Container gardens can create a natural sanctuary on a busy city street, along rooftops, or on balconies.
You can easily accentuate the inviting look of a deck or patio with colorful potted annuals, or fill your window boxes with beautiful bush roses or any number of small perennials.
Whether you’re arranging your pots in a group for massive effect or highlighting a smaller space with a single specimen, you’ll love this simple way to create a garden.
Container gardening allows you to easily vary your color scheme, and as each plant finishes blooming, it can be replaced with another.
Whether you choose to harmonize or contrast your colors, make sure there is variety in the height of each plant. Also think about the shape and texture of the leaves.
Tall, strap-like leaves will give low-growing, broad-leaved plants a good vertical background. Choose plants with long blooms, or have different types ready to replace when they finish blooming.
Experiment with creative containers. You might have an old china bowl or copper urn that you can use, or maybe you’d rather do something really modern with wood or tile.
If you decide to buy your containers ready-made, terracotta pots look wonderful, but they tend to absorb water. You don’t want your plants to dry out, so paint the inside of these pots with a special sealer available at hardware stores.
Cheaper plastic pots can also be painted on the outside with water-based paints to a good effect. When shopping for pots, don’t forget to buy matching saucers to catch drips. This will prevent cement floors from staining or wood floors from rotting.
Always use a good quality potting mix in your containers. This will ensure the best possible performance from your plants.
If you have steps leading up to your front door, an attractive potted plant on each one will delight your visitors. Inside, potted plants or flowers help create a warm and welcoming atmosphere.
Decide in advance where you want to put your pots, then buy plants that suit the situation. There is no point in buying sun lovers for a shady position, because they will not do well. Some plants also have very large roots, so they are best kept in the open garden.
If you have a lot of space at your front door, a group of potted plants to one side will be more visually appealing than two similar plants placed on either side. Unless they’re spectacular, they’ll look pretty boring.
Group pots in odd numbers instead of even ones, and vary the height and type. To tie the group together, add large rocks that are similar in appearance and slightly different in size. Three or five pots of the same type and color, but of different sizes also look effective.
With a creative mind and some determination, you’ll soon have a container garden that will be the envy of friends and strangers alike.
