Step 1 – Choose Your Veggies (Note: Use this guide to grow herbs, strawberries and flowers in your container garden too.)

What do you want to grow in your container veggie garden? The only rule is to choose vegetables that you actually like to eat – it’s one of the benefits of being a grown-up. There are many varieties of vegetables that have been developed especially for container gardening. Look for descriptive words like “bush,” “compact” or “dwarf” when buying vegetable seeds or transplants (small plants ready to put directly into the garden). It’s fun to start seeds indoors yourself (or in a mini greenhouse) about 8 weeks before it is expected to be warm enough to transplant them outside into your containers.

Tip: Plan to plant an extra pot or two of veggies to share with your friends.

Step 2 – Choose Your Veggie Planters

Gardening in containers is easy (you don’t need a PhD from a horticulture university to be successful – all you need is a little basic knowledge) but one of the most important factors in your gardening success is choosing appropriate garden planters. Nearly all vegetables and herbs will do well in a 5-gallon pot (12″ diameter and 12″ depth) but plants with shallow roots, like salad greens, will grow well in 6-8 inches of depth.

Use light colored pots for veggies that prefer cool temperatures (like lettuce and cabbage) and dark colored planters for heat loving plants (like tomatoes). For tall growing plants, choose pots made of heavy material like terracotta or add a layer of clean sand to the bottom of the planter for added weight and planter support.

Choose colors and styles of planters that compliment your house and yard. There is a large selection of beautiful garden planters available to suit any taste and budget. Consider self-watering garden planters for extra convenience and a sure water supply for thirsty plants on hot summer days. Some plants will do best if supported by a trellis or stake attached to the garden planter.

Tip: Share the fun and help a friend get started in veggie gardening.

Step 3 – Add Soil to Your Containers

The soil for vegetables that are grown in containers must be lightweight, loose, and hold moisture well. Regular soil is too heavy, compacts easily and should never be used in planters. It is important to choose a “soil-less” soil mix developed specifically for gardening in containers. These soils are various mixtures of vermiculite, perlite, peat moss and other nutrients.

The soil can be reused the following year by adding special soil boosters that replenish lost nutrients that vegetables require. Another benefit of using lightweight soil is that your planters will be easy to move around – one of the main advantages of container gardening is its portability.

Now for the fun part. The next step in our container gardening guide is…

Step 4 – Plant Your Veggie Garden

Follow the directions on the seed package to determine the best time for planting in your area based on your gardening hardiness zone. Use a zone finder tool to determine your zone by zip code and be sure to make a note of your zone number.

Many gardeners will sow seeds directly into garden planters for quick growing veggies like greens, but purchase transplants for longer maturing vegetables like tomatoes. After planting your seeds, spray soil lightly with a mister and cover pot with plastic wrap to retain moisture and warmth. Keep the soil moist at all times. When the seeds sprout, remove the plastic cover but continue to water very gently – remember they are baby veggies and need loving care.

Other information about the plant’s requirements (spacing, etc..) can be found on the seed package. Try to give each plant the conditions that they prefer. This is easy to do with container gardening – you control all of the environmental factors (soil, sun, water etc…).

Tip: Remember to add your favorite herbs, small fruits (like strawberries) and flowers (nasturtiums and dwarf marigolds are nice) to your veggie planters.

Bonus tip: Plant salad greens around the base of your tomato plant. By the time the tomato plant in the center needs the space you will have harvested the greens.

Step 5 – Fertilize and Water Veggies

Your veggies need to be watered daily and fertilized on a regular basis. Fertilizer is the key to abundant produce and healthy plants. Fertilizer replenishes the nutrients that plants need and that are washed away every time you water your containers. For best results look for complete organic fertilizers that are recommended especially for container gardening and fertilize according to the package directions.

Avoid using liquid fish emulsion fertilizer – cats and raccoons love the smell. (A special note about herbs: Herbs need less fertilizer than vegetables. So after the initial planting, you will not need to add fertilizer again.)

Watering must be done daily and more often on extremely hot summer days when the planter soil is likely to dry out quickly. Be sure you have free flowing drainage holes in your garden planter. Elevate veggie planters on bricks or wood to allow drainage and to protect surfaces. Consider watering aids and time-savers like self-watering planters, water-holding crystals that are added to the soil mix, and drip-irrigation systems designed especially for gardening in containers.

