Moveable Feast

Everything is mobile now--why shouldn't your plants be? You're container gardening and your tomatoes are chattering on a cell phone. Uh-oh. Just kidding! Mobility is one advantage of creating a container garden. Shirley Brenon, gardening enthusiast and writer of a weekly gardening column for the Palm Springs, California newspaper THE DESERT SUN, says container plants are easily moveable.

One woman Brenon has interviewed grows tomato plants in a redwood container and arranges the container on a dolly or other platform with wheels. She can move her plants to follow the sun, especially since Palm Springs temperatures are surprisingly variable.

Flowers such as impatiens have to be moved when the 80-degree desert temperature drops and the sky becomes overcast. Buy some dollies from a home improvement store and start moving your plants around. But if your tomatoes use up your wireless minutes, take the phone away.