-
- Articles
Index : Container Plants & Patio Gardening
-
-
- 22. Creating Container Gardens - Top
- Potted plants provide a special flare, a certain old-world charm, to home landscapes. They are especially pleasing when placed on patios, porches, front entryways, and in courtyards. Anywhere that potted plants can be viewed close-up, they provide special interest and appeal. It's a great way to show off plants with special appeal of form, foliage, or flowers.
Many types of plants lend themselves to pot culture. Some of the best for our desert environment are the cacti and succulents.
Barrels, totem-poles, and fishhooks are just a few of the small types of cacti suited to pot culture. Small agaves with their ground hugging rosettes of thick, pointed leaves offer great eye appeal in pots.
Cascading succulents such as burrow's tail sedum and string of pearls look great in hanging baskets. One of the most attractive succulents for pot culture is Euphorbia milii, the crown-of-thorns. It's sculptured appearance and continuous blooming red or pink flowers shows off nicely when placed in a broad, rounded clay pot.
Although they require more water, many non-desert plants look especially good in containers. Shrubby plants like the sago and cardboard palms, although not true palms, provide dramatic but pleasing contrasts to our desert landscapes. For a tropical accent try a pot of Strelitzia regina, the tropical bird of paradise or Phoenix roebelenii, the pygmy date palm.
Showy colors can be had by planting pots of cool season annual flowers. Some of the best for fall planting include: petunia, calendula, snapdragon, stock, and pansy. Combine flower types and colors in a pot for added interest. Or groups pots of different flower colors together. When purchasing flowers at the garden center, mix and match colors to find pleasing combinations.
Edibles can also be grown in pots. Cool season vegetables such as spinach, leaf lettuce, green onion, and broccoli are especially suited to container culture. Some, such as Swiss chard with it's bright red stems and dark green leaves are both edible and ornamental.
Most herbs do especially well in containers and are as ornamental as they are utilitarian. Basil, fennel, parsley, and yarrow grow tall in pots. Thyme, pennyroyal, sage, and rosemary spread and cascade over the edge of pots and hanging baskets. Containers are a great way to confine the somewhat invasive herbs like oregano and mints.
Pots for container gardening come in all shapes, sizes, and materials. Clay pots are most popular, but are short-lived when exposed to the moisture of frequent waterings. To preserve clay pots, line the inside with plastic before putting in soil and plants. I like using a plastic bags of varying capacity, depending on the size of the container. Just remember to punch a hole through the plastic in the bottom of the pot to allow water to drain out of the pot.
New light-weight containers, made from Styrofoam-type materials are now available at most garden centers and home supply stores. They're great for moving tender plants to protected locations on cold nights. They also allow plants to be moved in and out of shaded locations as the seasons change.
A good quality soil mix is probably the most important ingredient to successful container gardening. Plants will not thrive if they're planted in a poor soil mix that lacks proper drainage. The soil should have enough body to hold sufficient water and nutrients, but be light enough to provide open pore spaces for good drainage and air movement. Avoid heavy soils. These are composed mostly of bog peat. Compare soils by picking up the bags and comparing similar sized bags by weight. Choose the lighter mix. You'll pay more for high quality potting soil, but it's worth it!
One of the best ways to fertilize container plants is by using a timed release product such as Osmocote or Scott's timed release. These products come in various release times, from 3 months to 12 months, some even longer. Gear the product to what you are growing. Short crops like annual flowers and vegetables will require a 3 or 4 month release fertilizer. Long term pot plants, like perennial herbs or woody shrubs will require longer lasting formulations. Potted plants will need the full compliment of nutrients, both macro and micro-nutrients. Select a fertilizer higher in nitrogen, for leafy plants. For flowering and fruiting plants choose one higher in phosphorous.
Invest in an automatic watering system, especially if you have several potted plants. It's too easy to forget to hand water. Battery operated timers are available at hardware and home supply stores. These can be connected to a water faucet and irrigation tubing. Drip emitters placed in the pots should be selected on pot size. Use higher volume drip emitters on large containers and lower volume ones on small pots. This will allow for more consistent watering when all the pots are run off of a single irrigation line.
Finally, when using a drip system, water at night or in the early morning. Watering through an irrigation line should be avoided during the middle of the day. The sun heats up black poly tubing and the water inside. This hot water can damage plant roots.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona, 520-626-5161.
Material originally appeared in Arizona Daily Star gardening column, on October 17, 1999
- Updated: October 17, 1999
-
-
[e-Mail me
the Articles] - [Search
the Articles]
-
|
