We Can All Garden With Containers

Watex Metal

Mobile Green

Wall –

Single Frame

Container gardening is fantastic. By itself, a terracotta pot is merely a container and summertime bedding is merely some plant life. However, selectively plant the summertime bedding in the box, add a few sprinkles of green-fingered expertise and you have created a small garden-scape. You are effectively planting a garden in miniature. This is considered by some individuals to be container design planting. The constructive growing and maintaining of containers allows people who may just have a balcony to enjoy a taste of garden; containerised planting also brings the garden within the reach of a handicapped person's garden tools.

Cleaning containers

To assist you in the creation of thriving container plantings for the summer, please consider the following. If perhaps you intend replanting any containers you should get rid of all remnants of compost from the previous year. Be careful in your washing as particles of previous year's compost can harbour unwanted pests, diseases and mould spores. To assure a clean environment for growing, wash the heavier covering of old compost off with a hose. Follow this by plunging the containers into water containing a garden disinfectant such as 'Jeyes fluid'. Scrub off any stubborn compost with a scrubbing brush, do this whilst in the medical disinfectant. Rinse the containers well under running water and leave them to dry out. Use this method on window boxes as well, particularly if you have a build up of old compost and your planting tends to complete flowering far too early on.

Container drainage

Examine your container for enough drainage holes. If you have too few or no drainage holes at all then your plants may suffer from oxygen starvation due to excessive water. To prevent draining points becoming blocked with compost, I would recommend inserting a layer of broken terracotta or polystyrene bedding plant trays above the drainage holes. In truth, broken polystyrene bedding flower trays can be used to fill the main body of larger containers; this will reduce the amount of potting compost needed.

Container Gardening:

250 Design Ideas

& Step-by-Step Techniques

Compost level

Fill your container with a quality peat or loam-based fragment and firm lightly. Make sure this compost stops at least 1 inch below the lip of the container; this will probably be your watering space.

Planting

Hours before planting, plunge the plants in a bucket of water and thoroughly saturate them. Watering like this will prevent shock after replanting and will also help merge the plants existing compost to the new container compost. Place the plants on top of the container to get an impression of how the final planting could look like, it is better to alter positions at this point rather than at the mucky post planting level.

Centre and adjacent planting

Aim to grow from the centre of the container outwards. Make a central or counter central hole big enough for the rootball of the central plant. Cases of good central plant life would be a Cordyline or Phormium. Remove the pot (believe me, a lot of people forget this) and then position the plant into the gap firming the compost around it. Then, settle the rest of the plants in similar planting style around the edges. Every plant should be planted at the same depth as they were in their original containers.

Make sure the containers compost stops at least 1" under the lip of the container; this is to allow a space for watering. Level the top of compost with your hand and water thoroughly until water starts to flow from the pots base. Leave the pot to sit for around one hour, if after that hour some of the compost has settled then you can top it up. Wooden and unglazed terracotta containers usually require much more water because of their porous and absorbent nature. I actually suggest you apply a mulch of mini-chip bark or gravel to the composts surface, as well as being decorative this will lessen the pots loss of water through evaporation.

Get more information at The Garden Lover's main site.