I have two raised beds that serve as perennial and tree/shrub holding areas (which reminds me, some stuff has already been in there for nearly two full seasons).

There is also the ever-popular stick-the-pots-on-the-patio-and-try-to-remember-to-water option.

It'll be all sorted out by next spring, really.

I have a "vegetable garden" on the side of my garage. I put that in quotes because it's a pretty sad vegetable patch LOL! It only gets about 4 hours of sun, so all I can grow is the small cherry tomatoes and herbs. I do have great basil, mint, and chives, though! So I use that area for a holding area, I either just plop the homeless plant in a hole (the soil is great, so super-fast to dig a hole) or I plant in a pot and put the pot in that area. I also keep new potted plants I buy at the nursery that still need to be planted in this area. This area works out great because it gets some sun but not a lot, so it's not hard on the transplants/divisions.

Mine is an ever increasing in size lasagna bed. It gets morning sun only--perfect spot.

I have got to stop letting volunteer seedlings grow up in it. I have 2 tomato plants, 3 cleome plants, and some bird-supplied sunflowers taking up all the space. Every year I add another 10x10. I just put down the layers for next years addition.

Never had a holding area. I always have a place in mind and immediately (or within a few days) plant what I bought. If it doesn't work out, that's where the re-design comes in the following year. But if you can't do that, your idea sounds like a good compromise. You have to plant them somewhere - leaving them in the pots is never a good idea. You don't need to make self-watering containers, they're getting more popular - use the ones sold for veggies or raised beds. They're much larger. In fact, they're starting to go on sale now.

Now that I think of it, I have used cheap plastic kiddie pools in a pinch. I first poked lots of holes in the bottom for drainage and then filled them with soil. I needed temporary placement of plants during some construction and it worked out well - easy to water with a hose. Just be sure you put it where you want it because you can't move it after that.

I have several holding beds on the north side of the house with a spigot nearby. I buy a lot of seedlings and small transplants so I can gtrow them a season or two before putting them out. If I buy rhodies in the fall they go in the bed and are planted out in the spring. Spring bought Rhodies go in and are planted out in the fall. I've lost too many plants by planting them out hither and yon in the garden where I neglect tocheck up on them and eater them if needed.

My holding areas are a variety of things, ranging from a 16' long high-rise pot ghetto to regular nursery beds. Some are in full sun, and some in shadier areas, so I can keep the babies the way they need to be kept. All are irrigated with low pressure systems, from soaker hose to drip.

I grow a lot of plants from seed or plugs, and regularly have hundreds of plants at various stages of potting on, or being grown in the nursery beds. When I plant a new display bed, or redo an old one, I go 'shopping' in my holding areas, and pull out the best specimens for the new bed. If I plant a drift of one plant, I have several backups in the nurseries for replacement purposes.

I have a 16' x 16' holding bed that was created when we moved from one home to another we were building. Since the new home wasn't ready for landscaping, I created the holding bed using plants and divisions that I couldn't part with from the old home. It's a raised bed filled with the most beautiful composted soil. Everything I have there loves the new location and are thriving. Like donn, I go "shopping" in my holding bed when I need to fill an area.

I also use my holding bed as a nursery if I have a plant that doesn't like its current location. After they recover, I try them in a different location in the landscape.

> Never had a holding area. I always have a place in mind and immediately (or within a few days) plant what I bought.

You've GOT to be kidding! I was waiting for the punch line, but it never came. Are you available as a coach, by any chance?

I used to have a "vegetable garden" like mxk3's but it's so full - of trees and shrubs as well as perennials - that I don't even bother with the euphemism any more. I do have one tomato plant and some basil out there, but other than that, it's a nursery bed.

Don't even want to think about the pot ghetto out by the garage, where most new plants spend a few weeks (in wonderful morning sun) while waiting for the right spot to open up, and most excess volunteers and divisions wait for an innocent passer-by to take them home.

I'm still doing the "ever-popular stick-the-pots-on-the-patio-and-try-to-remember-to-water" as eric_oh put it. They're on my way to the backyard so I have to go past and see if they're wilted. The hose is nearby too so it isn't much trouble to water them. I'm hoping to get everything planted out by fall. I don't really have a good spot for a holding bed but I might need one at some point.

