Category — Container gardening shade

Learn How to Care for a Container Garden

Now that you have planted your flowers, foliage, or vegetables in their containers, you need to know how to care for them. Just like your outside garden, container gardens require nurturing to keep the plants productive and healthy.

One of the challenges of container gardening is the fact that a pot is an unnatural place for flowers and vegetables to grow. Soil dries out faster and roots can become cramped.

Also, the containers themselves are prone to drainage and decay problems. In addition, they need to be tended more often because they are so visible on your patio or deck. Plants that are not maintained properly can get pretty ugly.

On the plus side, many containers can be moved easily, allowing you to protect plants in poor weather and to move them into sun or shade as necessary.

Also, because they are well contained, managing the container plants is not an overwhelming task, nor does it require a great deal of time. If a plant should die, it’s a simple matter to replace it.

Here are a few things to think about when caring for your container garden:

Watering

Watering is one of the most important aspects of plant care. Without water, plants will not live produce flowers, vegetables or herbs. In an outside garden, plants can extend their roots to find the moisture they need when the soil next to them runs dry. This is not possible, however, in containers.

For this reason, any plant in a pot requires more regular watering than one planted in an outside garden the general rule for almost all plant varieties, whether inside or outside, is to keep the soil moist but not soggy during the growing season.

If your plant has wilted leaves or flowers, it is probably stressed from lack of water. A container with a dry plant will weigh less than anyone that is properly watered.

Fertilizing

When a container plant runs out of food, it has nowhere to go to replenish it. Even if you buy potting mixes that contain nutrients, the plant will use them up within a month or so. Some of it is taken up by the roots and some is lost through drainage.

The solution is to mix in some fertilizer twice a month with your watering, or to periodically add compost as a top dressing. The nutrient most necessary to plants is nitrogen. it helps the development of leaves and its growth.

Nitrogen deficiency shows itself by turning the leaves a pale shade of green or yellow. Too much nitrogen can delay a plant’s bloom or crop.

The other nutrients that plants need are potassium, for hardiness and color, and phosphorus, for root formation. Nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus are available in complete fertilizer form or as separate ingredients that you can mix yourself.

When you apply fertilizer, make sure that the soil is moist by watering beforehand. This will help to prevent chemical burns.

Pruning

Most plants will require some pruning, especially those grown in containers. Some people may be afraid to prune their plants for fear of killing them. However, if a mistake is made in pruning, it will not usually kill the plant.

Pruning includes the removal of dead or dying stems or branches so that the strongest can survive. Sometimes, trimming also means clipping flowers, normally only toward the end of their bloom. This is called deadheading.

Controlling Pests

Pests are just as apt to visit container gardens as an outside garden. It is fortunate that pests are easier to control on plants that are planted in pots.

The key to pest control starts with the plans that you select and the soil that you use. Some plants have a natural resistance to pests.

Do not use soil that has been used before unless it has been sterilized. Better yet, purchase new soil for new plantings.

Inspect plants periodically to check for bugs and larvae. Sometimes all you need to do is pick them off your plant leaves. Other times, they will require chemical or natural insecticides.

Diseases

Usually by the time you know that a plant is diseased, too much damage has been done to it to save it. These plants should be quarantined or removed. Signs of disease include rust colored leaves or spots on the plants.

Container gardens are less likely to become diseased than those plants that are planted in a regular garden. And, if they should become diseased, it is easier to isolate them from the rest of the garden.

Caring for your container garden is not a difficult task if you use common sense. The main thing to remember is that container gardens will dry out much faster than a regular garden. That is the most common reason that plants do not grow or produce as expected.

Tinkering Through the Tulips: Container Gardening Can Beautify Any Space

When you think about gardens, what comes to mind? Lush, green lawns? Vibrant flowerbeds bursting with a kaleidoscope of color? Or maybe exotic plants for as far as the eye can see? Once upon a time, those things were some of the only characteristics of a garden. To have a garden, you had to have land to spare. But not anymore. These days, even if you live in an apartment you can have a garden. Container gardening lets you enjoy all the benefits without needing the space.

Whether you choose to grow flowers, herbs or vegetables, you can be successful at container gardening. If you follow these tips, you’ll be enjoying all the benefits of a garden in no time, no matter where you live.

Tip 1: Not just any container will do

Experienced green thumbs will tell you that a garden can be grown in any container. Although that may be technically true, some containers will offer more chances for success, particularly if your thumb is of another shade. Inexpensive plastic may be a natural go-to for those who don’t want to break the budget on their gardens, but those containers can deteriorate easily in the sun, and they are not built to last. However, if you are looking for something temporary and lightweight, this can be good option. Terracotta pots are more durable but will require you to water the plants in them more frequently, as terracotta dries out much more easily than other materials.

