Simple Steps To Container Gardening With Garden Pots

By following a few guidelines, you can easily start a successful container garden from scratch. One of the reasons that gardeners prefer them is for the flexibility that containers have. They aren’t just beautiful, they are interesting as well and, in the case of urban environments, your only option may be to plant everything in garden pots.

Making The Right Choices For Containers

Its important to have a variety of sizes for your pots. Start with the larger pots and move down to the smaller ones. Three or four large pots should work fine. Add a few more medium sized pots and then even more of the smaller pots. Draw attention to a particular area by picking out a bright colored large pot.

Placement Of Your Pots

If you have the room, start with larger pots about two to three feet tall. These will be focal points that will draw your eye in. Try to place these pots in areas that are already seen as existing focal points, like a corner, next to an important piece of furniture, or near a permanent pole. You can also pick areas as focal points to draw the viewer’s attention away from sore spots such as electrical boxes, air conditioners, etc.

Once you have placed all the large pots where you like them (they aren’t permanent so you can move them at any time), take your medium sized pots and place a few around the larger ones. Since they will be pretty close to each other, try and imagine how it will look when there are trailing plants coming down from the larger pots. In most cases, two to three medium sized pots will be enough.

Small pots are used to fill in the remaining areas. Once the plants start growing, you will probably want to move these around since there are no set rules to what looks good.

Preparing The Pots

Terracotta pots should be sealed on the inside with a good water sealant and all the pots should have drainage holes in their bottoms. If they don’t, you will have to drill them (especially if they are made of wood). Cover the holes with either a piece of screen, shards from broken pots or, a couple of layers of newspaper. This will keep the dirt from falling out the bottom. If the pots will be on a wood deck or patio, you will want to place them on bowls to catch any water from coming out the bottom.

Selecting Plants

In the larger pots, its best to have up to three types of plants. A main upright plant, a cover plant to fill in the middle and a trailing plant that grows down the sides and covers up the top of the pot. Feel free to experiment with different types and colors. I would stick to neutral colors for your filler plants. Use your imagination and have fun!

Chuck Wherty has been working in gardens since his early childhood and has always been interested in educating others on gardening and landscaping techniques. If you would like to know more about garden pot and landscaping, visit AllGardenPots.com