Container Gardening

Growing plants in containers solves many problem facing the gardener, but it also creates a few unique problems. The advantages are that to can to a degree control the plants conditions. For example if you live in a chalky soil area and wish to grow azaleas or other acid loving plants you face a problem, but if you opt to grow them in pots you have use a sedge type peat combined with dressings of iron sulphate or flowers of sulphur to maintain a low or acid pH. There many advantages to using containers some of do not spring to mind straight away such as the additional height the plant gains, no need to wait for it to grow. Another advantage is that using containers means that you can experiment with different combinations of plants moving them around changing how they interact together with regard to the heights, leaf colour and flower colour. As the seasons change you can rearrange the plant to highlight the most interesting plant, placing the flowing plants at the front. Container growing also provides its own special problems, such as wine weevils and a few other pest problems. The soil or compost have there own set of requirements such as the need to maintain the correct pH. For example if you are growing acid loving plants and watering with tap water pH in the container will rise and you will need to counter act this. One obvious draw back with pots is its dependence on you to provide water on a daily bases in the summer. However micro irrigation systems often provide the solution. When considering irrigation you must first explore how the plant grows natural. In the case of a fern it would be better to water as a fine spay over the whole plant but for petunias in containers the same method will greatly reduce flowering. For further details on irrigation for contain see the GardenAdvice guide containing tips and advice plus our free irrigation design service.