May!

Spring is in full bloom now and how won­der­ful it is to see the green land­scape again.

Photo Credit– tikibata1/photobicket

Maybe you want a lit­tle bit of flower power for your­self, but don’t have the space or desire to dig up a gar­den plot.  Con­sider con­tainer gar­den­ing.  They can’t be beat for urban gar­den­ing, acces­si­ble gar­den­ing or” no time to gar­den” gardening.

If con­tainer gar­den­ing brings thoughts of the ubiq­ui­tous hang­ing bas­kets at the gro­cery store or gar­den cen­ter, this is def­i­nitely not your only option.  Those pre­made arrange­ments are per­haps the eas­i­est way to go, but there are so many more options.

Bal­conies and patios every­where are sport­ing con­tainer gar­dens these days, and yours can, too, with a few easy steps. Flow­ers are a pop­u­lar con­tainer gar­den choice, but edi­ble plants, such as pep­pers, toma­toes, sum­mer squash, bush beans, herbs, let­tuces and even pota­toes grow well in containers.

As always when it comes to grow­ing things there are fac­tors which affect the suc­cess of your project.  Here are some impor­tant things to remem­ber when plan­ning a con­tainer garden.

Start out with soil. Choose a light weight pot­ting soil mix, not gar­den soil, which is too heavy.  You want to avoid com­pacted soil, and the pot­ting mix is already pre­pared with per­lite, peat and ver­mi­culite, which will keep the soil aer­ated and light.

Drainage is impor­tant. Use pot shards, small stones or gravel (not mar­ble chips) to keep the water from over­sat­u­rat­ing the soil.  Mold and rot are the results of poor drainage.

When choos­ing plants, either edi­ble or orna­men­tal, pick ones that are heat tol­er­ant.  Avoid those lovely hang­ing bas­kets that are filled with ten­der plants that crisp after one day with­out water.  You will do bet­ter to choose your own that you know will sur­vive with less water and heat.

Some com­mon flow­ers that will sur­vive hot, dry con­tainer gar­den con­di­tions are gera­ni­ums, petu­nias, marigolds and zin­nias.  Check with your local coop­er­a­tive exten­sion agent or cer­ti­fied gar­den cen­ter pro­fes­sional for more infor­ma­tion on suit­able plants.

Pick plants that require the same amount of water and sun­light.   You can tell if your plants are get­ting too much sun if they are too pale and the leaves get crisp around the edges.  Too lit­tle light makes plants weak and spindly.

If you are plant­ing an edi­ble gar­den con­tainer, at least eight hours of sun­light is best.  You can grow let­tuces and herbs with less, but not produce.

Test your con­tainer gar­den soil daily for mois­ture. Since they are in an arti­fi­cial envi­ron­ment, the plants can’t send roots out in search of ground moisture…they depend on you for sur­vival.  With­out enough water the plants will die. Remem­ber wind! Plants will dry out far more quickly in breezy weather.  Resin con­tain­ers will retain mois­ture bet­ter than clay con­tain­ers.  They are also eas­ier to move because they are lighter.

We love your com­ments.  Let us know how your con­tainer gar­den grows!

Check out these great con­tainer ideas. Styl­ish or util­i­tar­ian, they will be excel­lent for any con­tainer gar­den you choose. Happy gardening!