Tip: Put a layer of peat moss on top of the soil in each planter to help retain moisture.

Step 6 – Give Your Veggies Sunshine

Most vegetables require 6 hours of sunlight daily. Leafy vegetables like lettuce will do fine with somewhat less light. If necessary, putting planters on casters makes it easy to move your plants from areas of limited light to more sunny areas. Group pots of heat-loving veggies together in the warmest spot on your patio and cluster vegetables that prefer cooler temperatures in areas that are sheltered from the hot afternoon sun.

Garden design is a great opportunity to create a garden that is productive, creates useful extensions of your living space and is pleasing to look at. A potting bench can even be used as an outdoor buffet for family dining on the patio or deck.

Tip: Get your kids involved in gardening. Even kids that don’t like veggies will eat the baby carrots they grew themselves.

Step 7 – A Daily Gardening Schedule

Your new vegetable garden is very low maintenance requiring few supplies or tools, but you will need to water daily, fertilize regularly and be sure to harvest your veggies and berries as they ripen (the fruit of your labor). Herbs can be snipped and used as needed, either fresh or dried.

Most important of all, is to enjoy the time you spend in your garden – getting your hands in the soil and working with nature is relaxing and also provides a satisfying sense of accomplishment.

Tip: An attractive planter of salad greens or herbs makes a healthy and thoughtful gift.

It’s that easy. You’ll soon discover that there is nothing like the taste of fresh, just-picked vegetables from your own thriving container garden.

Having researched the needs of the plants and found out what sorts will be suitable for the space, you can next decide on a “palette” of colors. This does not just have to be about how their colors fit in with their surroundings. You can use the color of the plants for other more subtle effects. For instance, a container full of blue and mauve plants will seem to recede from the viewer, giving a sense of distance. Put such a container at the far edge of a patio and the patio will seem to be larger. Again, if you put a garden container full of blue flowers at the end wall of a small town garden, it will make the garden seem longer.

Bright red and orange flowers will have the opposite effect and appear to shorten the distance between the garden container and the viewer. If you place blue flowers behind red flowers in the same container, they will contrast and make the red flowers clearly stand out. If you put the red flowers behind the blue flowers they will appear to clash horribly. Remember though, that there are no hard and fast rules in art and garden design, but you cannot break the rules unless you know them. Experiment for yourself, after all rules are made to be broken!

So, to use these secrets of container gardening practically, you can fill a space, like a patio, with garden containers full of red plants to the front and garden containers full of blue, mauve and lilac towards the back. When viewed from the front, say framed by a window, the space will appear more grand and bigger than it really is.

For the general planting design of a classical garden container, you should make sure that the tallest growing plants are placed towards the back. Next, you should select a pair of the same or similar looking plants. One of these should be planted at both ends of the tall row, slightly forward of it. In front of the tall row and in the middle of the container, you should plant your special feature plant. This is the central feature of the container, the one that gives the wow! factor.

Either side of this, you should place a pair of complementary plants as fillers. You must make sure that they do not detract from your feature plant. Remember if you have more than one feature plant, you are blessed, and rather than place them all together in one container, make up some more containers. Lastly in front of all the plants in the garden container, plant some small flowers that hang over slightly and flow over the edges of the container to soften it’s edges.

If you are unsure of what color blooms and foliage to use, then take a leaf out of the artists book and find out about “color wheels”. Basically, you should think of a rainbow and the way the that the colors are placed. The colors that are next to each other are called “complimentary” colors. The colors from either side of the rainbow are called “contrasting” colors. Use complimentary colors to make the eye gently flow over the container. Using contrasting colors to distract and make the eye stop and stare.

There are no hard and fast rules in designing a container. Try looking at as many of them as you can in books or flower shows. Decide which ones you think work and which ones do not. Take a camera with you to visit gardens and make notes. Do not be scared to talk to the gardeners, if you can. Most will be only to willing to share with you their container gardening secrets and tell you about the flowers they have used. Do not slavishly follow others though. Use this information only as a starting point and learn to express yourself, your ideas, your sense of beauty. Eventually, you will develop your own style and vision.

