Dressing Up Container Gardens For Less

Growing veggies and flowers because you're strapped for cash? When you're facing a stack of bills, seeing a growing garden can lift your mood. You'd like to have a Grecian urn for your container garden, but right now you don't have two drachmas to rub together. Not to worry--the ancient Greeks were resourceful, and while an elaborate container garden design in an urban courtyard was de rigueur for the upper crust, for the most part the Greeks frowned on ornamentation.

If all you have on hand are the large black nursery pots you used when you lived in the suburbs in a previous life, here's a container vegetable gardening and container gardening tip. HGTV's Scott Daigre advises covering a vegetable container garden or container garden with flowers in burlap sacks so the pot stays cool and looks cool. Pour some wine, plant some mustard greens or mustard spice (which Hippocrates favored), and live like an ancient Greek on a budget in your metropolis.