I’m a total container garden convert. The snow has arrived and so I’m at my computer screen instead of doing what I want to do which which is plant up all the containers I have been collecting. I’ve been at this gardening business a while now and I have planted containers for my clients and I have always like the way they looked dotted around a garden but they just weren’t for me. Or so I thought. To much trouble moving them in and out of cover in the winter and try to keep them watered in the summer.
Last autumn I needed to find a use for some very big pots left over from some jobs. It seemed like such a waste to dump them and so I bought a mix of tulip bulbs and planted them up. In the spring it was lovely having clumps of colour dotted around the garden and I could move them to where they would be seen best from the windows. It wasn’t to much trouble to pop them out of sight along the walls of the house in summer where they were out of the bright sunlight and again this year they are starting to pop their heads above the surface. I plan on adding more bulbs this year.
hyacinth container
I now have a large collection of pots housing all manor of lovely seasonal plants that I can brighten up even the dullest corner of the garden. I can grow plants that would normally not survive our winters such as Aeonium’s. Not only that but I love growing veg in them. I have a small area of the garden for my veg plot so I now have a container garden veg plot on my patio and even on my doorstep at times. Herbs do remarkably well and all of these can be moved inside in the winter weather for protection. Throughout the winter I have had salad leaves growing inside my small polytunnel. I will be growing more this year as the experiment has worked and I really love the idea of fresh homegrown salad in winter. I have two fruit trees growing in pots as well, a lovely peach and a new apple. I will be training these and buying more for my container orchard.
salad container garden
There are plenty of different styles of pots available and as you can see you can plant any container that has enough drainage. I have to do the warning so be careful when using tools to create drainage holes in your new container.
Grow Your Own Container Garden
First choose your container
Containers
Then put in your drainage holes if it doesn’t already have some. If the pot is large you may want to add a layer of polystyrene to help make it lighter and for drainage. Or you could use broken pot or pebbles. Try to use a peat free container compost where possible, I’ve heard some really good things about Dalefoot composts and I will be giving them a go this year.
Next you need to choose the plants, there is plenty of choice from bulbs to small perennial and shrubs to veg or fruit trees the gardening world in your oyster. Just remember to follow instructions on planting times for all other plants chosen.
and if you haven’t got a garden try window sill gardening in containers with plants like succulents.
succulent container
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