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Types of garden planter

There are an ever increasing number of different types of container you can buy, with materials and designs to suit every climate and different tastes. Pots and tubs are probably the most popular type of planter available. They are for the most part versatile and easily moved to different positions in the garden. Pots and tubs come in an enormous variety of sizes and designs, both traditional and modern. Materials vary from moss covered terracotta and artificially aged stone planters, to reused car tires and fiber glass. There are no rules when it comes to choosing a type of container and there is no reason why you can’t combine traditional with modern. Just be aware that your designs and materials complement each other in some way.

Pots and tubs are equally as versatile when it comes to planting. You can grow almost anything you like in a container. Formally clipped box and other evergreens look stunning as focal points, as do specimen standard plants such as bay trees or photinias. Group a number of planters of different sizes together with a plant type such as herbs. A particularly stunning planter can be filled with seasonal annuals for an all year round display.

Window boxes are another great way to grow plants and enhance the appearance of your house and garden. Window boxes are particularly useful if you have a tiny garden or even if you have no garden at all! You can buy ready- made window boxes, have them made bespoke to your requirements or simply make your own. Window boxes don’t have to be made of wood. I have seen some beautifully aged metal ones as well as reconstituted stone ground-level boxes. Grow seasonal displays or plant up a box outside your kitchen window with herbs or easy to grow edibles like lettuce.

Hanging baskets are probably the most versatile of all containers. They can be hung on walls, fences and even in trees. Not only can your display be changed from season to season, but you can also grow edible plants such as tumbling tomatoes and strawberries and even a selection of herbs, hung near your kitchen door. Hanging baskets also come in a variety of shapes and sizes. More traditionally made from wicker, but I have seen some great modern alternatives made from brightly colored plastics.

Troughs and sinks can be used to create mini container gardens in one place. Although strictly speaking you can grow anything you like in a trough shaped planter, the lack of depth makes them more suited to growing alpines and herbs. Stone troughs probably look the best in any garden but why not also think about getting hold of an old Belfast sink which looks particularly effective when planted with herbs under a kitchen window.

Another type of container not readily thought about is the raised bed. Raised beds are a great way of growing both vegetables and garden plants. They are easy to maintain and therefore popular with gardeners with impaired mobility. They are also an easy way of adding structure to an otherwise flat garden space, lifting plants higher up and creating the illusion of different levels to a garden.

Some planting rules

If you are going to maintain a healthy container garden, there are a few rules you will need to follow whatever type of planter. Drainage is all important for container grown plants. Make sure your container has adequate drainage holes and always add some broken pot or crocks to the bottom of the planter to aid drainage. If your container is to be placed on a hard surface, sit it on some feet to raise it above ground level slightly. Use the right type of compost. Try not to overcrowd your container, most plants will need plenty of room to spread their roots and grow into healthy specimens. Conversely, don’t let your plants become pot-bound. Although there are a few plants which do well in these conditions, as a rule, either divide you plant or re-pot it into a larger container.

In extremely cold weather both your containers and their plants will need some protection. For those that are not frost hardy it is probably best to over winter them into a cold greenhouse. Others can be wrapped in straw or fleece to protect them from frost.

Perhaps the most important consideration of all for container grown plants is water. During dry weather in the summer months you will have to make sure your pots are well watered. Materials like terracotta dry out quickly as the clay absorbs water, so you will often find yourself having to water at least twice a day. Early morning and evening is best. During the winter water container plants sparingly. Waterlogged containers easily freeze killing the roots of the plants in them.

I am a firm believer that a garden reflects some of the personality of the gardener who tends it. Garden planters are a great way of putting your stamp on a garden, particularly if you are a little bit quirky! I have seen old wooden boats used as planters, odd worn out walking boots, pan tiles, antique wash tubs, old car tyres and even a disused toilet!

Garden Planters source unusual outdoor and indoor planters, and other garden related gifts – whatever your taste, be it traditional, modern or just a bit quirky, we will have something for you. Run by two qualified and creative gardeners, Garden Planters will also plant up your chosen planter with an arrangement of your choice. We believe garden planters are an integral part of any garden – they enhance the overall design and say a little something about the person to whom the garden belongs.

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