Garden Tips & Resources

Archive for the ‘Garden Planters’ Category

Sometimes, the urge to garden might be stomped out by other circumstances, such as living arrangements or space constrictions. If you live in an apartment, you can?t really operate a full garden, just because you don?t really have a yard! I think that one of the best solutions for this problem is to grow plants in containers. You can hang these, or just arrange them on your patio, window sill or balcony. Just a few baskets or pots, and your whole living area will look much classier and nicer.

A benefit of growing in small containers is the fact that you can move them around to suit your needs. If you rearrange your furniture and you think that it would look nicer if it was in the other area, it?s no trouble at all to scoot it over. As long as the lighting is about the same, your plant shouldn?t mind the transition at all. Another benefit of the containers? versatility is the fact that you can adapt it to simulate any environment depending on the type of soil you fill it with and where you place it.

If you are trying to make an aesthetically pleasing arrangement of containers and plants, you can adjust the containers to be at different heights by hanging them from the ceiling or placing them on supports. Hanging them will allow you to make the most of the space you have. This is called ?vertical gardening?. If you pull it off right, you can make a very pleasing arrangement of plants while conserving your valuable space. If you live in an apartment, you know how important it is to conserve space! One method of vertical gardening is the use of a wooden step ladder. If painted correctly, you can arrange all the plants on it in a beautiful, stylish cascade of color.

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The maintenance of container plants takes slightly more time, since you have to water more often and go around to each individual container. However, the square footage for container plants is much less than that of an actual garden, so the time spent on maintenance and watering is more balanced. It is important that you don?t over-water your container plants, as this can be just as fatal to their health as under-watering.

When choosing containers for your plants, you?ll want to buy them all at once along with some extras in case they break or you add more plants later. You don?t want them to be all the same shape and size, but definitely the same style so that the compliment each other. Plastic containers are the best and require the least amount of watering, but if you want to stick with clay or earthen pots then you should line the inside with plastic. This helps it retain water more, as the clay will soak up water.

Another thing to remember when buying pots is the fact that the size of the pot will ultimately constrict the size of the plant. Make a careful choice of pots according to what you wish to grow in each one. If you search for the plant you chose on the internet, you should be able to find specifications as to how much root space it should be given. This can even be an advantage for you if you choose a plant that can grow very large. If you only have a limited amount of space for it, you can constrict it by choosing a pot that isn?t large enough to support huge amounts of growth.

If the benefits of container gardening sound appealing to you, then you should start planning out your container garden today. If you write a list of all the plants you desire to have, you can do the necessary research to find out what size and shape of pots you should get. After that, it?s just a matter of arranging them in a way that makes your home look the nicest.

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Fresh grown flowers are one of the simple pleasures in life. Seeing a beautiful flower in your garden can instantly brighten up your day.

If you don’t have a lot of yard space you may want to consider adding a hanging planter to your landscape design. A hanging planter can contain any combination of flowers or plants that you choose. Many people incorporate the beauty of vines in their hanging planter.

When it comes to choosing a hanging planter the first consideration is the material used to build it. Wood has long been the favorite in all types of planters, mainly because it gives a rustic look to whatever environment you place it in.

For convenience plastic is also a very good choice in a planter. Plastic is very lightweight and also holds the water well so it can be used anywhere.

There are a few things to remember when you have a planter. One is to remove it if you are going away for an extended period of time. This is a good idea for several reasons one being that during inclement weather, the planter can become detached and fall. This can result in not only the planter being damaged but the flowers and plants as well.

The plastic types of hanging planters can also crack during very cold weather. Once autumn begins it’s a wise idea to remove the flowers as they die and then store the planter for the season. If you do this you greatly reduce the risk of the planter cracking. 

You can purchase all types of planters at most home improvement stores in the garden section. You’ll also want to purchase a fastener that is sturdy. If you aren’t sure of a good choice ask a sales associate what they recommend and ask them to demonstrate how to install it. You don’t want to get your hanging basket home only to discover that you didn’t attach it properly. 

You have probably seen or heard about the upside down tomato planter. My neighbor plants three or four of these every year and gets a lot of tomatoes from his plants. A simple explanation is that you plant your tomato in the bottom of a hanging bucket or container.

