Beginner Apartment Container Gardening Tips

Beginner Apartment Container Gardening Tips

By Whitney Segura

Many people that live in apartments can appreciate the benefits that container gardening can offer. You can grow a bunch of plants, whether flowers or vegetables, in a relatively small space, if you use container gardening. The other fun thing about this type of gardening is choosing what container you will use because you can get quite creative with the choices.

Imagine a salad garden in a child's red wagon that you can pull around the patio to get the sun it needs. Of course traditional container gardening might involve traditional box planters or hanging baskets, but you can look at any kind of container and think of plant mixtures that complement each other. Some plants can shade other plants, while some are smaller border plants and others make a tall central focal point for the container.

No matter what you want to grow, it can be fun to plant herbs, vegetables, strawberries and flowers in containers that you can move inside if you want or put out in the yard when the weather is nice. Of course, many people use container gardening to grow herbs all year in their kitchen. Others have tomato plants that add color to their patio, while others might have grape vines planted in urns at the base of their garden trellis. Your imagination is all that limits you, when you think about container gardening.

Not all container gardens are grown in soil. You can use hydroponics or water gardening to have a small, portable garden you can move wherever you want because it is portable and easy for the beginning gardener to take care of. When you are looking for ways to incorporate container gardening, think about all the creative options you can take advantage of to grow your favorite vegetables, herbs and flowers in containers.

Whitney is an expert gardener and green enthusiast, he is a avid believer in nature greenhouse and hydroponics growing.

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container gardening tips

Container Gardening Tips for Newbies

Container Gardening Tips for Newbies

Container gardens can create a natural sanctuary in a busy city street, along rooftops or on balconies. You can easily accentuate the welcoming look of a deck or patio with colourful pots of annuals, or fill your window boxes with beautiful shrub roses or any number of small perennials. Whether you arrange your pots in a group for a massed effect or highlight a smaller space with a single specimen, you'll be delighted with this simple way to create a garden.

Container gardening enables you to easily vary your color scheme, and as each plant finishes flowering, 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. Think also of the shape and texture of the leaves. Tall strap-like leaves will give a good vertical background to low-growing, wide-leaved plants. Choose plants with a long flowering season, or have others of a different type ready to replace them as they finish blooming.

Experiment with creative containers. You might have an old porcelain bowl or copper urn you can use, or perhaps you'd rather make something really modern with timber or tiles. If you decide to buy your containers ready-made, terracotta pots look wonderful, but tend to absorb water. You don't want your plants to dry out, so paint the interior of these pots with a special sealer available from hardware stores.
Cheaper plastic pots can also be painted on the outside with water-based paints for good effect. When purchasing pots, don't forget to buy matching saucers to catch the drips. This will save cement floors getting stained, or timber floors rotting.
Always use a good quality potting mix in your containers. This will ensure the best performance possible from your plants.

If you have steps leading up to your front door, an attractive pot plant on each one will delight your visitors. Indoors, pots of plants or flowers help to create a cosy and welcoming atmosphere.
Decide ahead of time where you want your pots to be positioned, then buy plants that suit the situation. There is no point buying sun lovers for a shady position, for they will not do well. Some plants also have really large roots, so they are best kept for the open garden.

If you have plenty of space at your front door, a group of potted plants off to one side will be more visually appealing than two similar plants placed each side. Unless they are spectacular, they will look rather boring.
Group the pots in odd numbers rather than even, and vary the height and type. To tie the group together, add large rocks that are similar in appearance and just slightly different in size. Three or five pots of the same type and color, but in different sizes also looks affective.

With a creative mind and some determination, you will soon have a container garden that will be the envy of friends and strangers alike.

Container Gardening Tips for Newbies