How to Make a Container Garden

Building a container garden is a way for city dwellers to have fresh salad makings or it can be the last resort for a suburbanite to keep them away from the rabbits and chipmunks. Container gardens grace high rise patios and rural porches. A container garden is a convenient and attractive way to bring the outdoors in and grow plants that can be easily brought indoors to extend the growing season. Here's how to get started.

Things You'll Need

• Pots
• Growing medium
• Plants
• Water
• Fertilizer

Instructions

1. Decide what you want to grow. Do a little research. Some plants grow better in pots than others. Some, like tomatoes, require deep pots for their large root systems. Some, like geraniums, prefer stout, short pots that keep the water up near their shallow roots. Get a good book on container gardening to use for reference and browse through it on winter evenings, planning your summer garden.

2. Buy or build the best containers you can afford. Stay away from decorative pots unless you want to invest in a floral presentation. Buy whiskey barrels or build one and a half to two foot-deep boxes. You can put a few pretty pots in front of them. Choose containers that aren't too large to be able to reach over and around when your plants are full-grown. If you're building containers, use cedar, non-chemical-treated or manufactured wood for durability.

3. Pick a place for your container garden where plants will get the hours of sunlight they will need each day. Unless you live in an area that is subject to monsoon rains, it helps to put plants in a place where they can catch rainfall. Not only does this type of exposure cut down on watering trips, it brings some of the free nitrogen in the air during thunderstorms into the container.

4. Provide drainage for your plants by drilling a few holes in the bottom of your containers. To avoid having soil wash out, tip plastic saucers pots over the holes and add about an inch of gravel in the bottom of each container.

5. Use a soil mix recommended for container gardening. There are a number of "soilless" mixes and special potting mixes available that are largely composed of vermiculite or compost material that will not compact and suffocate roots. You also should look for a mix that will retain water so that any fertilizer you use doesn't run right through onto the porch. Most importantly, a soilless mix weighs a fraction of what regular soil weighs. When you add water, gravel and soil to a container, you can have a tomato patch that weighs over 50 pounds. If you want several large containers, you need to find a light potting mixture.

6. 

   Plant right and fertilize according to directions. Plant flowers and vegetables as close as directions allow but don't crowd or you'll be lugging water out every four hours. Use a time-release fertilizer when you plant or a liquid fertilizer, following the directions for potted plants. Some fertilizers recommend "foliar feeding." If you use this method, be sure to give your plants thorough showers as you water in the 10 to 14 days between fertilizer applications.

Tips & Warnings

• Look up "companion planting" information to help you design your garden. Using varieties that complement each other in cultural needs increases your plants' yield and keeps them healthy and happy.

• Containers provide a way for elderly or people with physical limitations to enjoy the recreational benefits of gardening.

Resources

• Container garden information
• Cornell University's flowering container gardens
• Vegetable gardening in containers