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 colorful 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 cozy 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 will work even pots in different sizes of the same
color and types are also very effective. Using old ladders to place the pots on
will also add beauty.
With a creative mind and some determination, you will
soon have a container garden that will be the envy of friends and strangers
alike.
