For pleasure or practical crop production at home
Is it worth designing a container garden? Is it a green thing to do? What are the benefits of designing a container garden for your home?
This page gives details of tips and techniques of container gardening from a green living perspective.
If you want to grow things but you haven't much space or if you have a paved area or a flat roof which you want to green up, a container garden may just be the answer. You can create a wonderful display of flowers and ornamental plants.
Container gardens are also great if you want to grow a supply of herbs or small vegetables close to the kitchen door. This can be a great way of contributing to your green living plan. You can even reduce your food miles if you grow a few successful container crops.
Picture, above: Pelargoniums (geraniums) in planters So first, what do we mean by a container garden exactly? What counts as a container garden?
Designing a container garden:
What is a container garden?
A container garden is quite simple, really.
A container garden is just a group of containers or planters, usually of different sizes, potted with a variety of plants such as flowers, herbs and even fruit.
The trick is to develop an integrated look so that your group of containers appears a bit like a proper garden! This is quite possible to achieve once your plants are established and well-grown. You need to have enough of them and to group plants effectively together.
What kind of containers do you need?
The choice of containers is endless.
Designing a container garden can involve the use of recycled items such as old chimney pots or wheelbarrows that have finished their useful life.
You can make your own purpose-built containers, or you can buy plastic, wood or metal ones in a huge variety of styles, shapes and colours.
For a vegetable and herb container garden you can use mainly recycled tubs and boxes, so your container garden does not need to be expensive.
Designing a container garden:
What can you grow in a container garden?
Practically anything! But the plants chosen have to be well adapted to life in a container.
Designing a container garden that's easy to run, it's best to avoid larger and hungrier plants.
Many common vegetables can be grown in containers. If you dont have a garden or backyard that is big enough for growing rows and rows of veg, containers can be a good way to grow some useful green crops. Home made planters made from recycled household objects can be quite good for this kind of container garden.
You can also grow bedding plants in containers and if you are good at keeping up with watering and feeding your plants, you can grow small trees and shrubs. Some small fruit trees have been developed for patio planting. Many urban gardeners now grow fruits quite successfully on patios and balconies.
The trick in successful container gardening...
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