February Container Garden Tour! Plants Are Already Coming Up!

I didn’t think I’d be doing a garden tour in February, but it’s been such a mild winter that plants are starting to come up! Let me show you what’s currently in my garden and how my new bulb strategy has worked so far.

Video showing how I protected my holly trees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VChCjQOPhp8

~ Where Things Are From ~
Wood elevated beds: https://gronomics.com/all-elevated-garden-beds/
30-gallon grow bags: https://amzn.to/3C4tvZU
7-gallon black grow bags: https://parkseed.com/smart-pot-fabric-planters/c/smart-pots/
5 and 7 gallon beige grow bags: https://amzn.to/3qgiWjR
Flower cart: https://amzn.to/43unbGU
Table and chairs: old from Wayfair
Wheels for 30-gallon grow bags: https://amzn.to/3qfRxib
Caddy for smaller plants: https://amzn.to/3WIhjra
ProvenWinners drip irrigation: https://www.provenwinners.com/waterwise
Carpathen drip irrigation: https://amzn.to/3OLiCUk
Herb plant stand: https://www.gardeners.com/buy/lattice-rectangular-tiered-plant-stand/8596373.html

Charming Bench Company elevated beds: https://thecharmingbenchcompany.com/products/wood-country-rectangular-cedar-planter-tl-006-tl-007-tl-008-tl-009

For daily plant updates, follow me on Instagram @chicagogardener

Hey everyone so I’m outside in February which I did not think was going to happen I figured what I’d do is give you a little garden tour even though there’s not much happening obviously but there is more than is normally happening in my garden in February and some things are

Starting to come up which definitely shouldn’t be happening already but also it’s kind of nice to see my garden before it’s filled with plants because you can get an idea of the structure in my containers so I will take you around to take around both the front and the

Back deck so if this is the first time you’re actually seen my garden because we’ve been inside for a while the front deck that I’m on right now faces West it’s 18 by1 19 Square ft the back deck faces East also 18 by1 19 Square ft so

Let me show you what things are looking like for February so one of the things that is different this year compared to other years is that I’ve left more plants in my raised beds so I took a class last fall and I kind of knew a little bit about this but talking about

The importance of having plants out for insects to over winter in so I did leave more than I normally do um most of them are going to be pulled so this was a fern look how sad that is you would never know that was a fern and then I

Think oh were these Salvia it was rocking the Blue Suede Shoes Salvia now I often save a lot of branches to use either in something that I’m making inside like DIY or I’ll use them for supports for plants in the garden so I’m probably going to save these not going

To save anything from the fern and then here in this raised bed this is the first time I think I’ve left anything in it I have planted bulbs in it in the past I don’t have any bulbs out in the front deck there are some on the back um

Because I’ve killed them way too many times so this is kind of my last attempt at bulbs but we’ll get to that on the back deck but here there were basically a bunch of eona blackeyed Susans and I can’t remember what else was here oh there were some pansies that pansies do

Surprisingly well over winter and often come back for me in the spring so that’s nice oh we have a pigeon friend I haven’t seen a pigeon for up there in so long yeah they they are not like cats they do not come when you at them anyway

So all of this will be pulled even though a lot of them are perennials so I think what my plan’s going to be because this is zenas I like having annuals in here I just left these in here once the zenas kind of died at the end of the

Season I think what I’m going to do maybe is take them and move them to that bed which is going to be perennials native perennials assuming things go to plan so I don’t exactly know what I’m going to do with all this it won’t all

Fit in there I might do some in other pots but it will all be removed from here for my Queeny lime zenas coming over here is is my lowest R bed you can see there are still some pansies with green leaves I have my sunflower stocks from last year which

These will be cut down I will grow new sunflowers here again this year the exact same kind which is the sunw wrench summer prant single stem but I cut these down and I use them for supports for my sunflowers for next year actually let me show you let’s go over here cuz it’s

Easier so this stock here was from a 2022 sunflower and then I used it as support for my 2023 sunflowers so definitely save I’ve saved dollia stocks and sunflower stocks for this save your really tall stocks oh I also use them to support house plants if I need something that’s a bit longer