You may want to get creative and use something unconventional, like a teapot, to plant a small container garden. This is a great idea, as long as you remember to ensure it has a drainage hole in the bottom. If your chosen container doesn’t already have a hole in it, you can always drill one.

Tip 2: Cleanliness is next to godliness

Before you get up to your elbows in potting soil, it’s important to sterilize the container in which you will plant your garden. This is particularly important if you have purchased second-hand planting containers; the plants that grew there previously may have had a disease that can affect your plants, too. All you need is an environmentally sound, all-purpose cleaner; just rinse and pat dry before planting.

Tip 3: Plan, then plant

Much like traditional gardening, the placement of container gardens will depend on what you plant. Do your research! Some plants will require full sun, others partial shade, and still more might flourish in just about any conditions. The good news is this: unlike traditional gardening, if you find that your container garden isn’t flourishing in the chosen spot, you can pick it up and move it!

Knowing this ahead of time can do more than help you determine where you will place each container. You also can roadmap where you will place each plant within each container. For example, you wouldn’t want to plant tall-growing plants around the edge of a container with shorter ones in the middle. Similarly, plants that trail over the side of the container should be planted, obviously, on the perimeter of the container.

Tip 4: When in doubt, fertilize!

Plants love to be healthy. If you want to get full and beautiful flowers out of your container garden, it’s imperative that you keep up the soil’s nutrient levels. To do that, you’ll need to fertilize – a lot. It wouldn’t hurt to fertilize every time you water. If you are growing vegetables, manure tea is an effective fertilizer, even though it doesn’t sound very appealing. Manure tea is essentially water extracted from manure, with soluble nutrients. It increases the organic content of the soil, which, in turn, improves drainage and helps the soil hold on to the nutrients.

Tip 5: You can lead a plant to water

Container plants need to be watered more often than a standard garden, particularly during extreme heat and dryness. Watering container plants is a daily affair. Keep adding water until you see some spill out through the drainage holes in the pot. Then stop! Go any further and you’ll be in soggy soil territory. If you aren’t the type to dedicate some time each day to watering, consider getting a self-watering device. These contraptions have a reservoir at the bottom that keeps your plants hydrated for a few days at a time.

Container gardening can afford you the chance to have a beautiful garden without a lot of space. And your thumb can be a little less than green. With a little bit of time and planning, container gardening could be just the form of expression your thumbs having been craving – no matter what color they may be.

Container Gardening For Those On A budget

Like any other hobby, container gardening can be as cheap or expensive as you want it to be and during times of financial hardships could be a good alternative for those on a budget. For those who like to get their hands dirty but don’t want to spend a fortune, container gardening is the best option.

Container gardening can be enjoyed by everyone no matter how old you are, no matter how much you know about gardening or whether or not you have a garden or just a window box to cultivate.

This sort of gardening has become a very fashionable American hobby, for some even a passion. As they are not only easy to manage but also they create excitement in your garden decor. They can also create a natural sanctuary in a busy city street, along rooftops or on balconies.

With just a few container gardening tips you can have great success both enjoying a most pleasurable pastime and reaping great rewards with little effort.

The main focus of any container gardening at first is choosing the type of container to use. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and practically anything can be used including, tubs, buckets, old sinks, shoes, and even barrels cut in half.

When beginning to plant up garden containers and gardening pots make sure your soil is perfect for the plants you choose to grow. Remember to use a soil based compost when planting into containers and to keep your containers from accumulating moisture in the bottom, drill at least one hole. Once the container is set up, maintenance is the next important step in container gardening. Remember that a box garden, or container garden, may need more water than a garden, as they can dry out very quickly especially in direct sunlight or on hot days.

Container gardening makes it possible to position your plants in areas where they can receive the best possible growing conditions. Again check what sort of conditions your plants like the most; some prefer shade whereas other thrive in direct sunlight.

There are so many different plants suitable for container gardening that I would need a complete book to name them all. But herb growing is a favourite amongst container gardeners as it not only provides an attractive display but also delicious food to eat. Smaller containers are ideal for cultivating herb container gardens. Some suggests for your container herb garden are

Chives – Like moist, rich soil and plenty of sun
Basil – Likes moist soil and grows quickly and easily in warm soil.
Thyme – Likes warm and fairly dry soil.
Mint – Likes moist soil and shade.

