Container Gardening - Is It a Good Idea?

Container gardening has so many benefits, it’s hard to believe more people aren’t doing it. Although it has become more popular over the past couple of decades, it still isn’t as popular as many other methods.

One of the biggest benefits of growing your plants in containers is the fact that it makes gardening accessible to almost anyone.

• Choosing Containers for Your Container Garden
  
  Choosing the right container for a particular type of plant is critical to its success.

Handicapped individuals find growing their plants in containers makes it easier to locate plants where they can easily reach them.

Many people in wheelchairs like to place their pots on a low table to make them more accessible. Elderly people who can’t work traditional gardens may find container gardening to be an excellent way to once again enjoy their favorite hobby.

Even children find container gardening to be much easier than traditional gardening, because they don’t have to weed and rake and hoe, and they don’t have to have an adult till soil for them.

Another major benefit of container gardening is the ability to move plants if you need to. If you’re growing your plants outdoors and bad weather comes, you can bring your plants inside where they’ll be safe.

If you plan your garden poorly and your plants are getting too little sun or too much, you can easily move their containers to a better location. And you can even move your plants on a whim if you decide they’d look better elsewhere.

Plants grown in containers don’t have the same issues with diseases that traditionally-grown plants have. Although some container-grown plants do get diseases, it is far less likely than it would be if those plants were grown directly in the soil. Potting soil is generally free of disease-causing organisms, so your plants will be safer.

Keeping your plants well-fed is also easier when they’re grown in containers. It’s much easier to ensure the fertilizer you use gets to your plants if they’re confined to a small area of soil. When you fertilize plants that are growing directly in the soil, the fertilizer may drain away or be absorbed by other nearby plants. This is not as likely when plants are grown in containers.

Of course, when the soil area is relatively small, there is a chance the fertilizer can be washed out of the soil faster. Because of this, you do often need to fertilize more often than you would a traditional garden.

But you can rest assured that your plants are probably getting more of the fertilizer before it does wash away than they would probably get if they were in the ground. When you grow your plants in containers, you’ll also be able to extend their growing season.

By carefully insulating pots by wrapping them in blankets or other insulating materials, you can keep their soil warmer than the ground soil. You can start your plants early indoors or in a cold frame, then you can easily move them to larger pots outdoors when the time is right.

You can also use careful insulation to continue to grow plants after the first frost, and you can even bring plants indoors once it becomes too cold to keep them outside even when insulated. Saving space is another great benefit of container gardening.

Many people live in apartments or in homes with very little yard space. Container gardening allows you to have a garden on a porch or patio, or even indoors. Many people have small container gardens in a sunny windowsill in their kitchen, or in a sunroom or spare bedroom.

Some people even grow plants in a closet by using a grow light! Growing plants in pots really makes it easy to have a garden when you don’t have the space for a traditional one!