Mistakes Made Container Gardening
Understand Plant Spacing and Maintenance Needs if Gardening in Pots
Apr 16, 2008
Plant Spacing
Over or under estimating the number of plants needed to fill in a container is a common mistake. Many factors can play into this problem:
- Know the size of the individual container – If a container is 6 inches or 18 inches in diameter, it matters. It will determine what type of plant(s) can be used and how many needed.
- Create a plan for the container garden – If a gardener has a large container garden, purchasing too many plants can be just a matter of pulling out another pot to plant and place in the garden. But if the container garden is limited to one 24- inch diameter pot, then planning ahead will make gardening more rewarding.
- Read plant labels – All plant descriptions indicate height and width of the mature plant and required plant spacing.
- Anticipate the cost of planting a container garden –Go for one high quality grown plant. Purchasing many cheaply priced plants, not well cared for by the store, is a deceptively bad bargain.
- Look for plants packed in individual pots - If all a gardener needs is one tomato plant or two green pepper plants, look for garden centers that sell them that way.
- Understand the gardener’s personal tolerance – Some gardeners like plants to be immediately spilling over the edge. Other gardeners tolerate open soil between plants and are willing to wait for plants to fill in. A garden grows; it is never stagnant. Gardeners should find and accept a personal balance between the two.
Plant Maintenance Planning
Gardeners should factor deadheading plants into the daily/weekly plant maintenance and clean up routine of a container garden. Some plants like the annual geranium, Pelargonium, and some types of petunias require deadheading to look good and stay healthy. Deadheading a plant is the removal of the dying flower heads from a plant.
There are some plants that are self-cleaning. Plants like impatiens or calabrachoea naturally eliminate their dead flowers and are considered low maintenance plants for this reason.
Watering Container Plants
Watering container plants is about frequency and amount of water, as well as the drainage the pot needs. Containers outside during the summer should be watered, at least, once a day and until the water is running out of the bottom of the container. During very hot days, even in northern climates, expect to water containers twice a day.
If the soil in a container has become excessively dry then soaking the soil slowly will be necessary. Other factors influencing the frequency to water container gardens include exposure of daily sunlight and wind, regional climate, material of the container and types and number of plants.
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