I know, it sounds weird and there are a number of theories about why this works and why you might want to do this. Other than the novelty, I don’t know whether it works all that well. Though as I said, my neighbor swears by it – it should be noted that he also plants most of his tomatoes using the conventional in the ground method.

I may try it this year. I found a Do-It-Yourself article here – http://www.curbly.com/DIY-Maven/posts/1620-How-To-Make-An-Upside-Down-Tomato-Planter - that looks easy and cheap.

I also found this over at Amazon if you want everything in one place or if you aren’t the DIY type. I may just try them both to see which works best.

What is a Strawberry pot and what exactly can you do with it?

A strawberry pot is an urn like garden container, which has multiple openings scattered around the sides of the pot. This type of gardening pot allows you to plant things into the top as you would with any garden container, but it also allows you to plant small flowers, herbs, or other plants into various places on the side too.

When planted and cared for properly, a strawberry pot can be a beautiful creation of art. Because instead of just having plants which are spilling down the sides of your container, you actually have plants growing out from the sides too. And this is particularly beautiful with flowers or trailing vines.

Depending upon how the strawberry pot is designed though, it can be a bit problematic for making sure all of your small plants have enough water. Generally, when planting a strawberry pot, you first add soil to the main section, or middle of the pot. Once your soil level has reached the first outer layers of side openings, you then plant small flowers, herbs, or other things you like to grow which don’t get too large at maturity.

Each small opening is filled with the soil of your choice, your small plant, and ideally some type of mulch. You continue in this manner, alternating between adding the small side plants and adding more soil into the main section of the plant, until the strawberry pot is ready for it’s top plant. You then put that top plant into place, add a layer of mulch to it too, and your new pot is finished.

Now, because the small side openings are small, it can be difficult to water each individual plant separately. And unfortunately when you try to water from the top of your strawberry pot, it can sometimes mean that only the higher plants are getting enough water, and the lower ones will start to die out.

One way to combat this problem though, is to put a small PVC pipe into the middle of your pot while you’re filling and planting it. Drill small holes into the pipe a few inches apart before putting it into your strawberry pot, and these will provide a watering system for your lower plants. Be sure your pipe is long enough to extend a half inch or so above the soil of your top plant too. Then, each time you water the plants in your strawberry plant, simply fill the PVC pipe with water so that it can drain out the holes and provide water to the lower areas of plants.

One of the most popular garden tools today is a relatively new invention: Self Watering Garden Planters. With these ingenious planters, you can have a container garden which flourishes as if you’re caring for it every single day, even if you barely touch it at all.

A self watering garden planter will do what it sounds like: Water the plants in it automatically, on it’s own. Now it’s not 100% maintenance free of course, because you do have to add water to it at some point, but it’s needed much less often than normal. Some self watering garden planters can actually go for a full month without having extra water added to them.

Self watering garden containers can be used to create any type of container garden you’d like: Vegetables, herbs, flowers, vines, annuals, perennials, miniature bushes or trees and so on. If a plant can grow in a regular garden container, then it can also grow in a self watering one too.

Self watering garden containers are basically garden planters which have a water reservoir built into them. All you have to do is fill that reservoir when it’s low, and the container will take care of watering the plants for you automatically.

How often you have to add water to the reservoir will depend on the particular container you choose. Some specialty self watering garden containers can water your plants and flowers for several weeks before needing to be refilled, while others will need to have water added at least once each week. Of course the location of your planter will make a difference too, because outdoor containers which get a lot of hot sunlight will use water faster than those sitting indoors or in shady areas.

Most self watering garden containers also have a water wick which runs from the water reservoir up into the soil surrounding your plants. This wick is a simple absorbant cloth, and its job is to simply suck water from the reservoir into the plant soil on a steady basis.

Specialty self watering containers can be a bit on the expensive side. It’s not uncommon to see prices of $50 or more per container. You can however, create your own fairly easily. Do it yourself versions tend to be much smaller though, because they’re usually made with plastic water bottles or milk jugs. They’re wonderful for growing kitchen herb gardens, small plants, and starting seeds too.

To create your own small self watering garden container, simply cut a plastic bottle or jug in half. The bottom half will act as your reservoir, and the top will be inverted and used as the plant container. You can place a wick in the bottle’s original neck opening – use either an old tshirt scrap or a piece of floral foam in that opening. Once you have your wick in place, simply invert the top so that the wick is now inside the water reservoir, then add your potting mix and seeds or small plants.