From the

Gardening on Another Level  by Selma Miriam

Thirty-eight years ago we moved to Connecticut - not for the schools, the beaches or the golf courses - but because I had to have a garden. I craved it, I required it and I needed it!

Once we bought our house, I wanted an annual/perennial border. Since the street was the only place with no trees, that was where the most sun was, near the front of the house. We erected a board fence between the road and the yard as a backdrop, and planted a Sargent's crabapple at the driveway corner. At the other end are two Rhododendron 'Cornell Pink'. Between the rhododendrons and the crabapple, we carefully dug and sifted soil for a curved border, cutting out the maple roots as we proceeded. Much was planted, and there are even a few survivors.

The maple roots returned immediately, of course. Still, early in the spring, white crocus 'Joan of Arc' repeats the curved line. The rhododendrons that were planted along the property line have grown large and glorious. Daffodils remain, and Scilla hispanica fills the bed, it seems. Each year Clematis montana rubens is spectacular during the month of May. By late August, Japanese anemones begin to bloom and the year finishes with a very invasive plant, Eupatorium coelestinum, which looks like a two-foot tall blue ageratum and blooms until frost. Of course the scillas are invasive also.

But summer showed no flowers. Each year I struggled to squeeze a few impatiens into the root-matted soil, and plucky things, they bravely tried to shine.

When one is an ardent gardener, it is a wonderful thing to have a neighbor who is equally ardent. My neighbor, Elva Skrensky, lives across the street. She has different problems: she is uphill and therefore dry, but also wooded, and she is unfailingly clever in making her yard beautiful and inspirational to me. Elva is always planting annuals in pots and placing the pots in various parts of her garden. She also had some two and a half foot high rings she acquired long ago, each of which holds a pot she plants with impatiens and then places in her woods. These tall bright spots seemed like a great idea.

So about eight years ago I began to accumulate large fancy clay pots. Since these are expensive, I bought only a few each year. I wanted the pots themselves to look good while the annuals were fluffing out, so the pots, I decided, had to be clay and not plastic. I then set the annual-filled pots on other large pots, either clay or plastic, which I upended in the garden. Then two years ago, a garden company (Lee Valley Tools) made pot rings available again, and so I can bring a lot of summer color to my shady garden, up in the air.

One problem with this setup is that one must find a lot of soil, either in the compost pile, or purchased, to fill all the pots. But of course this is also good, since the potting mix can be amended as one likes, and at the end of the season, the soil may be returned to the compost pile and treated with kitchen scraps (or for me, broken down orchid bark) to provide next year's new planting medium in spring.

The other problem with gardening in the air, as it were, is watering. Here is how I deal with it. First, the pot has to be of a size to hold enough soil so it is less likely to dry out. Second, all my pots are in beds which are at the edges of lawns, and the lawns are deeply soaked by sprinkler at least once a week, meaning the pots are watered as well. And finally, twice a week the pots are hand watered with a hose, unless it is raining on those days. The result is wonderful, I think. A proper annual/perennial border boasts flowers at various levels, and my garden in the air provides flowers from ground level to those blooming above the 28 inch high pot ring holders. This year the pots sport Nicotiana 'Appleblossom', Nierembergia 'Mont Blanc', Lobelia 'Rivera Blue Splash', white tuberous begonias and some of the spectacular pink and red leafed coleus now available — the Wizard series. I even have two gazanias.

The pots have spread to the other side of the driveway where they sit on other upended pots in a bed of myrtle, and hold white impatiens. There are also some behind the house in the back garden where they complement hostas, Japanese primroses, astilbes and snakeroot. Perhaps they are becoming invasive! If you also have a maple root infected yard, try gardening on another level.