Reconnect one container at a time
Get back to nature in a sustainable way
Flander, a chocolate lab, and Trixie, a border collie, welcomed me with kind eyes and wagging tails on a warm August morning — it was a gentle welcome to the garden of Debbie Cank-Thatcher and Jay Thatcher.
It’s a mature garden with strong bones, large trees and shrubs, there is plenty of shade, and pockets of sunlight along the driveway. Like many modern parents, she juggles work and managing a busy household, there’s not much time left over to putter in the garden, yet she feels a need to connect with nature.
“I am totally for being more sustainable,” says Debbie. “My goal is to reduce our disassociation with nature. What can you do if you need to escape or have problems in your life? I want to reconnect, pot by pot, however you can do it.”
“The vegetables & herbs I choose to grow need sun, so I garden in containers along the driveway. Everything I grow is for us to consume, for the bees, or other wildlife — it must have purpose. I don’t put a lot of fuss and muss into gardening, I don’t have a lot of time, and I think that is something many people can relate to.”
Large containers, filled with vegetables, herbs and ornamentals are tucked in along the length of driveway.
“They are tree buckets, so it’s also recycling, and I absolutely love it.
“I knew that I could grow in pots from my greenhouse experience, but I wanted to see what anyone could do in this situation, if you don’t have garden space, or just have a balcony or have limited funds.” Container gardening works in many situations.
“You can mix ornamentals with veggies, you just have to know your plants — you can’t grow something with a massive root system and expect your peppers to do very well.”
For example, one container includes oenothera, basil, tomato, cabbage, and annual sage (for pollinators). Debbie reuses the soil from year to year, adding a little hen manure. She does not use synthetic fertilizers.
Along the front walk, a container filled with citronella, angelonia, basil, lysimachia and hosta. “Bees love hosta and coleus flowers,” Debbie adds. “Once you know nature, you can’t go back.”
Debbie grows all of her tomatoes in pots, “You have to keep an eye on the water levels, I water every other day, some of the tomatoes grow up the Boston ivy along the house. They are staked at the bottom, clipped to supports with recycled nursery clips.” The plants are allowed to grow free range, the suckers are not removed, but some of the stems will be trimmed as the season progresses, “I know these stems won’t have time to produce fruit so some of them will come off eventually.”
Toward the top of the driveway, there’s an herb garden of sorts, “The interesting thing about these pots, I never have to plant dill, coriander, calendula or lettuce, they are all allowed to reseed along with, borage, lemon balm, bee balm and lovage.”
The plants must be resilient to survive, raspberries were planted in a container to overwinter, and are still here, along with dill, tomatoes, lettuce, and a single lantana left over from a project. “That’s the little girl in me coming out,” Debbie explains, “I was raised in ornamental horticulture — I can’t escape it. Even though everything in here is not picture perfect, and would never win an award, it’s still working for me.”
Debbie’s planting philosophy also includes houseplants: They must also serve a purpose. Edibles like lime, miniature pomegranate and miniature butter orange winter indoors and then spend the summer outdoors. Debbie foraged through the young limes to find a ripe specimen, “I love the fact that I grow some limes,” she explained as she handed the sun warmed fruit over to me. The fruit was surprisingly heavy and fragrant.
Debbie teaches Floral Design part time at Niagara College, “I also grow a lot of material that I can bring to my students to show them.” Lemon eucalyptus and another kind of medicinal eucalyptus keep company with the fruit outdoors for the summer, “They don’t do well in the house, but they really shine out here.”
She also enjoys experimenting with non-traditional plants found at the grocery store. Debbie points out a potted plant that looks like a miniature canna.
“It’s turmeric, I bought the organic vegetable to plant and I experiment. The powder we use in kitchen comes from dried turmeric root that have been ground up”.
On the deck, a large strawberry pot container includes tarragon, “It’s a really hardy plant,” chives, parsley, thyme, strawberries, Tiny Tim tomatoes, kale and marigold. “This is a tiny pot and yet look what you can get out of it.”
At the back of the property there’s a recycled greenhouse, “What’s a former greenhouse girl going to do without a greenhouse?”
“I’m growing tomatoes, potatoes, kale and figs — everything here is an experiment. There’s not really enough light in here because of the trees. I have just planted basil for the fall, and will plant lettuce and spinach soon.”
Debbie’s driveway containers fulfil her goal of growing some of her own food and creating a habitat for pollinators. As I packed up my camera, I realized how the dog’s gentle welcome also reflected her mantra of living with nature — a goal we should all work towards.