You could use a very big container for a several different herbs or choose individual pots to plant herbs separately. 

Some strawberry varieties can also be grown inside and if planted in a pot with small holes evenly distributed over the pot, can make a dramatic container gardening flower visual. If you are growing strawberries inside remember that your containers will need a reservoir tray, as they like to be well watered. 

Container gardens can also be given as great and inexpensive gifts to family and friends. Decorate your own container and grow them some herbs or plant a few vegetables for them. It not only makes an inexpensive gift but is a rather novel idea, one which will surprise and delight your friends. You could even make up a small attractive basket or box of gardening items, such as gardening gloves, kneepads or even a shady hat, all available from dollar and pound shops.

Container gardening is a very versatile, fun, easy way to get into gardening and growing your own food, especially for those on a budget.

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Ideas On How To Use Container Gardening To Decorate Your House And Garden

Nearly every house and garden presents numerous attractive settings for container plants. Suburban gardens, estates, little city backyards, and summer cottages—all can be heightened by this type of gardening. A few of the seemingly continual possibilities admit entranceways, steps, courtyards, walls, rooftops, balconies, patios, breezeways, lawns, driveways, walks, sundecks, windowsills, porches, summer houses, even tree stumps can be utilised

Let us start with the entrance, a focal point for every house. A uncomplicated arrangement consists of akin container plants at each side of the doorway. If the house is colloquial, enamelled tubs will make a beaming note, while urns or ornamental pots are more apropos if the architecture is conventional. The arrangement, however, necessitate not be balanced, since a single container at either side, particularly if the doorway is off-center, is admirable. A ample specimen can be equilibrated by an aggrouping of little pots, and individual other absorbing combinations can be worked out. Sometimes, the front entranceway can meabound up as an alfresco place for house plants, but be bound they are not unwrapped to alcoholic sun and wind

Unexpected areas like side and rear entrances can also serve as backgrounds for pot plants in casual groupings. For cheerful steps, consider tubs of petunias, or dwarf dahlias, or boxes of herbs to be utilized in fudging. Tuberous begonias, fuchsias, patient Lucy, and musky nicotiana work out the problem of what to mature in shade

Porches or verandas, traditional or contemporary in style, offer numerous settings for pots, window boxes, and hanging baskets. Indeed, the smooth container garden can be centred there so that plants can be easily gave care for. If the porch is opened on three sides, it will yield exposures to suit a variety of specimens

The patio or terrace, beside or beyond the house, where family and friends gather to eat or relax, is an ideal location. If it is conventional, pick out nipped evergreens and set up pots in balanced rows, perhaps run along up against the house or along the edge of the terrace. If the site is colloquial, make careless groupings of one or two full-length plants with smaller ones in front. Either way, let for a few ample plants in tubs or boxes for accent and height

Container plants may line walks and paths that lead to the house, garage, or garden. They can rest on enamelled areas along fences and walls and on driveways where they are not in the way. If the driveway adjoins the foundation of the house, plant containers may be placed there

Tops of garden or terrace walls are ideal places, too. Put little pots and boxes on full-length, bare walls and ample containers on humble, beamy surfaces. Hanging plants of ivy geraniums in the sun and fuchsias in the shade will cascade down from walls, as they do in the patios of Spain, Portugal, and Italy. On Rhodes, I retrieve a fifteen-foot wall exceeded with a row of thirty glittering chromatic tin cans afloat of roses and other flowers

Think of what you can do with rooftops and sundecks where considerable space is usually available. Here sun-loving plants, like geraniums, most annuals, cacti, and succulents can be matured, but, again, admit ample specimens for height to give a garden feeling. A few large boxes and planters for trees and shrubs are adequate but be bound to include some everchromatics for year-round chromatic

Many gardeners like to insert container plants in flower borders to introduce unusual specimens, such as tropicals in the North. Large tubs can be set at the corners and small pots may be scattered among the permanent flowering plants. One gardener keeps a supply of potted chromatic Fiat Enchantress geraniums on hand to fill up naked spots in her ample borders, traveling them about as necessitated. Most of the geraniums are in four-inch clay pots, but there are larger specimens for the center of each aggrouping. Make bound their procure, sink pots a few inches into the ground

You can always dress up the lamp post in your yard with container plants at the base or you can suspend a hanging basket of lantana, perhaps from the top. Ivy geraniums in an old-fashioned dark kettle are discriminating for the base. Bare posts that support sectional roofs over patios or enamelled surfaces of synchronal houses appear more bewitching if potted plants are constellated around the bases or abiding boxes for plants are constructed there. Try implanting climb uping up ivy in a pot and train it to climb up the posts

