Flour Sack Mama: Container Gardening Class Take-Aways

Church-Sponsored Gardening Class with Master Gardener Lisa Lemza

When Master Gardener Lisa Lemza teaches a gardening class, she mixes botanical terms with colloquialisms, sharing a wealth of information without intimidating her students. No wonder her classes are so popular on Saturdays at Grace Episcopal Church in Chattanooga.

Her first class of the season was about container gardening. She covered the practical and the pretty, the maintenance and the fun. "It's your garden," she encouraged her students, "please yourself and have fun with it!" She showed us everything from designer-colored glazed pots to plantings in an old shoe.

Lemza encouraged using the best potting soil you can find and creating a healthy environment for whatever you choose to plant in your small container. "In a pot you're creating a little miniature world and the more good stuff in there, the better off your plants are gonna be."

Here are some of the most useful takeaways I got from her class:

*Give your plant a generously sized pot

*Glazed pots hold moisture better, while terra cotta pots dry out faster

*Do not put shards or stones in the bottom of the pot

*Do put screen in the bottom of the pot and make sure there are plenty of drainage holes

Gardening classes are held in conjunction with the community garden program at Grace.