Container Gardening: Four Rules to Success
Container gardening is fun and easy. Whether you are adding colorful accents to your home or growing an entire vegetable garden in pots, container gardening offers both pleasure and versatility. Follow these rules for great container gardens and then discover out your container garden personality".
The Rules:
- Use the right size pot for the job. Don't squeeze too much into one pot - a large clay pot (12 inches in diameter) is ideal for three to four plants, giving them room to grow with room for their roots to spread.
- Use a potting mix that contains fertilizer. This will feed your plants for a few weeks, but be prepared to give them a boost of fertilizer in about 30 days (read the potting soil package). If you use potting soil without fertilizer, you will need to fertilize about once a week.
- Water often - if the first two inches of soil are dry to the touch, it's time to give your plants a drink. Containers in the sun will likely need watering every day.
- Create a balanced look. Choose your main plant, and then add vertical accent and trailing plants. Some flowers, such as trailing petunias, can serve as both the trailing and main plant. In this case, just add something tall, such as a Dracaena spike or ornamental grass.
What's Your Container Garden Personality?
The Traditionalist: It's about balanced beauty.
You like a neat and tailored look. Clay pots in various sizes are a perfect choice. You place them uniformly - a large pot on either side of the doorway, for example, or a row of pots marching up the stairs leading to your door. When you plant, you don't want surprises. You may even plant the same flowers each summer because you know they work well for you. Classic combinations are favorites, such as red or pink geraniums paired with greenery and perhaps a white accent flower.
Eclectic: You express your artistic side.
Variety is fun, fun, fun. You love to mix and match annuals for exciting bursts of color in unexpected places. You're not afraid to try plants you haven't used before to create special effects in every outdoor nook and cranny. The pots you choose can range from clay (probably hand decorated for a unique look) to an antique watering can or unusual pot you found at a flea market or art festival. It's all about letting your imagination play.
The Scientist: If it grows, try it in a pot.
You love to experiment with purpose. Why not grow pole beans in pots and let them climb the porch railing? Why not drill drainage holes in the bottoms of large metal buckets and grow an Italian kitchen garden right outside your back door? Nothing is off limits. And you probably will take notes on what works and what doesn't to advance your container gardening skills each year.
