Container Gardening Tips

Want to build a chicken coop in your backyard? Check out this video for more information.

Containers can be placed anywhere in your garden to profile favorite plants.  The astible is one such perennial I like growing under a tree to give some movement and color.  Pick a rather tall container, add a good potting mix with moisture control beads and plant your astilbe.  I like the color and spiky pink flowers of the ” Bressington Beauty “.  The plant has a growing height of 10-48 inches with a width of 24-30 inches.  This is a taller container plant and will need to be placed behind your smaller container plantings.  Remember to keep the astilbe watered and fertilize with a 10-10-10 twice a year, spring and fall.  Enjoy this shade loving perennial in your shade container garden.

A cutting is taken from the parent plant by way of removing with a knife or scissors.  The cutting removed from your container plants cannot support itself and therefore must be placed into a rooting medium.  A simple solution can be found in gardening stores in peat pots.  Two of my favorite container plants and the easiest plants to propagate are Fuchias and Impatients.  Normally soft tip cuttings are taken in early summer but it is not too late to get a head start for Spring.

Your container plantings will still have some morning dew and it’s the best time to take a cutting.  Look for healthy stems without any kind of mold or damage.  Have the peat pots filled with compost, a rooting compound and water ready to go as soon as your cuttings are made.

Cut the stem about 3 inches long, remove all but 2 leaves and remove any flowers or buds.  Dip into the rooting hormone and push into the pot.  Water gently.  Place the cuttings in a warm area out of direct sunlight and water daily.  Within a few days give the cuttings a gentle tug.  If roots have formed they will stay secure.

The newly formed plants can be kept through the winter in a cold frame, green house or even in the house out of direct sunlight.  In the Spring they can be transplanted into larger pots and fertilized with half-strength liquid plant fertilizer.  Pinch new growth to allow the plants to become fuller and more compact.

Now you have many new plants ready for selling to friends and neighbors or plant in your containers.  Your cost has been minimal.  Imagine rooting 300 plants and your profit margin.  Most gardening supply houses sell planters, materials and containers at 50% at summer’s end.

Just a suggestion on profiting from new plants for yourself and making a little profit to buy even more plants for your pleasure.  Look for containers on sale or make them from Hypertufa and enjoy!

One of the problems with planting Dutch Irises north of Zone 5 the bulbs need to be dug and stored or they will freeze.  The solution to this problem is planting these beautiful bulbs in containers.   Pick a container large enough to plant the bulbs 5 inches deep.  Place them so they do not touch and cover with the potting mix.  This should be done in October.  I would keep the containers in a protected area and water.  In the Spring place the pots in a sunny location.

Irises come in the most beautiful array of colors.  Dark velvety purple with yellow varieties are ” Purple Sensation, ” ” Blue Ribbon, ” and ” Romano.”  For pastel versions of the same colors try the light purple with yellow varieties such as ” Rosalie, ” ” Silvery Beauty,” and ” Oriental Beauty.”  For an all white Dutch Iris my favorite is ” White Perfection.”

It is the middle of summer and all I can think about is Fall flower catalogues. This is the time to start thinking about what to plan for next Spring and Summer. There are so many options that it can be overwhelming and deciding on which perennials and annuals to plant. Here is one of my favorite catalogues. Think about how you want your container gardening displayed in shade or sun and chose your plants for these placements. Relax and chose!

http://easycontainergardeningtips.com/bloom

I have gotten some questions on plant problems and will be posting a Q & A. If you have a question please post.

Since we have only lived in this house for less then a year my garden is still in the infancy stages.  Here are my few herbs in the containers surrounding a containered bamboo a stranger was tossing out!  It loves being rehomed in my front yard.  The hanging baskets have annuals.  Next Spring I have a lot of ideas.

Mary had it easy with her silver bells and cockle shells. Bet she never had to worry about things like nutrient loads or a pernicious bell-shell worm! But those of us who choose to grow our own delights must be wary of a host of potential problems. Generally speaking, once a problem is diagnosed, the solution is often fairly easy. It is figuring out the problem that is the hard part. Here’s some gardening advice for 5 common problems that occur in ground or container gardens.
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You know you’re addicted to gardening when you have used up every inch of ground, patio, and/or counter space! Or maybe you didn’t really have any of that to begin with. No problem. A hanging container garden could solve all your space concerns. Here are some tips to help you start hanging container gardening.
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Delicate, sweet, juicy, perfect for eating on a hot summer’s day; it’s easy to see why fruit is so wonderful. Fruit is a great treat, it’s healthier than processed surgery snacks, low in calories, comes in all the colors of the rainbow. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s sold unripe, and ends up lacking flavor. So why not grow your own? You don’t need endless acres of orchard to be harvesting your own crops. Here are three types of fruit that can be grown in containers and some container fruit gardening tips.
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