably have to get another cart. Gosh, this place is so difficult for me. Look at these coropsis. Oh, just so gorgeous. So gorgeous. And then these I was thinking of maybe picking up a couple of these one just maybe two of them to go on either side of the Dalia. Um they’re not the same variety of the they’re not the plain blues salvia that I have um in the other ones, but I think that they’re similar enough that they would kind of tie the two beds together. Just look at the bees. You’re so happy. So happy. This little holly hawk was too topheavy. Too topheavy. Guaranteed it’ll fall over again as soon as I walk away from it. But here’s more of that salvia or no, the Veronica. Such a pretty just electric blue, isn’t it? Yep. Bumblebees like you would not believe at this garden center. It’s just amazing. We are so happy. But okay, so we’re going to get a cart. Might as well go ahead with double decker here. [Music] I’m not going to mess around. Okay, we already have a cart full of beautiful things. Just some perennials. You have the sedum right here. And then we have these butterfly bush, which they call a perennial, which is why they sell them for so inexpensively. But, um, these I did notice. Unfortunately, I think that they might have, you see these leaves down here? They might have the start of spider might. So, I think I’ll have to spray them when I get home before I put them into the garden. Um, but then I’m going to do some of this Coropsis in that new space. And then I also found some Euphoria. This I believe is probably the Merllo variety. I didn’t see a tag on them, but I have some of these growing elsewhere in my garden. And I just really like I don’t love the blooms. I kind of tend to cut those off pretty early. Um, but these hold their color really well when they’re in full sun and deer don’t like them. And um, yeah, they’re really really easy to grow easy to grow perennial. So, I think we’re going to venture over there towards that greenhouse and see what they have along that side cuz I know that they have some grasses. But, I’m going to leave my cart here because we move again onto some gravel. And I don’t want my cart to be teetering and having those coropsis falling off of the seedum because they break that would be sad. But they have some beautiful echynia over here. Look at this table. So pretty. And I was I came here the other day. Um, I was on my way to doing some other things and I I just stopped by just to see what they had and you know, I like to do that every once in a while and I remember these. I saw these echanasia and I’ve been thinking about them. They’re pretty unimpressive right now. You know, they’re just basically one stock. So, I don’t I don’t know. That’s hard for me to do, but they are they are striking. Um, and they are ones that get really really tall. Oh, these ones are called Merllo also. um 30 in tall and they look pretty sturdy, but I just have a feeling my dogs would run right into those and knock them over. So, I don’t know. I don’t know if it’ll do any echanasia right now, but we do have some beautiful hydrangeas, which are also on sale. It’s called Berry White. That’s pretty. I always turn these ones over and expect there to be another picture, but there’s not. Um, so that’s a pretty narrow or narrower than it is high. Six to seven tall, four to five high. It’s just coming into bloom. Let’s see. Just kidding. It’s already in already in full bloom, but it looks like it has maybe some more that are coming up here. That’s pretty neat. Of course, they have the limelights right here. This is a hard time of the year to get a hydrangeanger. That is stunning though. And something like that would be really really pretty in the new garden. Especially, you know, see when you compare these two, you can see the limelight back there. And you can see this one right here. Look at the coloration on the stems. I just love that. I love that added interest that it gives and kind of the richer color in the stem or in the leaves. Gosh, those are beautiful. Beautiful. F full flowerheads. Yeah. So, it it does have some more blooms coming on. So, I don’t know. Oh, here too. So, I might think about this one. I might just if I was to get it, I would probably I don’t know. I’d probably have to prune off these big these big blooms just so that it could have an easier time getting established um in that garden. But, I’m going to think on that. pass I think on Echanasia. We already got our Dalia. Here are their grasses. That’s interesting. Oh, look what they also have. They have Concord barberries, which are my absolute favorite. Absolute favorite barberry. I was just watering today and I was thinking about how beautiful they still look this time of the year. Still very, very purple. Um, which I love. This is probably the most expensive thing I’ve ever seen. $35. These actually stay pretty small. So, if I was to get some of these, I would need to get several. Two to three. So, I probably need to get at least three of those. tends to be my tends to be my number. Getting three of things. I was thinking about this this grass, but it tends to be more. I might get one of these. Let’s see. What is this one? Oh, nope. Not getting pampas grass for sure. Um, but maybe one of these Cheyenne skies. But I do I have these elsewhere also in the garden. So that would be, you know, an element to tie the two spaces in. Was really hoping to find um Apache Rose. That’s that’s one that I have just absolutely fallen in love with. This is beautiful though, too. Have a lot of light colored things yet in that garden. So maybe find a tag what this is. Feather reed grass hold a part sun three to four. That’s really pretty. I wonder how much their grasses are. I don’t see a price on these guys. Maybe I’ll ask and see how you get their roses. Oh, they have more than the dalas here. Some of the white ones that we that we grab. This pretty. This one’s more That’s a dinner plate. So, that one wouldn’t cut as well. Be okay. I think that’s this one. It is pretty though. I appreciate looking at their dalas and see how they’ve cared for them. So, they’ve obviously cut a stock off, but you can see, you know, that was spent, but then you can see it’s healthfully sending off some new shoots that already have buds on them. Um, and this one here was a really big one that they cut off. I’m liking the habit of this one that it’s kind of um