A Garden Affair: Container Gardening

A Garden Affair: Container Gardening
March 19, 2013 Visit Madison

If you are ready to shake the winter blahs and get back to your garden, or if you just want to learn something new, don’t miss the fourth annual “Garden Affair” on Saturday, April 6. Sponsored by the Lanier Mansion Foundation, this year’s program includes a speaker, a spring luncheon and a chance to shop quality garden vendors. Doors open at 11 a.m. at The Old Market on Main located at 801 West Main Street in downtown Madison. The program will begin at noon and end around 2 p.m.

“Container Gardening” is the title of the post-luncheon presentation by Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp, also known as “The Hoosier Gardener.” Container gardening is the practice of growing plants in containers instead of planting them in the ground. Pots, traditionally made of terracotta but now more commonly plastic, and window boxes are the most familiar, but new, innovative containers are also popular. This planting method is useful in areas where the soil or climate is unsuitable for the plants desired, paved spaces or for ornamentation.

“Only imagination and drainage limit gardeners when it comes to containers,” says Sharp. The program includes tips on how to plant pots, great plant combinations and unusual containers that fuel the imagination.

Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp grew up in Indianapolis and lives about 15 minutes from downtown Indianapolis in a 1951 ranch. As a confessed “horti-holic,” she admits that her eyes are too big for her yard. “You just can’t have enough plants,” she says. For the last seven year, Sharp has worked as a manager of perennials, trees and shrubs at a large independent garden center. A former newspaper reporter, she now freelances. She was the founding editor and is a part owner of Indiana Living Green magazine. Her work appears in several national and local publications, including the Indianapolis Business Journal, Angie’s List magazine and her Hoosier Gardener column in the Indianapolis Star.

“One of the interesting features of the Garden Affair is that the tables are decorated by the Lanier Mansion Foundation board members,” said Lanier Mansion Foundation president Sandy Schaerli. “They are a creative group and its fun to see the distinctive look they create for each table,” she noted. When the doors open at 11 a.m. guests will be able to shop several quality garden vendors and peruse garden-related items from the Lanier Mansion Gift Shop.

Admission for the program is $25 and reservations are required to attend the program. Call 812.273.0556 to ensure your reservation.

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