Add A New Dimension To Your Living Space With
Container Gardening

Container gardening is a great way to grow shrubs, flowers and even vegetables, particularly in areas where there is limited space, such as apartments and areas in busy towns.

However, any home can be made most welcoming with the addition of containers full of colorful flowers. Window boxes, hanging baskets as well as pots when used in combination can look incredibly stunning.

No matter whether you organize your plant containers in groups for mass impact or accentuate a smaller spot using a solitary specimen, you're going to be absolutely thrilled with this relatively easy approach to creating a mini garden.

By using plant containers you will be able to alter your color layout as often as you wish, and as each shrub of flower finishes blooming, you can replace it with another.

If you decide to balance or contrast your colors, always make sure that there is a variation in the height of each and every plant. You may also want to consider the texture and shape of the leaves. You will find that tall strap like leaves will provide a really good vertical background for wide leaved plants that are low growing.

Go for plants and flowers with a lengthy flowering period, and have different ones ready to replace them when they have finished blooming.

Get Creative...

There are a myriad of containers available, so you may want to have fun and get creative using several different sizes and shapes. It's possible you may have an old bowl, bucket or urn that could be used, or if you're like to take a real hands on approach you could make one yourself with wood or tiles.

In the event that you choose to purchase your containers, terracotta pots are a common choice, they look marvelous, but have a tendency to absorb water and can break easily. The last thing you want is for your plants to dry out, so you could paint the inside with a special water sealer, or a water retaining gel.

Additionally a top dressing of mulch and a slow release fertilizer helps to reduce the evaporation rate whilst greatly reducing or eliminating regular feedings.

If you have any basic plastic pots hanging around you could always get creative and add color by painting them with a decent water based paint. Oh, and don't forget to saucers to catch the drips, this will help to prevent water being wasted and also help to keep your patio or decking floor clean.

It goes without saying that you should always use a high quality potting mix in your garden containers. This will guarantee that you get the very best growth and flowering from your plants.

Containers full of colorful flowers look particularly enticing at the entrance to the front of a house, where an attractive pot place at either side of the door creates a pleasing atmosphere.

Planning is the key to success...

As some pots are pretty heavy when full you will want to decide in advance where they should be positioned. Keep in mind your choice of plants are also critical to your success. There is absolutely no point placing sun loving plants in the shade.

Should you be fortunate enough to have plenty of room at the front of your home you will find that generally speaking a small grouping of potted plants positioned off to one side is often more eye-catching than two similar plants set either side.

Pots in groups are best placed in odd numbers as opposed to even, and the height and type of pot should be varied for the best effect.An alternative is to use three or five pots of the same color and type, using various sizes, this can look equally effective.

Container Gardening is not difficult and you can get as creative as you want to be.

250 Container Gardening Designs...

There are a number of books on the subject of container gardening, so if you would like a little off-line reading, here is an interesting one brimming with ideas, information and advice.

In fact it has 250 Design Ideas & Step-By-Step Techniques with full instructions.

Without doubt this book will provide you with plenty of inspiration, with dramatic plant combinations and techniques to plant and care for containers under a variety of conditions.

Even a novice will soon be able to create containers which can be used to create boundaries, direct traffic, break up wall space, and soften edges throughout the year.