Location of Your Outdoor Container Garden

When you decide to start an outdoor container garden, the perfect location is vital. The wrong location could spell disaster for your plants. A good location means that your plants will get the right amount of sunlight. It also means protection of your plants against outside damaging influences such as weather. Your container garden must be accessible for maintenance as well.

The first concern in choosing the right spot for your garden is the amount of sunlight that your plants will get. You might have to split your garden into different sections in order to achieve this. Too much sunlight can be damaging to some plants while too little can harm others.

If you have quite a few plants that need sunlight, and another bunch that require shade, you will either have to split your container garden into two sections, or provide shade for those that need it.

This task can be very simple for a container garden. If the part of your garden that will be shaded has only a few plants, a tarp can be used. Just make a frame with the tarp as its roof over the plants that are to be shaded for most of the day. This way you do not have to break up your container garden into two parts.

Street pollution can do irreparable damage to your plants so make sure that your garden is away from the street. Passing vehicles can stir up dust that settles on the plants, and their tires can throw rocks with a lot of force which can break the pots or tear up leaves on the plants.

Always keep your container garden as close to your house as you can. There are many reasons that you should do this. It makes the garden much easier to take care of and if it is too far from the house, you might consider it too much trouble to do upkeep on it.

If you live in a rural area, you wont have to worry so much about wildlife such as deer and rabbit munching on your plants if it is close to the house either. Animals prefer avoiding the human scent so if your plants are closer to the house, they will smell your scent instead of the plants.

Another practical reason to keep your garden close to the house is inclement weather. It is much easier to move your plants indoors when bad weather comes. High winds, too much rain and hail can tear up delicate plants. If you have had a container garden in one specific spot for years, you might have insects infesting your garden. Sometimes these bugs will come back to the same spot for food year after year. Rotating the location of your garden will discourage them from coming back.

However, if you are planting very large growing plants such as corn, you need to put them in the right spot the first time. These will be too bulky and heavy to move around. Careful consideration of the location that you put your plants is very important to the success of your container garden.

How to Choose Plants for Your Container Garden

Most people think that a container garden is strictly for edible plants and have never considered putting flowering plants or house plants in containers. Although it is classified differently, it is basically the same thing. There are a wide variety of vegetables and herbs which can be grown in a container garden and even a few fruits as well.

Herbs are the main type of edible plants which are grown in containers. This is because of their hardiness. Vegetables are number two on the list of plants chosen for growing in containers. Fruits arent usually grown in containers because most people think it would be very hard to grow them in this manner.

However, strawberries are grown with extreme ease in containers of all types. Strawberries are a very hardy fruit and can even be grown in grow bags which can be hung from outside walls. This is a very pleasing sight for visitors to see when they come to visit. They are also a nice addition to the outdoor container garden with their bright red fruit.

Dwarf fruit trees are very easy to grow in larger pots. If kept well-pruned, they grow very nicely in larger pots as long as they receive the right amount of sunlight. Some of these also make nice indoor plants as well. The dwarf berry bushes grow well in containers, although they are very hard to move because of their weight. Dwarf blueberries and raspberries are also easy to grow in containers and give off a colorful display in your garden.

Most popular to be grown in containers are herbs. Parsley is one of the most common herbs to be grown in containers. Basil and chives are also very popular for container gardening. Almost any herb can be grown successfully in containers.

The secret to growing herbs in containers is finding a large enough container for what you are growing. Most herbs only need a relatively small container. Chives, parsley and basil can be grown easily in small pots.

Sage, however, gets to be pretty large since it is a bush. This requires a much bigger pot. Oregano gets to be a pretty large plant as well and it too will need a bigger container. Although it is actually a fruit, tomatoes remain the most popular for container gardens.

In fact, tomatoes are grown heavily by container gardeners. This is not only because quality tomatoes are hard to find but have you checked the prices in the stores lately for tomatoes? The quality of store bought tomatoes is low because they are picked green and then artificially ripened when they get to the store. This way they survive the often bruising and brutal trip to the market. They also have a longer shelf life this way as well.

Most vegetables are easy to grow in containers if you take proper care of them. These are usually started from seed and then transplanted to larger pots later on. If you start your plants indoors, they will do well but can be damaged when you thin them out. A lot of people prefer starting them from seeds so that they can observe the complete life cycle and it is satisfying when you see those first leaves start to peek through the soil. This concludes this article on choosing plants for your container garden.

Choose For Your Container Garden

When you are looking for the size of container your plants will go in for your container garden, choose according to the type of plant that will go in it because this is vital for it to grow successfully. If the pot that you choose is too small, the growth of your plant will be stunted. Although the size of the pot is very important, the material that it is made of is critical as well. This is because not all materials work well in certain areas of your container garden.

If you are thinking about adding a perennial, such as herb bushes, a large wooden container works best. Place these where they are easily seen in your yard. These wooden tub containers are the most expensive of plant containers, but wood is perfect for growing plants that will continue to grow for a year. They are also very good for plants that are going to be placed in a conspicuous location.

Wooden containers are best for the larger plants, such as wisteria, that will be in very visible plants in your container garden. Although they are a bit expensive, they last for a very long time. Be sure to get one that is treated on the outside but not on the inside. Treatments on the inside will bleed harmful chemicals into the soil that you use and will poison the plant. This is especially dangerous if you are growing vegetables tin your container garden that you plan to eat.

One of the most popular containers for a container garden is the plastic pot. This is mainly because these pots are much cheaper. But that doesnt mean that they are better containers. If you are only planning trying out this type of garden for one growing season, then plastic pots are the way to go. But if you are going to be doing this year after year, the something more durable would be practical.

Remember, although they look like they will last forever, plastic pots will warp and crack over time if left outdoors. Cracked pots are useless. They leak precious water and soil. These will eventually split and you will lose everything.

The second cheapest type of container is the terra cotta planter pot. However, you need to be careful with these because they do break quite easily. If you live in an area which experiences hard freezes during winter, you might want to choose a different type of container because terra cotta does not hold up very well in freezing weather if they are outdoors.

Fired ceramic pots are delicate but beautiful with many painted designs. These are pretty durable containers if taken care of. Normally you will find these with a glazed outside so that they appear shiny but are left unglazed inside. This is perfect since glaze can damage your plants if it gets into the soil.

What is even cheaper is making your own containers for your container garden from things around the house or yard. Most plastic containers are fine if they are a large enough size for what you intending on growing in it. Just remember to cut holes in the bottom for drainage.