Container Gardening

(My neighbors lovely containerized yellow hibiscus, flanked by cannas: note that the pot is partly buried to conserve moisture).
(My cukes in a pot, growing up the hardware cloth trellis on my front porch!)
(Potted peppers and herbs)

Container gardening

One easy way to break into gardening is through container gardening. While it has some drawbacks, you can control the conditions in the pot far better than conditions in a garden, plus you have far less area to care for. It is easy to weed a container and to provide water and fertilizer. Some plants might not be hardy in your zone, so you need to take them inside some shelter in the winter. The soil in an area might be poor or overrun with tree roots, but you can container garden on top. Sometimes, pots just look cool. Here are some thoughts:

Container: a common error is to buy a pot that is too small for the plant you have in mind. I am always on the lookout for sales on large pots, ceramic and otherwise, even if I don’t have an immediate need for one. Ceramic pots are by far the prettiest, but they are heavy, harder to move and prone to cracking and breaking. I still prefer them, and take my looses as they come. Plastic is inexpensive, versatile, easier to lift and lasts a long time. There are environmental costs to both kinds of pots. Some novel containers can be used, if they have drainage or are drilled: wash tubs, old wheelbarrows, rope-handled plastic tubs. Large containers are necessary for good root growth and for water retention (the smaller the pot, the more frequent the watering).

Soil: I use a mid-level quality potting soil, though some people prefer to mix their own of equal parts of soil, compost and peat. In general, soil from your yard and garden will not work well in a pot. For example, here in central VA, we have clay soil and containerized plants will not thrive in it. Some gardeners like to work water-absorbing crystals into the soil, but they are pricey and I would only use them for valuable plants.

Filling the pot: Move the pot to its destination before you fill it, esp. with the largest and heaviest pots. Moving a large ceramic pot filled with soil can be back breaking! Before you fill the pot, you can add rocks, broken pot pieces or broken chunks of Styrofoam (the last is lightest) for drainage, though I have gotten away without doing this, as long as the pot has 3 or 4 good drainage holes. Don’t fill it all the way, but fill it to the level of the plant you will put in it, then back fill with soil. Water in well, and add more soil as necessary. Mulch on the top of the soil to conserve water.

Water: pots need more frequent watering than plants in the ground, as they don’t have an extensive root structure to seek out moisture and water reservoir in the soil. When I go away during the growing season for 3 or more days, I hire a teenager to water the pots for me (I have about 50 plants in pots). Don’t let the plant wilt- this is a sign you waited too long to water and the plant can have a set back in growth. You have to let experience be your guide. Some potted veggies I grow (peppers and, this year, a cucumber) need more frequent watering than some herbaceous plants. Putting a saucer under the pot can help with longer-term watering.

Fertilizer: every couple of weeks (less for herbaceous perennials like bay laurel) I make a mixture of fish emulsion and kelp and mix it in the plant water. Some times I use worm water from my vermicomposter (great stuff!) and, though we rarely have it, leftover coffee as fertilizer.

Roots may snake out of the drainage hole in some plants. I had a potted mimosa that died, and the pot cracked right in half, but it became apparent the next year that it had sent down roots. I have a huge mimosa tree now, too close to the house, that will have to come down some day. To prevent this you can suspend the pot on little ceramic pot supports (also good to prevent your deck form being discolored by constant pot drainage) or bricks, so the roots will not survive out of the pot.

Overwintering: one reason to grow plants in pots is because they need overwintering, like my bananas that I keep in my attic from October to April. I overwinter some plants in my unheated garage, some covered in burlap. Over the winter I water them just enough to keep the soil from completely drying out.

Garden Update: Just a few things about the garden…made my first batch of pesto on Saturday- the cookbooks I read were right, it is better when the leaves are young and tender, this year I have several potted basils in various stages of maturity…just a couple of weeks to see if my potato bin, vole deterrence experiment worked…and I harvested 2/3 of my onions and the voles even ate some of those! I have always believed that they would not go for any of the alliums (onions, garlic, leeks) but I was wrong!!! Who’d a thunk it?

Happy gardening!