Small Space Container Gardening
Container gardening provides many advantages for today’s busy and space-challenged gardeners. You can grow just about anything in containers that you can grow in the ground: annuals, perennials, bulbs, ornamental grasses, veggies and herbs, shrubs, and even trees. Pots may be rearranged, as you would furniture indoors, to suit your mood, entertaining needs, or the season. Plant light requirement is less of a concern as lightweight planters, or containers on coasters, may be moved to follow the sun pattern. Container gardening brings the garden closer, right outside your door and up off the ground, requiring less bending and kneeling when tending. What could be easier?
Evergreens for Privacy
Looking to create a little privacy on your patio deck, or urban garden, but don’t have the space to plant in the ground? No problem! Did you know that evergreens are excellent for year-round screening and many are suitable for planting in containers and can be left undisturbed for years? Use evergreens that are narrow and columnar. Some of the best choices are pine (Pinus), boxwood (Buxus), yew (Taxus) and juniper (Juniperus). When evergreens outgrow their space, you should repot them into larger-sized containers. To withstand the effects of winter temperature fluctuations, choose non-porous, weather-resistant containers like concrete, fiberglass, heavy plastic, metal, or highly fired, ceramic pottery. Terra-cotta will crack with repeated freezing and thawing. Group pots together to form a “green wall.” Be sure to water and fertilize as needed.
Growing Herbs and Veggies in Containers
Don’t let a shortage of garden space prevent you from growing your own fresh vegetables. As long as you have a sunny location you can have your own mini-farm on your porch, patio, deck, balcony, roof-top or doorstep. Vegetables can be grown in any type of container that can hold soil, has adequate drainage and is large enough to hold a plant. There are endless options available on the market or you may upcycle items that you already have on hand. When growing herbs or vegetables in containers, you’ll have fewer problems with pests such as groundhogs, deer and rabbits, as well as soil-borne diseases. Plus, the soil in pots warms up more quickly in the spring allowing for earlier planting and an extended growing season.
