Container Gardening? Ask Questions!

Container Gardening can be so much more than just putting pretty flowers in a container.

Using the same design aspect that you would use with in-ground landscaping, you can create vistas for your enjoyment while you are outside. With the placement of pots in the right place you can create framing for visual blockage of unwanted views, traffic pattern and flow, accent existing landscaping, and add interest to patio furniture arrangements.

Be sure to take into consideration the style of the area that you’re going to be placing these pots in. Is the color of the container going to be crucial? Will it be something to give it a little extra punch to the design area? You need to determine if you looking for containers that are highly decorative or more standard such as Clay.

Container gardening doesn’t stop with just placing your pots in the right location. Once you place the container it’s crucial that you pick the correct plants to go in them. The most important factor to take into consideration when choosing your plants is the environment they are going to be planted in. Is it windy location? Does it receive full sun or partial sun? Are the plans going to be planted in an area that will be hard to maintain? If so you might want to use more durable plants.

Another thing to consider the fact that you might have animals or children. This would mean you would want to watch for poisonous plants or thorny plants. .

The plant materials that you use will play the biggest part of your container design. Add in the use of herbs and flowers for a please accent or even to repel unwanted past such as mosquitoes The third thing that you would want to take into consideration is your decorating style. Are you a traditional stylist or a little bit more bohemian? What is the overall effect that you’re going for? Are you trying to be conservative and a little bit old-fashioned, or are you trying for tropical effect with palms and exotic flowers?

It is important that you should have a good understanding to the answers of all these questions before you even set foot into the nursery looking for plants. If you’re lost asked for help and if you don’t feel you’re getting the right help from the people in the store that you’re at, ask for professional to come out to your site and work up a plan that will best meet your needs. You have to live with the results of what you plant and you want to be happy. So be sure to ask lots of questions and be willing to make changes if your ideas and plans don’t mix together.

But regardless if you are designing your own container gardens, or getting the help from a professional gardener, the most important thing to remember is…

Enjoy your planting experience!

Think Outside the Pot!

Wait! Don’t throw that out, it just might be the perfect container for that Fairy Garden that you’re making or to be used as a unusual container for garden.

It’s time we start thinking outside the pot. Look for different sources for containers and don’t always take the easy route. Just going and pulling a pot off the shelf can lead to ho-hum gardens when there are many other objects out there that could work really well as containers.

I can remember as a child, my grandfather taking an old tire, painting in the bright color and cutting the top part open so it looks like a flower. Ta-da, my grandmother had a new planter that she planted full of pansies.

Maybe to the generations before us, it wasn’t so much looking for unusual containers as it was being responsible and recycling old items into new purposes. Maybe it’s time that we are all started being responsible as well, there’s some beautiful items out there, that if you just use your imagination you can turn into a great planter.

Have you ever bought something you really liked, used it to serve its purpose for short time and then you got tired of? A perfect example is an old metal fire pit was purchased before the stone became so popular. Our customer use that for year and then didn’t like it anymore; so we cleaned it out and made it into a huge planter that sits on a wrought iron stand.

And just because a pot is broken doesn’t mean that needs to be thrown out either. Surely, you’ve seen the pictures of a play pot laying on it’s side in a landscape bed with annuals just filling out across the ground it makes for a beautiful site.

If you’re using a different container in your interiors, a simple way to avoid leakage is to line the bottom with heavy florist foil that will hold water and soil in. Don’t be afraid to try something completely different: a wood box, an old water bucket, an unused fountain or bird bath.

So it’s time to start looking at the items around you in a different light; trying figure out a new use for something before you throw it away. That beautiful broken cracked pot that used to belong to your grandmother can be perfect for miniature garden, or to hold an African Violet.

Those are just a few tips & I hope they work for you… remember think outside the pot!