I've got a pot ghetto...or two! I gave up calling it a "holding area" a long time ago, lol. Some of these plants have been living in these pots for four years or more. I drag them in the garage every winter and out again in the spring

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I also line them up along the side of my house. This photo is actually of my winter-sowing containers early last spring, but by the end of spring this area is full of pots.
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And then of course, there are the 30 or so pots on my patio (on the other side of the white fence in the above photo), a dozen on the front steps, and others placed here and there around the garden.

The good thing about the pots is that I can highlight plants in bloom. When they finish blooming, I can move them off the patio or from the side of the house and replace them with things that are currently blooming.

:)
Dee

P.S. donn, I just read an old thread the other day where you were planning to build your pot ghetto. Sounds wonderful. Do you have any photos?

With just having moved this spring, I had literally crammed a couple hundred plants into a relatively small space ... and it has actually ended up looking pretty good for something that wasn't intended to be a display bed. Thankfully, I had beautiful deep rich virgin soil to begin with and everything has florished. Though, when planting, I had known I was placing the Joe Pye weed in a bad spot, and sure enough it looks awkward and blocks the view of some plants. BUT, in general the bed looks so good that everyone tells me that I must make it permanent ... and yes, I shall do so, especially as it shows so well in the front of the yard.

Terry

I have a dedicated nursery area, a little-used corner of my backyard that is enclosed by the carport on one side and the back privacy fence on the other. It was cleared, graveled and furnished with old nursery tables from my former employer. Everything there is in pots - no room in my garden for a "heeling in" nursery area - and consists of extras and divisions, new plant acquisitions that haven't yet made it into the ground and assorted recycled 'distressed' plants from my current nursery employer. Having everything in one, sort of well-organized area makes it all easier to care for. But I must confess to having outgrown the space available and my collection of pots has crept into other locations as well. Plus, I seem to have become a babysitting service for an apartment-dwelling gardening friend with a passion for trees - his landlord "evicted" them for fear the balcony would collapse with the weight of them all and I have custody of his containered collection until the friend can find a garden of his own. It's been over a year now........

Try as I might, my nursery area never seems to shrink. I seem to be able to bring in far more plants than I can reasonably get planted in a timely fashion :-) Maybe because adding new plants requires some significant editing of the old.

Here it is, Dee:

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It's much more full now, than in the photo.

Holey moley, donn!! WOW! I guess like me you gave up on ever getting all your pots planted, lol! That is one nice-looking holding area. What do you do in the winter?

:)
Dee

P.S. Thanks for posting the photo!

I haven't decided about winter yet. That'll be a fall project, which I'm still researching. I built it so I can fit twin or triple wall greenhouse panels inside easily, but they're pretty pricey. I could also cover the exterior with thick clear plastic like I use on my coldframe. I plant to use part of it for WS, and part for storing tender perennials and small plants. I may even install a heat source in one or two of the sections.

Please keep us updated! I would love to know what you decide to do and how it works out. I've decided I'm going to try and build some planters on my own and stop waiting for others to do it for me, so maybe I'll take on a project like this also.

Thanks!
Dee

Donn,

WOW I love that! We've just put in our propagation bed, but I need a "grow out" area once they move out of there, and that would be PERFECT! If you turn it into a cold frame and add a heat source, what type would you use that is safe outside in the weather, ect.

Now, to put that as a hubby "to do" project .... right after the kids' swingset that's been sitting around in pieces and parts for over a year and the 7 raised garden beds that need put together before fall.... OOH, and I'll need a potting bench over there too ... might as well have everything together ;)

-Bonnie

Bonnie..it would be electric heat, because there's already power running to the boardwalk where the pot ghetto is located. The sections I'd heat are each (roughly) 64 cubic feet in area, and if I use glazing material like 6mm twin-wall polycarbonate, it wouldn't take much more than an incandescent bulb, or a good propagation bottom heating cable to keep the cube above freezing. The sections used for coldframe and winter sowing won't be heated at all.

Diggerdee - How have you taken care of them in the garage every winter to keep them for 4 years? Do you water them, cover them??? I have a few that I may not get in the ground that I might have to winter in the garage.

