On Feb. 2, when the good ol’ groundhog came out of his home and saw his shadow, I remember thinking &uot;Yeah, right. I’ll be wearing shorts next week, Mr. Phil. You don’t know winters in the Miss-Lou.&uot;

Well, seems this year, the jokes on me. Instead of boiling crawfish on sunny afternoons by now, my garden is the perfect habitat to begin farming them. I need a few days of warm weather and I could be harvesting plenty. Even with the unfriendly gardening weather of late, many of us can satisfy that insatiable urge of digging in the dirt by first working on our container plantings. Now is the perfect time to clean up those flower pots, freshen up the soil and fill them with colorful flowers and fabulous fragrance.

Container gardening is fun, easy, rewarding and can add lots of character to any landscape from the smallest courtyard to the largest of gardens.

The No. 1 rule is to make sure that pots have adequate drainage holes. Even a pot with no drainage holes and gravel in the bottom won’t work. Think about it, the roots are going to end up drowning in water at some point soon. The water will actually become anaerobic and release nasty sulfurous gases that are toxic to plant roots and smell really bad.

If your favorite pot does not have a hole, simply drill one or several in it with a masonry bit. The local hardware store personnel can direct you to one quickly.

Obviously, don’t do this with grandmother’s handmade pot as there are inherent risks with this procedure.

Empty out those hanging baskets from last summer and add some fresh soil.

Set three 4-inch containers of color into them, fertilize, water, hang and enjoy. Easy, simple, beautiful.

In general, plant an odd number of plants for circular containers. Three plants in a 10-inch pot will fill out more evenly than two, and four may be too much. Leave some room in your pots for the plants to grow and fill in naturally. Combine plants of different foliage color, texture, height, and flower shape.

Choose three plants of the same variety or three completely different ones. Try one tall plant with two low growing species to spill over the edge of the pot. For example, a yellow cape daisy planted with two blue lobelia would be stunning. Add one more flower such as white sweet alyssum instead of one of the lobelias and you would have fragrance too.

The addition of fragrant flowers will add another dimension to any planting. Spring favorites include sweet alyssum, nemesia and petunia.

Herbs for fragrance and to use in the kitchen always are great container plants. Some favorites that work well are rosemary, thyme, parsley and chives.

The more you trim, the more you are encouraging new growth on your plants, so don’t hesitate to use.

Don’t be afraid to mix color with herb containers. You might in fact decide to plant some edible flowers with the herbs. Nasturtium is one delicious choice.

Use a light, well drained potting mix, and don’t forget to fertilize. Plants need food too.

Get a head start on spring by getting your containers in shape early. Phil seems to have hit the forecast on the head. Maybe the Weather Channel could hire him full time.

Traci Maier

writes Gardening Miss-Lou Style weekly. E-mail her at ratmaier.bellsouth.net.