Than what I can find in store so that’s everything in this bed that will all be again cleaned out this well there’s my hose reel which I don’t think I’m going to use anymore up here because I’m doing flexible hoses so I need to take that down

But here is where I’ve already sewn some native seeds but before that I emptied a bunch of seeds that I thought were Native that were not so that was fall of 2022 fall of 2023 I planted the correct natives but I don’t exactly know what’s already sprouting in here like what is

What cuz it could be seeds from the actual natives it could be seeds that were just in here from the non-actual natives so we’re going to kind of see how this bed comes together I’m very intrigued but because I just sewed the native perennials last fall

And many of them do not flower in the first year not even necessarily the second year I also am going to put annuals in here just for some added color I have my three 30 gallon grow bags here I left I pulled the tomato plants that were on either side I left

The zenas which were the giant Baner Zas I might save some of these stocks too but I left those up against again mostly for the insects over the winter I also think is it that bag one of these bags has a hole in it so I need to swap it

Out for a new one so that’ll be an interesting process and this is my final raised bed underneath it is this storage bin of potting soil from the individual pots this is my Gina bed it’s always been my Gina bed for the last three four years 3

Years it’ll probably be my GFR bed going forward so I cut down a bunch of the Fin and just left it in here any really hard to get out root balls I also left in because those will be easier to pull in the spring than they were in the fall so

Yeah I’m excited to see kind of what happens here looks like we have something growing back interesting I don’t know what that was it’s always fun when things grow and you have no idea what they are and then this is my uh kind of haphazard it’s a mess do

Better than this don’t follow what I do um but here is my herb rack that I just leave out this is where I grow all my herbs I did try to tarp my table and chairs but the tarps blown off and I haven’t come out here to put it back on

As often as I should have um I do have some other pots here tarped back there so I think the only pots with plants in them these are my two rhubarbs which have come back since 2020 2021 um my two raspberries which I’m actually going to prune probably

Early next month and then my strawberries and everything else is just used as insulation and then I have my flower cart but that’s kind of what the deck is looking like right now I won’t be doing any sort of work out here really this month I don’t think but just good to

Kind of see that there is some life happening now let’s go to the back deck but I need to take one of these cages with me and I will show you why by the way in terms of lay out the front deck you just go through what is

My office and then you go back through here through the plant room I need to clean this door and this goes out to the back deck so the back deck doesn’t have as many large raised beds there’s just these three it does though have the beautiful view of the church this is

Definitely my favorite view this one gets the morning sun I don’t think I’m going to add any other larger containers mostly what else is over here are like smaller pots um but we also have the air conditioning units up here so that takes up a little bit of the space but let me

Talk to you a little bit about the bulbs so I have been trying to grow bulbs and leave them in my containers since fall of 2021 probably and I quickly realized the first year that leaving them out completely uncovered they often rotted especially in smaller containers because

We get too much rain too much snow they stay way too moist I did have a good amount return in my sun Raiser bed though on the front I did just a Sunray bed last year and even more rotted so what I did this year is I just planted

All the bulbs in these three and I tarped them which I think the tarp has worked really well to keep the moisture out the issue I’m having now is that things are starting to sprout already which should not be happening um we have here I don’t even remember exactly what

Was in here but the earliest of what should be sprouting are like wild tulips was there highin in there and that should be early spring but we are early February right now but I mean you can see here there’s at least like one two three four five six seven I don’t even know

Are those tulip bulbs coming up it’s been very interesting seeing all these come up so far I think there’s only this one here and then down here at least 1 two three four that I can see so even though we did did have a week of like below 0° fenhe temperatures

Other than that it’s been much more mild than normal this winter I can tell that with my super scientific method of this Valentine’s Day I can get staks into the soil at ground level for decorations and I couldn’t do that last year so I know that things haven’t frozen over as much

This year as I did last year so things are starting to come up and I mean I don’t think tarping them really heats the beds that much um some of the things that somebody said to look out for was mold I haven’t had any mold growing in

The raised beds I’ll show you the hydren in just a second there was mold there but the main problem now is that they’re starting to come up already I can’t leave the tarpon as it is because it’s crushing the bulbs that are starting to