wider looking. That would be nice for that container. Um, and there’s this one over here that’s actually covered in buds. So, it’s hard decision. Okay, back over to grab the grass. I’m pretty picky when it comes to picking out which one I go for. Well, see, it doesn’t hurt to ask because I just asked her if they’re going to have any sales on their shrubs and she said, “Oh, I can give you 25% off.” So, it’s like, “Yes, please.” Sounds good. So, now we’re in one of their green houses. I was asking her if they had any more of the Concord barberries um just because the ones that I was seeing were a little bit um I don’t know, a couple of them were a little bit spled. So, I asked if they have any more so they’d be in this greenhouse. So, we’re going to walk through here and see. It’s just beautiful. Look at all these grasses, the carrots here. Isn’t that pretty? I would love to find some little plugs of this um to put in the garden bed that’s next to the driveway. This is the same that’s the same variety. This is interesting. a limelight or rows of Sharon, which I’ve already told you guys that I struggle with, but I’ve planted a few. So, hopefully hopefully they do. Okay. See here they have some of the burning bush fireball by Proven Winners. It’s pretty cool. I think I’m going to quickly run out of room though for shrubs. There’s some more of the tall echanasia over there. Let’s go look at those. And they’re pretty much just all these just single stocks. This makes me think that I probably just need to seed around some echynia. I have some just echania perparia seeds that I purchased. I thought I would use to make seedlings and I don’t know that I ever did. And I should just probably sprinkle those into the areas where I’d like some to be growing. ones. Cute. Bella. They grow a lot of this variety. I’ve planted one of them, and it is It is really pretty. It’s doing well. Some of the older leaves kind of scorched, but the new leaves have been trying to cover that up, but I do like that variety. Just so drawn to this, bey. Isn’t that pretty? They don’t have a very wide range of hardiness, but very pretty. It’s a little short growing one. So, no more of the barberries. There’s some over there, but not the Concord. Oh, wow. This is crazy to come back here and see empty green houses. I bet that’s exciting for them though to know that they’ve gotten at this point of the season and have cleared out as much as they have. I’m just seeing so many things like everything right here. I would love to just buy one cloa the lavender this platinum platinum blonde lavender this little pier right here. Cute. So nice digiplexus illumination raspberry. That’s pretty. I think I will get one hakonoa variegated because I have a spot that it’s very wimpy in surrounded by other beautiful ones. But I think this is all that I should pull from in this greenhouse. But let’s go this other one. So these are more of this. They’re annuals it looks like. Well, maybe not. Beautiful variety of things in here. Glad I came back in this one because there are some more of the superunia honeys that look a little I don’t know a little better than the ones that I grabbed. So I might consider there’s some more over there. I might consider getting different ones of those. These ones look really good. Of course, it’s probably that’s mostly because they’re all connected. And I guess when you pull them when you pull them apart, they’re also pretty leggy. So, cut them back and they’re flushing back out. But maybe the ones that we picked up are are just fine. They’re probably just fine. Oh gosh, look at these. Aren’t those sweet? I wonder what that is. Lots of creeping ground cover options. Got some creeping jenny. Beautiful ostraio over here. Wire vines. [Music] This little guy is in here. these little guys. Cheery, however you pronounce that. Little sun all summer long. Just a little ground cover. 4 in tall. Those are sweet. You guys have never seen this is a chocolate cosmos. And it really actually does smell like chocolate. It’s pretty crazy. You have a lot of them here. Nice little bushy bushy plant, too. But they Oh, they’re even pretty when the petals fall off. But they really do actually smell like chocolate, which is pretty fun. We’re home now from our shopping trip and it was a very successful one. I had a really good time just kind of walking around SNK nursery seeing what they have. It was so nice and quiet there. There was not um much going on and then I got really good deals on the plants that I did pick out. So mostly, as you saw, I did pick out plants for this watering trough that we’re going to be planting up today. But I also did find some other fun things to put into the new garden space that we’re working on down in the lower garden. But we’ll look at those another day. So, let’s look quick at the plants that I got for this watering trough and just get going on finishing up and making this look um a lot prettier than it does right now. Okay. I have staged here in the back of my husband’s pickup the plants that we got for the watering trough, which if you remember is right over here. Right now, I have just a little sprinkler going in it right now. I haven’t been watering this at all ever since I cut back the strawberries. So, the soil that is currently in there was completely bone dry. So, I’m just trying to kind of rehydrate that um before I go ahead and top dress it with some of the potting mix that I got as well as some um of the Land and Sea compost that we’re going to put in there. And then, like I think I was telling you guys, I needed to figure out what I was going to put in to cover up these rust holes. And I was going to use just some cedar fence posts that we had sitting around, but then I went poking around in our shed and I found these. Not even sure what they are. I think they’re just maybe very very thick um cardboard. They’re really really thick. But I liked these because they would curve and kind of match the contour of the shape of the of the container. So that’s what we’re going with right now. But the plants that I got, I think they’re really really pretty. Again, these ones are the Proven Winners Super Tunas. They’re in onegon pots and they’re only $5 which is I think such a good deal because the ones I got originally in the four gallon or the four 4inch pots weren’t even um that cheap. So So we have three of the super tunia