You don't need to wait until your garden is on tour to plant a garden on the go. Use a wheelbarrow, cart or wagon to hold a collection of seasonal flowers. The flowers can be in pots, or you can plant directly in the cart or wheelbarrow. If you do this, make sure to drill holes so that the soil can drain.

The older and rustier your wheelbarrow is, the better. Mine hasn't quite reached antique status, but it's getting there. I used to use a little red wagon as a portable garden. After about 15 years, there isn't much left of it, so it's been retired. I think I'll ask Santa for a new one. Then I'll leave it out in all kinds of weather to give it a rustic patina. I just think vehicles with a bit of wear and age suit this purpose best.

As for the flowers that will fill my wheelbarrow, I'm going to use bright ones. I might use pots from my patio that are lush and colorful, with flowers such as cannas, coleus and zinnias in them. I'll most likely indulge in some shopping. It's difficult to pass up colorful mums, asters, black-eyed Susans, kale, sedum, grasses, hardy hibiscus, salvias and hummingbird mint that are blooming at nurseries now.

If you leave these plants in their pots when you fill your wheelbarrow or wagon, remember that they'll need daily watering. The light soil they're grown in dries out quickly. If you keep them moist and deadhead spent flowers, your portable garden can stay beautiful throughout the rest of the season.

Plants featured in this segment are courtesy of Tagawa Garden.

Visiting Rob's Garden

The Garden Conservancy's Denver Area Open Day is Saturday, Sept. 12. Five special metro-area gardens have been selected for this tour. The gardens are open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. You may visit one or all of them. Just show up at the garden of your choice. Admission is $5 for one garden, or $20 to visit all five gardens.

Tatroe's Godwottery
17156 East Berry Place
Centennial

Dan Johnson Garden
2819 South Sherman Street
Englewood

Menter Garden
4 Red Fox Lane
Greenwood Village

Weckbaugh Garden
2250 South Monroe Street
Greenwood Village

Rob Proctor & David Macke Garden
3030 West 46th Avenue
Denver

For more information or directions, visit The Garden Conservancy's Web site, www.opendaysprogram.org.