Container Gardening

Container Gardening is one of the easiest and most accessible ways for anyone to garden. You don't even need a yard! Containers are great for apartments and condos, for your front porch or driveway, for your deck, at the entrance to your business, up at the cabin or as accent pieces throughout your yard.

Containers can be small
Or tall,
Simple
or Elegant,
Or completely unique!
When planting containers, be sure to use a good quality Container soil. These soils contain materials that increase water absorption and retention (very important if you don't want to be watering all day!) Also, if you don't want an extremely heavy pot, we suggest filling the bottom third to half of the pot with something light, and putting your dirt on top. (Mom uses pop bottles, other people have used large bark nuggets, styrofoam peanuts, etc.)

Picking plants for your containers is easy if you find plants from these categories:

Thriller: The eye-catcher of the container, usually something big and bold in the middles. The CLASSIC, quintessential centerpiece for containers is Dracaena (also known as "that big spiky thing.") And while Dracaena is lovely, don't be afraid to try other things, such as grasses or tall annuals or perennials, or even a staked vine.

Filler: These are plants used to fill the majority of the container. You can use anything you like, provided it does not grow taller than your centerpiece. Petunias, geraniums, verbena, short snapdragons, begonias, impatiens... you get the idea. You don't even have to use flowers, you can use foilage and mixes of greens and grasses.

Spiller: These are plants that trail over the edge of the container. Looking at the example pictures above, you can see they all have spillers. These soften the edge of the pot or basket and provide a more natural look. When picking spillers, look for words like "trailing." Many plants, such as petunias, verbena and lobelia have compact (good for filler) and trailing (good for spiller) varieties.

Like the look of containers but don't want to put one together yourself? One of the easiest things you can do is using a hanging basket. With many pots, you can cut off the hangers from the basket and just plunk it right in the pot. Or, you can take it out of the basket and replant it in a pot (adding a centre spike if desired). Note: This is also one of our top tips for the garden--if you want a big full garden fast, plant hanging baskets. It could be one of the easiest and most rewarding things you do all summer!

Up for the fun and challege of designing a basket? Get some inspiration at the Proven Winners website. They have a "container recipe" section (click for a direct link) that has almost 600 (!!!) suggestions for summer containers alone! Browse through for color ideas or to see how different plants are used.

Happy Planting!