saffron finch and then three of the super tunia honey which I thought when I was looking at them I I was gathering that there was a lot more pink in them. I don’t know if how that’s translating on the screen, but I thought that would look pretty with the other pink that we have going on over here with the um the smitten pink. And then also when I scan this way, you can see in the window boxes, we have the um pink lemonade. So pink lemonade also has a variety of kind of variation of colors between the pinks and the yellows. And I thought this would play off of those pretty nicely. So, I wasn’t able to find any big plants of walk and play in the blue salvia, but I did find these ones, which are actually I’m pretty sure similar to what they are. This is Misti. It’s kind of one of the Mystic Spires Salvas. Um, I don’t know. I don’t know how similar it is, but it looked it looked pretty similar to me. and it has a very similar growth habit. These might stay actually a little bit a little bit shorter, but um that’s okay. It’s the best I could find. And I think as you can see over here, we have some of the I’ll have to look up what this one is and put it on the screen. But these ones in this in this bed over here are the rock and play in the blue salvia. And then I also have some in the bed just right down there on the end. So I think these will tie in nicely. And then I have two dalia. Let’s see out there and there. I’m only going to put one of them in. I just wanted to I got two because I just couldn’t decide. They’re both beautiful and I I’m sure I’ll find a spot in the garden for the other one, but I just kind of wanted to put them in the container and see, you know, which habit I liked better. One of them is a dinner plate and one of them is more of the small compact um variety. Not a not a pompom, but it definitely has a smaller, more dainty bloom, which could look nice because we do have the sun incredible sunflowers over here that have a kind of a similar habit. I don’t know. We’ll we’ll set them in there and we’ll see what we think. But basically, I have six of the super tunias and two of the salvas. And then I’m just going to put one of the dinner plas in the middle. And I don’t know. I hope it I hope it’s enough. If I don’t feel like it is, then I’ll just leave some space and maybe go pick up a few more um different plants to kind of stuff in there. But first things first, turn off the water and set my coffee down. And then we’re going to get the container filled up with the soil. So, I have, like I said, these four bags. And I also have a bag of um just the Spoma garden soil. So, I may mix that in as well. And then I do have some of the compost to top dress it with once we’re all done. So, I’m just going to set up the camera and we’re going to get going. [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh yeah. Oh. [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh, it’s [Music] Okay, got everything planted up in this container and everything watered in. Um, super simple project, but I think it makes a big impact and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I mean, I think it came together really nicely for this time of the year for what’s available in the garden centers. Um, I think it I think it looks really pretty. If I had to change anything or if I could change anything, well, in a perfect world, if I change anything, it would be exactly the same as the one to the left of it, but that’s not an option. So, if I could change anything, I would probably add in some pink. Um, but I didn’t find any of that today other than the jaspberry, and I think that was kind of just the wrong color of pink. So, I don’t know. I’m excited to see what these plants do. I think that they’ll I think that they’ll do well as long as I stay on watering them, obviously. Um, but the colors are fun, especially these super tunias down here, the honey. Um, with the sa with the saffron finch, it’s just really, I don’t know, really different for me. And I think that the coloring in the honey, you can see there. It’s kind of hard to see as the sun is going down, but that is actually the fresco apricot. We saw that at SNK nursery today. Um, and I think that it kind of pulls in that little bit of pinky orangey apricotty color. So, I think that’s kind of fun. But anyway, I know that it’s risky to be planting up a container like this this time of the year, but honestly, right now for us, the weather has actually been extremely mild. I’ve been watching the 10day forecasts and we’re we’re up in the 80s tomorrow, but then at my location, again, I’m in zone 8b, western Oregon, but we are at a higher elevation. So, we are we tend to be a little cooler than what it is down in the valley in the area that I even was shopping today. You know, different than Portland, Salem, all those areas were a little bit cooler. So, we’re kind of just going to be sitting in the 70s and then getting down into the high 50s at night. So, I feel okay planting these things right now. Um it’s it’s not miserably hot like I know it is for so many of you out there. Um so, it is risky just because we are not getting any rain. we have no rain on the forecast. So, that’s kind of the only consideration that I really need to be taking um that I need to be thinking about is that I have dogs chasing the cat. Um I I really have to obviously be on top of watering or this is just not going to work out. So, fortunately, I do see this right out of my kitchen window where I spend a lot of time at my kitchen sink. So, it’ll be on the forefront of my mind to be out here watering this every day um for the next couple weeks at least and then maybe every other day as we get through August. Um I just really want to make sure that I give this give this planter a chance to get rooted in and to um do its best. So, anyway, the sun is now down and it is time for me to call it a day in the garden. So, thank you for coming shopping with me today. Um thank you for hanging out with me while I got this planter done. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you if you are not too hot that you maybe can get out and refresh one of your containers outside. It’s fun to do this time of the year, especially if you can find great deals on plants like I did today. So, thank you guys for hanging out with me while I did this project and we will see you in the next video. Bye.