As one of the many parts of my day job, I help run workshops on gardening. One of the most popular workshops is one on container gardening. Our city is expensive, and buying land is one of the most expensive parts of it. It’s no wonder that many people live in apartments or in townhouses like we do. However, many of these apartment-dwellers have thumbs that yearn to be green. This is where container gardening comes in.
If you’re thinking of creating a container garden, you need to determine whether you have a suitable site. Container gardening frees you from the need to be tied to a piece of ground. Soil quality isn’t a problem, nor is the availability of a large amount of ground area. However, to create a successful container garden you still need an appropriate amount of sunlight, water, and shelter for your plants.
Container gardens are often located on decks, and decks have railings and overhangs. If you are growing vegetables in your container garden, you need to have a relatively sunny place for the garden. Examine your deck or patio and determine where the sun moves every day. What is the sunniest spot? The warmest spot? That is where you should place your container garden.
Container gardens also need water. You can easily provide water with a watering can or a hose, so this does not need to be a barrier. However, make sure that the garden is easy to access with watering equipment. Ideally, place the garden in a place that you visit regularly. If it’s on an outside deck that you never use, it is easy to forget to water the garden. If you have the advantage of natural water, use that. Place the container outside the room overhang to get the benefit of any rainfall.
Plants need shelter from wind and other inclement weather. If your container gardening site gets a lot of summer hail or torrential downpours, place the plants under an overhang. If your site is very windy, tuck the plants into the shelter of a wall or window to prevent them from drying out in the wind.
Just like a garden, your deck or patio has microclimates. Learn about the unique climate of your deck to make sure that your container plants will yield an abundant amount of produce or bountiful flowers.
Image by alesia17.