Once you get started in container gardening you’ll be hooked (or rooted, I should say)! It is so much fun and offers so many creative opportunities that you may even decide container gardens are the only way to go! I have a few containers out so far and am waiting for my deck to be completed with the railing, then I will fill it up with lots of interesting pots.
Here are just 5 reasons I love this type of gardening:
1. Almost anything can be a container! From bathtubs to big man boots – anything that holds dirt can be the planting ground. This allows for endless creativity. Even as I write this, I am thinking how cool and funny it would be to have a boot and shoe garden theme! Collect interesting larger sized boots at thrift stores and make a path on your deck, front lawn, screened in porch…anywhere! ‘Walk’ them all over!
2. Containers are portable. Take them in, take them out. Set them in the larger garden plot, set them by the pool. Decorate for your indoor or outdoor party, decorate for the wedding! Moving? Take them with you!
3. Wildlife can be kept at by. If you have a wildlife problem, containers are ideal because you can bring them inside or cover them at night. Animals are not as likely to bother containers as they are your garden plot. Plus, they cannot trample them down. At least not nearly as easily.
And though cats and dogs are not really considered wildlife (I know – some of you will disagree), they sure can wreak havoc in the garden plot as well! But most cats will not use the tomato pot for a litter box and dogs are not going to go bounding from one container to another when chasing the cat. Of course, there are some exceptions!
4. Lengthen the growing season. Begin earlier indoors and then extend later in the fall by bringing them back indoors. Some gardeners are able to keep their plants thriving all year long. Nothing like fresh green foliage and colors in the dead of winter.
5. You control the climate and soil conditions to a large extent. Extremes from droughts to saturated soils no longer have to exist. You can play weatherman and predict the weather for your plants and actually have a near 100% accuracy rate! Too much sun? Too much shade? Too windy? Relocate and test out areas till you find the perfect home.
Grow a cactus and place it next to a barrel of roses which prefer a rich loamy soil that drains well. Grow a pot of candytuft in well draining alkaline soil and set it inside a half circle of decorative containers of calla lily, an acid soil lover. Yes – so many more options for the artistic gardener!