Container Gardening Complete

Job:06-700309 Title: CPS - Container Gardening Complete

700309 - ContainerGardens_001-272_FINAL.indd 54 5/24/17 11:03 AM
Job:06-700309 Title: CPS - Container Gardening Complete
Job:06-700309 Title: CPS - Container Gardening Complete

700309 - ContainerGardens_001-272_FINAL.indd 55 6/5/17 2:48 PM

54 chapter 1

Filling Your Containers

Use a soil scoop, shovel, or trowel to fill your

containers with the 50/50 compost and potting

soil blend. With larger plants, you may find it

easier to fill the pot three-quarters of the way,

then slip the plants out of their containers,

position them in the pot, and fill in around them.

After planting, the soil level should be about

1 inch below the pot’s upper rim. Even high-

quality potting soil blends tend to settle a little

after watering and throughout the course of the

growing season, so take that into account when

filling your pots. The extra head-space at the top

of the pot keeps irrigation water from running

off and encourages it to slowly percolate down

through the soil to the plants’ roots.

While big containers that hold a large volume

of potting mix allow for more substantial plant

root systems, they can also be very expensive to

fill. If you’re looking to manage your gardening

budget, create a false bottom in larger pots

by filling the bottom of the pot with large,

lightweight, chunky materials. I’ve used empty

soda cans and plastic bottles, inverted buckets

or plastic flower pots, plastic zipper-top bags full

of Styrofoam packing peanuts, or drained milk

cartons or jugs.

Make sure the objects do not block the

drainage holes in the bottom of the pot, and

they shouldn’t take up more than ¼ of the total

volume of space in the container. You’ll find that

the roots of most plants will grow around and in

between these materials quite easily. Obviously,

this is not a necessary practice when using

small and medium-sized pots. Use this type of

false bottom only when growing annual flowers,

vegetables, single-season tropicals, or other short-

lived plants.

SITING YOUR CONTAINERS

The third and final pillar of the foundation of

successful container gardening involves finding

the perfect location for your container garden to

thrive. Though there are many factors to consider,

sun exposure is the probably the most important.

Start by spending some time watching your

property carefully to see how much sun each part

of it receives throughout the day. Though the sun

tracks differently in the spring than it does in the

summer or fall, a bit of observation can tell you a

To help fill the volume of larger containers used to

grow annual flowers, vegetables, and other short-lived

plants, the bottom quarter of the pot can be filled with

lightweight, chunky materials, such as empty plastic

bottles and jugs. This cuts down on the amount of

potting mix needed without impeding root growth.

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Getting Started 55

lot about the conditions of any particular site. You

can also consult a website or smart phone sun

tracking app, such as SunCalc.net, to confirm the

light levels and sun exposure at various times of

the year. The trick, of course, is to match the sun

exposure of whatever site you choose with the

perfect mixture of plants.

Site selection is best approached in one of two

ways. Either decide which plants you want to grow

first, then site your containers in a location that’s

well-suited to the light requirements of those

plants; or find a home for your containers first,

and then pick plants for them based on whatever

light levels are present.

For example, if you’d like to grow sun-loving

vegetables or varieties of flowering plants that

perform best with maximum sun exposure, pick

a site that receives a minimum of six to eight

hours of full sun per day. If you don’t have that

kind of light, switch to flowering or foliage plants

that prefer partial shade conditions, or move

your containers from one location to another

throughout the day to maximize their sunlight

exposure. One excellent benefit of growing in

containers is that lightweight, portable pots, a

wheeled planter, or containers on pot dollies are

easy to move around to take advantage of light.

I know several gardeners who roll containers of

tomatoes and peppers from one side of the deck

to the other as the day progresses, just to give the

plants a few more hours of light.

Aside from sun exposure, there’s another

important factor to consider when choosing

a site for your container garden: its proximity

to irrigation water. There are few bigger

inconveniences in gardening than having to haul

watering cans, buckets, or tubs full of water to

If you want to avoid staining patio or deck surfaces

and encourage better drainage, elevate your

containers on pot feet.

If you have minimal sunlight but want to grow

vegetables or other sun-loving plants, consider putting

the containers on pot dollies so they can be wheeled

around a patio, driveway, or deck to follow the

movement of the sun.

Continued on page 59

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