Come up um so we have like I think 10 days of Sun so I’m going to leave it open again I’m tarping to keep the moisture out so the bulbs don’t rot more than anything like I’m not doing it for any other reason we don’t have squirrels

Or anything up here that can dig them up so that is why I was covering them but now that they’re coming up let me show you what I think I’m going to do to still protect them from the brain so that’s where this cage is going

To come in so someone on Instagram said that what they do is they have like wire protectors that you use to keep like rabbits out and they put that on top and then they tarp now maybe next year I can lay down some chicken wire and then put

That on top what I think I’m going to do this year again keeping it uncovered for now until it’s going to rain again is kind of lay a cage like that and then put the tarp over it because then that’ll keep the tarp off of the bed and I think

That’ll work and I think I might actually maybe I will just do that next year instead of chicken wire because this will keep the tarp up higher so that’s my thought and what I think I’m going to do but for now this can stay off so keep that in mind if you are

Tarping your bulbs that you don’t want the tarp to lay directly on the soil because when they come up they’re going to get smushed but I honestly cannot believe that this is happening in early February now this hydrangea too heavy for me to carry downstairs which is why

I tarped it so if you plan to carry any pots down off of your rooftop deck put them in plastic not in ceramic but there was mold on this there’s still a little a little bit but it’s kind of gone away from what it was and if you can see that

There’s some green in there so that is a good sign as well so I think in terms of keeping the soil from getting too moist and the bulbs rotting the tarp has worked well so I can do this going forward I just need to adjust how I tarp

As far as what else is on this deck I may or may not have sewn milkweed in here probably should have labeled I feel like I did I guess we’ll find out um this was a container of caladiums I’m still over wintering two in my shower

But this one there were like mipedes or something crawling it so I kicked it outside so that is just going to get repotted next year with something and then we have my furniture so everything is pushed into this corner because I’m trying to protect these two Holly trees I just got

These in the fall for $20 each they are zone five which you would not typically want to get if you’re over wintering outside in containers you’d want to go two zones lower we’re 6A so I’d want at least 4 a I like to go even colder if I

Can down to zone three but what I’ve done is shove them in the corner also with my Beach Plum Tree I put like everything like pots this is the rug for the deck up against it to try to protect the root ball in the container here I did spray it with a

Spray that helps keep moisture on the leaves because that’s one of the reasons that the plants can can die is that too much moisture from the wind or the cold is being removed from the leaves I’ll put a video up of showing what I do with

That and then right before we got the super cold temperatures I threw this burlap on it not in very organized manner trying to give it a little bit more protection and I mean like right now it looks good so assuming that the temperatures for the rest of the winter

Don’t go crazy cold I might have successfully overwintered zone 5 trees oh and I almost forgot so the pots that I can carry down with bulbs those I overwintered in the garage because obviously they’re not going to get rain or snow on them in there to keep them

Dry enough and I put them underneath the table so wasn’t really looking at them so I took a peek and my daffodils are coming up um the garage is heated it doesn’t stay super warm but it also doesn’t get below freezing but because it’s been again so mild the garage

Heater hasn’t even had to really kick on so these think it’s time to come up which is why I’ve moved them out here where it is a little bit colder in hopes that they understand it’s not time for them yet um but we’ll see how that does

I have three other containers of bulbs those are doing fine um and then I just have my little wrap on my hose faucet so that’s my February Garden Tour didn’t think I’d be doing one of those but it is exciting I really hope I can continue

To do bulbs because it’s exciting to see something coming up I also really do like that I’ve left some plants in the beds even if you know they look Brown and dead cuz it gives me something visually to look at and I’m really enjoying that so what I want to get

Better at this year is getting more perennials especially in pots I think on the back deck Evergreens that are going to hold color something that just gives a little bit interest in the winter out here um someone also recommended that they leave their gamina up and I think

That probably holds its color really well so I want to get into the idea of what can I keep out here easily that will survive um so that’s going to be my goal for this year adding some more of that but we’re outside in February early February that is crazy I’m hoping that

The winter for the rest of it pretty mild we can start getting a jump on gardening a little bit earlier um but that is my garden let me know if you have any questions and I will see you in the next video where we’ll probably be back inside bye