APARTMENT LIFE SHOULDN'T STAND IN THE WAY OF GARDENING FUN

If you live in an apartment, condominium or townhouse, where land is scarce or not available, take heart for you, too, can grow and enjoy fresh flowers and vegetables. With no available soil to garden, one can create his own as long as a balcony, steps, or terrace is there. Container gardening is the answer.

Container gardening has increased by leaps and bounds the past few years. Pots, wooden and plastic tubs, barrels and even plastic bags can make attractive container gardens.

Container gardening requires planning and attention to its special requirements--lightweight and porous soil mix, frequent watering and continuous fertilizing. If you ignore these special needs, the results may be disappointing.

Although container gardening is much like traditional gardening, a few adjustments must be made. The three most common mistakes, according to the National Garden Bureau, are using too small containers, planting flowers or vegetables too close together and not giving the plantings adequate fertilizer.

Any container must have provisions for drainage, usually through one or more holes at its base. Poor drainage prevents air from reaching the roots, and if prolonged may result in their death.

Most anything will grow as well in a container as in the ground if the soil requirements are meet. High yield varieties are best adapted to containers because they allow you to make the most of the limited space. High yield vegetables included short types of carrots, lettuce, radishes, onions and tomatoes. Examples of container oriented flowers are alyssum, impatiens, marigolds, petunias, zinnias, coleus portulaca, and geraniums.

In hot weather, container plants dry out quickly and should be watered daily--sometimes twice a day. Wind and sunshine cause plants to respire more quickly than roots can absorb water. This respiration can be slowed by misting in early morning or late afternoon.

Continual watering removes many soil nutrients, requiring frequent applications of fertilizer. Apply water soluble fertilizer once a week according to package directions. Regular fertilizing is essential to container plants.

Residents of Chateau Girardeau certainly brighten their balconies with their colorful selection of blooming plants in pots and in window boxes.

Sun happy petunias are used by a neighborhood friend to add color to the entrance of her home. Shades of pinks, reds and some white petunias in pots line the steps and are planted in white window boxes on the porch. Although they are colorful now, before the summer passes, they will be a mass of fluffy ruffles of these delicate colors. Best of all, they will continue to bloom because each morning she can be seen removing the spent blooms from each plant, a treatment most flowers, and especially petunias, respond to favorably.

IN THE GARDENING NEWS

The current issue of Harrowmith Country Life has a informative on Clematis, the queen of vines. Its cover story tells how a New York clematis nurseryman almost lost his title of "King of the Queen Vines" when his plants, soil, equipment and greenhouses were poisoned by a fungicide. After three years, he is back in business with more than 700,000 vines propagated.

In the same issue is an excellent article on rhubarb, stressing its use as an edible landscaping plant. David Harran says, "Although used widely as fruit, rhubarb is an example of the old vegetable-fruit conundrum. Unlike the tomato, which technically is a fruit, but is used as a vegetable, rhubarb is a vegetable normally treated as a fruit." He stresses, "Only the leaf stalks of the plants are edible. The deep green leaves contain significant levels of soluble oxalic acid, are toxic and should never be eaten. Their flowers and roots, too, contain oxalic acid."

The June issue of Southern Living contains a wonderful article on Missouri Botanical Garden at St. Louis, entitled "Splendid Garden" by Steve Bender, with pictures of the Climatron, statues and the bridge at the lake of the 14-acre Japanese Garden, Siwa-En. It is rewarding to note that this fine magazine has now recognized there is something of beauty North of the Mason-Dixie Line.

Flower and Garden's July issue devotes an entire page to Miracle-Gro's tribute to Helen Hayes who recently died.

"All through the long winter I dream of my garden. On the first warm day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy and my spirits soar." she wrote last year.

Then the advertiser's tribute to her:

"Whenever we are in the garden,

We shall remember our dear friend."