Container Gardening For Small Spaces
Container Gardening is simple and not really an art form as some would have you believe. It does not require being the ultimate flower arranger or artist.An attractive container garden and for that matter a garden can be achieved with little or no experience with a little help from gardenersgardening.
The Best way to accumulate Ideas For Containers
It would be easy to say just do it on your own.A little education never hurts and it will put many ideas at your disposal.You can read available information on container
gardening at this site or get a recommended book and plan how your vegetable gardening or your gardening of flowers will look.
A Trip to a Professional Garden With A Camera In Hand
They say a picture is worth a thousand words and it is true. A good digital camera in hand and a pleasant trip to gardens local or far away will assist in your design.These gardens always display container gardening along side soil gardening techniques.At least one such garden will be featured on this site every month entitled garden tours.
Here is a container idea you can grow fresh and delicious produce indoors all year-round with your Aero Garden just click here:
GARDENING IN CONTAINER REQUIRES THE APPROPRIATE CONTAINER
Containers today are available in many sizes,shapes,and materials as you can see in
these pictures.Whatever the material the container is composed of make certain it has an adequate number of holes in the bottom for good drainage. You may need to add more holes by drilling or punching more holes to achieve the desired drainage.You are also
better raising the container off a cement floor or patio floor by one or two inches
to improve the drainage. This can easily be done with blocks of wood or several bricks.
The size of the container is important whether it be container vegetable gardening or
container gardening flowers. In most cases plants that grow in the soil can be raised
in containers as long as sufficient space remains for root development.There are some
shallow rooted plants such as lettuce,peppers,radishes,herbs and other annuals that
require a container to be six inches in diameter with an 8-inch deep soil.Large
5 gallon containers such as a bushel basket,half barrels,and wooden tubs are best suited for growing tomatoes,squash,pole beans,cucumbers,and deep rooted perennials.
Hey Stop here and join our FREE Gardeners Monthly just click on it
Click here to see how seed starting can expedite your container vegetable gardening
THE IMPORTANCE OF PROPER SOIL IN CONTAINER GARDENING
It is not a good container idea to utilize soil straight from the garden.In most cases the soil is too heavy unless your garden has sandy loam or sandy soil.Clay soil produces its worst attributes when put in a container. It holds too much moisture when wet,resulting in too little air for the roots. It also pulls away from the sides of the pot when dry. This web site offers the opportunity for many deep discounted books on gardening.
Synthetic soils are the best for container vegetable gardening.The container medium
must be porous,because roots require both air and water.The potting soil found at
your local garden centers is lightweight and can make a good container soil. It will
especially do well for your container flower garden.However if your dealing with a
large container garden you may want to mix your own. You can do this by mixing
1 bushel each of vermiculite and peat moss,add 10 tablespoons of limestone,5
tablespoons of 0-20-0 superphospate and 1 cup of garden fertilizer such as 6-12-12
or 5-10-10. You have to mix the material well adding a little water to reduce the dust.It will be necessary to thoroughly wet tne mix before seeding or transplanting.
Go to Gurney's Seed&Nursey and see what can be used in your containers
Click Here to see container vegetable gardening
THERE ARE MANY METHODS TO EASE WATERING
There are many watering gadgets available to assist you if time is not on your side.
I have used self watering containers which prove very effective. You can use water
retaining crystals which is simply added to the soil at the time you are filling your
container with potting soil. This substance is excellent for hanging baskets which
tend to dry out rather rapidly. You might want to invest in a long handled spray extension which attaches to your hose. There is also a gadget that raises and lowers
your baskets and looks like a minature pulley system. The crystals can be used as well
with your ground level containers.
THERE ARE MANY FEEDING OPTIONS AVAILIABLE
These two options I feel are the best. A good thing to remember here is that you have
a confined plant which can not spread its roots out across a large area so that the
plant is solely dependent on what you feed it. This seperates using containers from
regular gardeners gardening.A good brand of potting soil will in the beginning provide
your plants with all the essential nutrients but as your plants spread out and grow taller they will require regular feeding.A good liquid fertilizer will resolve this
problem and keep your plant perking along with proper nutrients. All you need to do is
follow the directions on your liquid container for the best results. Check out apartment container gardening for container ideas
Now you say I do not have time for all this attention to proper feeding of my
containers well I have some good news for you. There are slow release pellets that
can be purchased to relieve you of this chore. You insert these pellets at the time
of planting your containers. These pellets will last the entire season,releasing
nutrients when your plants are watered.
You can more information here about getting started with container gardening
One of the other options available is an irrigation system which I am not going to
go into in great detail here. This method ranges from water timers attached to your
hose or tap to a tube system which is disperse through out your containers. The more
elaborate you become the more expensive container gardening can become. Click to review a good lesson in planting flowers in containers
We will be showing you in this section container garden flowering as well as types of
containers that can be used,bulb container gardening and other interesting facts about
container gardening.
return to gardenersgardening from container gardening


|