Bring on the summer herbs!
One of our favorite things to do in the summer is to grow our own herbs. We use them when we cook and to create some fun seasonal cocktails. Basil is a fantastic herb to grow in an outdoor pot. We harvest it a few times a year to make fresh pesto and then freeze the rest to enjoy during the winter months.
Here is our favorite recipe for basil pesto, straight out of The Joy of Cooking. This recipe makes one cup of pesto.
Combine in a food processor and process to a rough paste:
2 cups loosely packed basil leaves
1⁄2 cup grated Parmesan
1⁄3 cup pine nuts
2 medium garlic cloves, peeled
With the machine running, slowly add:
1⁄2 cup olive oil, or as needed
If the pesto seems dry (it should be a thick paste), add a little more olive oil. Season to taste with:
Salt and black pepper
Pour your desired amount of pesto on top of warm pasta or spaghetti squash and you have a delicious dish.
If you're freezing it, pour the pesto in an ice cube tray, cover and freeze. Once frozen, put the frozen pesto cubes into a freezer zip-lock bag and re-freeze until you are ready to use them. Enjoy the taste of summer all year long!
New (to us) plant alert
We are constantly on the lookout for new plants and flowers to try. We just recently used an allamanda as the thriller for this sunny container. It sure looks like a yellow mandevilla doesn't it? We love this tropical, flowering bush and can't wait to use it more often next summer. The yellow flower is just so cheery! We paired it with red leaf begonias, wandering jew and purple sweet potato vine. All these plants love heat and sun - winners!
Coordinated color combinations
One of our favorite things about container garden design is the challenge of finding the right mix of colors and textures to put in a container. If you are planting a trio of containers like in this picture or planting containers that are near each other, you will want to coordinate the colors. Here we went with the red and yellow theme. Red leaf begonias are the flowers used in all three and visually ties them together. The yellow pops are hibiscus in the large planter and lantana in the medium sized planter. We love how the three containers blend well together but aren't totally matchy-matchy.
Let Adorn Help You
We all love pretty pots but not necessarily the upkeep, right? Let us know if you'd like to outsource the maintenance of your outdoor planters. Once a month, we'll pay your container gardens a visit to deadhead, trim and treat for garden pests as needed. Our residential and commercial clients REALLY enjoy this monthly service!
We'd love for you to follow Adorn on social media for more container gardening tips and inspiration.
https://www.facebook.com/adornplanters/
https://www.instagram.com/adornplanters/
https://www.pinterest.com/adornplanters
Curb Appeal Shout Out!
We've been helping Tammy Cole, Owner of Bella Salon in Edmond, with her outdoor planter for years. This fabulous salon is in a darling house on Broadway and 4th Street in Downtown Edmond. Hearing comments from sweet clients like Tammy makes our day. "I love using Adorn! Elizabeth is very creative and uses some unusual things that I would never even think to use in a planter. It looks great year round even in the winter months when my pot would normally be empty. I love the convenience of knowing that it is the one thing I don't have to think about and can check off my to do list. Elizabeth is always there once a month to make sure our salon looks fresh and green."