Jean Ann Van Krevelen’s Upcycled Edible Patio

Sure, you can grow food plants in conventional plastic pots or wooden planters. But with a little creative thinking you can also turn old, outdated, or unusual items into one-of-a-kind containers for your vegetables and herbs. Jean Ann Van Krevelen is always on the lookout for unique objects to “upcycle” into pots (no old toilets, thank you), a trend that is reflected in her “Upcycled Edible Patio” plan.

• Creates a truly unique garden with low-cost “upcycled” items like baskets, buckets, and crates
• Vegetables and herbs are selected for their ornamental and edible value
• Vertical vining crops like tomatoes and pole beans offer privacy and increased yields

When it comes to selecting pots, Jean Ann likes to seek unorthodox containers from thrift stores or yard sales to reflect her fun-loving and eclectic personality. “I’ve used bicycle baskets, galvanized tin tubs, wooden crates, and more,” she says. When evaluating an item for use as a possible container, consider its material and size. Metal articles like milk jugs, old tool boxes, colanders, and galvanized pails will quickly heat up on a sunny day, damaging plants and drying out quickly. To counter this, line your metal containers with a similarly shaped and sized fiber or plastic pot, or shield the metal from the sun by layering containers in front.

An old bicycle basket gets a new life as a planter for kale.

Upcycled Container Combinations

• Use an old metal horse trough as a fabulous pot for trellised veggies. Try four to six Scarlet runner beans on a twig teepee or an assortment of espaliered tomatoes: ‘Black Krim’, ‘Indigo Rose’, ‘Green Grape’, and ‘Green Zebra’. Don’t forget to add drainage holes!
• Drill some holes in your old, broken-down wheelbarrow and fill it with ‘Bleu de Solaize’ leeks, ‘Redventure’ celery, and white sweet alyssum (nonedible).
• Turn an old wire supermarket shopping basket into a show-stopping veggie and flower basket. Try planting ‘Graffiti’ purple cauliflower and white or purple sweet alyssum (nonedible), or ‘Bleu de Solaize’ leeks and purple sweet alyssum.
• Pick up some old wooden bushel baskets at a farm stand or farmers’ market. Plant ‘Red Russian’ kale, ‘Forellenschluss’ lettuce, and ‘Superbells Blackberry Punch’ million bells (nonedible) in them.
• Use a ladder to create a vertical support for small and medium-sized pots and planters. Pot up your favorite compact veggies (such as mesclun mix and ‘Tristar’ strawberries), herbs, and edible flowers in paint-splattered buckets for an extra punch of color!
• When your kids outgrow their rainboots, attach the worn-out boots to a fence or shed. Poke a hole in the bottom for drainage and fill the boots with herbs like ginger mint, ‘Genovese’ basil, and ‘Red Rubin’ purple basil.

Adapting containers. Shallow, wide items like vintage suitcases, dresser drawers, or wicker baskets can also be put into patio food production, but these will benefit from a plastic liner. In the case of wood, the issue isn’t overheating but rot. Loosely woven baskets can also leak soil and dry out quickly, making a liner a low-maintenance solution. For these upcycled items, opt for shallow-rooted salad and root vegetables such as leaf lettuce, baby chard, spinach, baby beets, turnips, and radishes.

Whatever types of pots you choose, remember that adequate drainage is a must, so poke or drill holes in the bottom. And — sorry, boys — size matters. Plants, especially vegetables, should be matched to the proper-sized pot so there is plenty of root room for each plant, and so plants won’t need to compete for nutrients, moisture, and light. Even carrots can be grown in pots — just be sure to choose a container at least 12 inches deep to allow adequate room for root development. Jean Ann likes to combine ‘Lunar White’ and purple ‘Black Knight’ carrots in one pot, and place the tender, crisp roots of ‘Little Finger’ in another.

Crops grown in pots will also require a little more TLC than those grown in a traditional in-ground garden. Water twice a day when it’s hot, and use a good slow-release fertilizer when potting up the containers. Supplement with a foliar fertilizer like fish emulsion every few weeks to keep production high and plants healthy.

Jean Ann’s Dos and Don’ts

Do Use

• Bicycle baskets
• Wooden wine crates
• Radio Flyer wagons
• Vintage tool/tackle boxes
• Birdbaths/fountains

Don’t Use

• Old hiking boots
• Undergarments
• Toilets
• Kiddie pools
• Jeans or jean shorts

Feast for the eyes. In keeping with the notion that edibles can be beautiful, Jean Ann chooses crops that are both pretty and productive. With its blistery texture and strappy, blue-green leaves, ‘Lacinato’ kale is a favorite ornamental edible, but Jean Ann also appreciates the deep purple-maroon pods of ‘Royal Burgundy’ bush beans that invite picking as they dangle within the deep green foliage.

Jean Ann also likes to pair her favorite edibles with colorful annuals such as million bells, alyssum, and petunias. She combines ‘Red Russian’ kale with ‘Forellenschluss’ red-speckled romaine lettuce and ‘Superbells Blackberry Punch’ to produce a dynamite blend of plant sizes, leaf textures, bold foliage color, and pretty blooms. The combination provides months of eye candy on the patio as well as fresh greens for gourmet salads.

Espaliered tomatoes. Jean Ann likes to use a large planter box to hold some of her favorite heirloom tomatoes. She suggests espaliering the indeterminate (vining) types. This pruning technique improves air circulation around the plants, helping to prevent disease, and it also allows ample sunlight to reach the foliage, boosting production. Jean Ann’s top tomato picks are ‘Black Krim’, ‘Indigo Rose’, ‘Green Grape’, and ‘Green Zebra’.

Jean Ann also suggests including a vertical element like a garden arch, which can be used to allow passage from a patio or deck to the rest of the landscape. The arch could support the vigorous vines of ‘Celebration’ and ‘Delicata’ winter squash. Other delicious and decorative climbing vegetables, like scarlet runner beans or cucumbers, can scale structures such as bamboo teepees, obelisks, or twig trellises. Vertically grown plants can be situated to creating a living screen for exposed decks and patios, reducing strong winds and boosting privacy. Even compact crops can be grown vertically; Jean Ann suggests using a small shelving unit or a chest of drawers to grow layers of luscious strawberries and salad greens.

Patio apples. Columnar apple trees provide a modest harvest of full-size apples when grown in pots. Each single-stemmed tree grows just 8 to 10 feet tall and 2 feet wide at maturity, making these narrow plants a good choice for a deck or patio of any size. Keep in mind that two varieties of apple are needed for cross-pollination.