Container Gardening
Imagine a fairy garden, filled with tender ferns & woodland splendors. How about an orchard on your patio, or salad greens in a windowbox? Container gardening gives everyone the opportunity to enjoy country living - no matter where they are located.
Containers come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes to suit the growth characteristics of almost every plant. Wooden tubs and barrels make a natural setting for strawberry plants. Square boxes are ideal for low, bushy plants such as azaleas. Florentine urns and pedestal vases are ornamental in their own right, and serve best as foils for sculptural plants such as succulents or cacti in the summer.
Logs and tree stumps form attractive natural settings. Bath, sinks, cisterns and even chimney pots can be converted into unusual containers. Just use your imagination, and a wide variety of unlikely objects can be used for container gardening, as long as provision is made for adequate root growth, temperature requirements, and drainage.
Designing a Container Garden:
To achieve the best possible design effect, a tub or pot garden should consist of comparatively few, well-placed containers that blend harmoniously with the architectural surroundings and with the other tubs and pots.
In a grouped arrangement, vary the levels by using different sized containers and plants; or stage containers on bricks or pedestals. You can also arrange pots on stone steps. Combining square or oblong troughs with circular pots will add variety.
Examples of ideal use of container gardens include placing tubbed palms on either side of a bench or doorway, or in the center of a courtyard to create a focal point. Frame an archway or brighten a dull corner with Virginia Creeper. Raising a container on a pedestal will focus attention on an especially rare or beautiful specimen. Used imaginatively, such containers can add great style and elegance to a paved area.
Planting & Care:
- Good drainage is essential, so make sure your container has adequate holes in the bottom.
- Provide a good layer of rocks or stones. If it is not possible to make holes in the bottom, extend the layer of rocks to as high as 1/3 of the pot's depth.
- Raising the container on feet or bricks adis drainage and discourages pests entering the soil. Avoid standing containers directly on grass or soil. If your pot is likely to stain flooring, make sure you provide a drip tray underneath.
- Use a good potting mixture with added peat to retain moisture.
- Feed plants regularly during the growing season, and be sure to repot when the roots get pot-bound. If the plant is too big for repotting, replace the top two inches of soil regularly.
Advantages of Container Gardening:
One of the great advantages of container gardening is that plants can be moved easily, allowing the plants to be rotated, and groupings rearranged to peak perfection. Tender plants can be brought indoors during winter, and large house plants will enjoy some time in the outdoors during summer. To ensure trouble-free maneuvers, mount all but the smallest containers on castors, as even a two foot square container can easily weigh 100 lbs.
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