Mary

Mary, I wait until they are completely dormant to bring them in (that was almost January this past winter!). I do water them as I bring them in, and then I go in later in the winter/early spring and give them another watering, or throw snow on them, if that's available.

There was one year where I did forget to water in the middle of winter, but most things seemed to survive. I have pretty good results this way. I may lose a few things, but overall the survivors heavily outnumber the dead.

:)
Dee

I overwinter some things in the garage too. Pretty good success. Some things go in the compost area for winter and I also hold excess shade plants there during the season.

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Here's a shot of some container hydrangea's I am holding for a friend. The bags are pine needles and leaves to insulate things. Later I dump leaves over the whole thing.
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This is my holding area for part sun. I really should design this area and make it more "done" but I need the flexibility. In this shot its not as jam packed as it usually is. I'm catching up :-)

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Did I really post this that long ago?!!? I got caught up in work and that and a lack of sleep have made my days blur. Now that I'm rested, and back to working only 6 days a week, ;) I can finally get caught up here, and get back to the gym!

Thanks for all the replies. It's nice for my plants and me that we're not alone. Yes I occasionally talk to them. Is that part of anthropomorphizing, I don't know but that won't stop me doing it, anyway. :)

Wow thats some pretty impressive holding areas. I hope to implement my plan immediately, and also incorporate some ideas from here.

Eric_oh IÂm in the same boat, but even worse than you. IÂve had perennials hanging out for an embarrassing length of time, and the plants are suffering for it.

Mxk3 I had an area like that, with even fewer hours of sun than you, and was going to use it as a holding area, but found myself mysteriously with a whole bunch of shade plants instead, lol. It IS my only real shade area of course, so I couldnÂt leave well enough alone. (GardenerÂs shrug).

Bean_counter, I wish I had the room to make a large, larger, and never largest, lasagna bed, but I donÂt. It sounds perfect to me.

Nancyd, I did just pick up a big self watering container, but think I'll make a few as well. The home made self watering containers are easier on my pocketbook. :) As for having a place for everything before buying, well that would put the kibosh on my spontaneous purchasing, and what would be the fun of that. :) I know, I know, I'm teetering on the edge of the hobby controlling me. I am not addicted!, lol.

Donn thanks for the pics and descriptions. You have a great set up there. I never even thought of vertical storage,. I could so see getting a three tiered shelf unit and filling it with more plants on hold. My idea of heaven. Of course watering would have to be automated. So cool to picture that.

Gardenchick, your area sounds wonderful, and I love plant shopping. :)

Diggingthedirt does your not wanting to look at your holding area-com-pot ghetto, mean itÂs a problem. ;) I have ghetto guilt to btw, so youÂre not alone! From one ghetto guy/gal to another, maybe we should forgive ourselves and accept our ghetto ways, lolol. I will if you will. Seriously thatÂs why I asked this question. Guilt loves company.

Athenainwi, my daughterÂs name is Alena, and your name reminded me of her. SheÂs leaving for Kenya soon, to plant trees on a nature preserve so IÂm thinking of her a lot right now, and worrying. I do the worrying so well, youÂd think I was born to it.

I have to force myself to water this year. IÂm just too busy. The lawn is brown except for the dandelions, :(, and the plants are so neglected. Oh well thereÂs always next year. I hope some plants will stick it out till then.

Diggerdee lovely home for all the plants. IÂm glad you mentioned the number 3 and 4 with the word years. I feel even less alone now. This is the reason I donÂt get into winter sowing. It is a nice cheap way to make lots of babies, but then the babies have to be planted and watered! I just donÂt have the time.

Twrosz, lucky you, making a bed out of a holding area. I wish I could do that, but room is at a premium here, so itÂs not to be.

Gardengal48 I think youÂve coined the phrase for me, Âheeling inÂ. I love it. Your holding area sounds great with the nursery tables. I have some very large wooden containers and love them as I donÂt have to kneel or bend over to tend them. I would love that for my whole garden as I age.

Wendyb youÂre a plant sitter too? How interesting. Maybe thereÂs a job in there for someone.

"Plant sitter, will sit at your garden or mine. $14 an hour. Includes watering and weeding. Do not do Greenhouse windows." ;)

Thanks again for keeping me company, and giving me ideas, as usual.

Yeona