Novelty containers—donkey carts, wheelbarrows, and spinning wheels—can be fun in some places, but, of course, such planters must not be overdone. Usually they are set on lawns, on a terrace or beside a gate or doorway. (If you life in a neighborhood that has a house owners association check up on with them first to see if this is let). Steps leading to a driveway or street or to antithetic levels in a garden can be stressed with pot plants. A few can be set up at the top or at the base of the stairs. And, there are other possibilities. Tree trunks reduce to the ground or gone forth a few feet eminent make acceptable pedestals for ample containers. In fact, this can be a solution to the problem of what to do with a trunk too big-ticket to take away. If you have a tree with dense shade, why not reconstruct a pretty sitting down area around it and grace the space with containers of coleus, wax and other begonias, caladiums, ferns and other shade-tolerant plants

These are just a few ideas for using container plants around your house and garden. Use your imagination and have fun. Happy Gardening!

Copyright © 2006 Mary Hanna All Rights Reserved

The design secrets of choosing plants for container gardening

The secret of choosing the right plants for container gardening depends entirely on the needs of the plant and so the first and most important consideration should be where the container is finally going to be placed.

The conditions where the container is going to be finally placed, will decide what sort of plants you can use. There is no point in mixing shade loving plants with those that only thrive in strong sunlight. One of the biggest mistakes would be container gardeners make is to mix plants without consideration for those plants individual needs, likes and dislikes. The greatest secret to successful container gardening, is that you cannot just use plants in a container that look good together, they must also be happy where you put them.

Is the spot sunny or shady? You should do a bit of research first, but a good tip when choosing plants that like strong sunlight, is to look for those ones that have a silver or bluish colour to their leaves. These plants have developed these silvery leaves to deflect the sun’s rays away. In this way, the plant attempts to stop itself loosing to much water from evaporation, in the heat of the day.

You can also use other plants in strong sunlight like Sedum, which have thick fleshy leaves which are used by the plant to store moisture. Then there are also sun tolerant plants like Rosemary or Lavender that have needle shaped leaves. Most Mediterranean herbs will grow well in strong sunlight and this has the added benefit for the kitchen, in that it also encourages them to produce stronger oils and flavour.

If the container is to be placed in a shady spot, you must only use plants that will tolerate the lower levels of light. Here you can use plants such as Bergenias, Hostas, Heucheras, Tiarellas and Pulmonaria. These will thrive in shady conditions and brighten up any area.

Having decided which plants to use based on their preference of light conditions, you must also consider which ones like dry conditions, when it comes to the soil in the container and which ones prefer their feet to be a little wet. The constant watering that the containers need in high summer, unless you use self watering containers, will benefit some plants more than others

Moist loving plants will not thrive standing in water like bog plants, especially in winter and as a rule all containers need good drainage. However you must make sure that any container with moisture loving plants does not dry out. This will mean watering at least 4 times a day in high summer, again unless you are using a self watering container.

Moisture loving plants are for the most part herbaceous, a type of plant that contains both some lovely examples of contrasting foliage and some wonderful blooms. They are often used as a focal point in a garden design, with their great architectural shapes. Although many are to big to share a container, like the massive Gunneras, there are smaller varieties suitable for gardening containers. These can include those pretty Polygonatum’s, delicate Primulas and bright marsh marigolds.

There are small varieties of Irises for instance, that love moist but well drained conditions but do prefer to grow in a lime free soil which brings us on to the next point. You must decide if your plant needs acid soil or not. This will also depend on what soil you have available to fill your containers, although you can make it more acidic by adding in some peat, used coffee grounds or fallen pine needles or by adding lime you will go some way to balancing out an acid soil. Rhododendrons love acid soil but plants like saxifrages will need a more alkaline growing medium.

The size of the container will also have an effect on the plants you choose. You container must be big enough to accommodate the plants as they grow. You do not want to use plants that will grow so quickly they become root bound or cramp out their neighbours.

These are the four major decisions to be made in choosing plants for containers, without the added consideration of design. Just like an artist, who must choose what materials they wish to use, watercolours and oils or acrylics, before painting a picture and who will then adapt their techniques and design accordingly. The container gardener must first decide what plants to use based on their needs and preferences to end up with a thriving and successful container. Then and only then, comes the consideration of colour and overall design.

So, by putting first and sorting out the preferences of the plants, with relation to where the container will finally be placed, you will now have the choice of materials for your design.

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