1. Home
  2. Home & Garden
  3. Gardening

Container Gardening - Designing and Displaying Potted Gardens

Container gardening offers all the perks and challenges of gardening in a bed. There is almost nothing that can’t be grown in a container. Choosing and combining plants to grow in containers is a great way to experiment with garden design. Whether you choose to display a grouping of one plant per pot or create an entire garden in a single container, you can’t fail, because you can always swap plants in and out. You can even have a high yield vegetable, fruit or herb garden container garden.
Gardening in Containers

With so many plant containers and pots to choose from, it's hard not to buy them all. Container gardening lets you experiment with different styles and gardening techniques. Here are some unusual plant containers and pots to help you design your container gardens.

Containers & Pots - Choosing Garden Planters and Containers
With so many plant containers and pots available for use in gardens, on decks and porches and indoors, how do you choose the best one? Too often we are guided by our taste alone. However to keep your container gardens growing happy and healthy you should give some consideration to the plants needs when choosing a planter. Here are some things to think about.
Putting Together Container Gardens
Container Gardening - Putting Together Containers
Tips for Great Container Gardens - Creating a Garden in a Pot
Container gardening offers many conveniences. Good soil, easy access and the ability to correct mistakes quickly are just a few. These rules of thumb can help you successfully combine plants to create a container garden.
Plants - Choosing Plants to Use in Your Container Garden
Container gardens offer the advantage of changing your garden with every season. The choice of plant material is limited only by your climate and your imagination. Keep in mind the scale of the container and how aggressively the plant grows. While you want your container garden to look full, fast growers will quickly outgrow their pots. The following choices should get you thinking.
Plants - Combining Plants for Containers
Container gardening offers immediate gratification. You can experiment with new plants and combinations. If you don’t like the result, start over with minimal trouble. There are no rules for designing a container garden. However, there are certain design principles that can be scaled to container size and make creating effective container gardens an art.
Ornamental Grasses for Containers
Growing ornamental grasses in containers is a great way to feature grasses without the worry of them spreading or taking over the garden. Here are my top ten picks for ornamental grasses grown in containers.
Fall - Plants for Fall Containers
Create stunning fall containers with unusual foliage and flowers in the shades of autumn. Many fall blooming garden plants make wonderful container plants. You can create wonderful unique fall container gardens using foliage and flowering plants in the colors of autumn, if you just look around and notice what catches your eye in the landscape. Here are some favorites.
Making the Most of Container Gardens
Small spaces and containers simply go together. Containers give you the chance to experiment and try different plants. If you don’t like it or a plant is under-performing, it is easy to correct. But where containers really excel is in control. The gardeners can choose just the right soil, the right exposure and the right cultural conditions.
Patios & Terraces: Small Space Gardening on a Patio or Terrace
Patios and Terraces are now looked at as extensions to our homes, outdoor rooms. They can be linked to the outdoors with some clever planting. Whether you are looking for a way to create a garden at arms length or a way to cut back on gardening without sacrificing the beauty, patio and terrace gardening could be the answer.
Hypertufa - How To Make Your Own Hypertufa Troughs & Decorations
Hypertufa planters are a wonderful way to bring the look of stone into your garden, without the weight. Hypertufa is easy to make yourself at home. Although it can be messy, it’s also a lot of fun. Here are some basic recipes and some creative suggestions for hypertufa toughs and garden decorations.
How to Plant a Strawberry Pot
Strawberry pots make wonderful container gardens. You can either grow an entire crop of one plant, say strawberries for instance, or you can plant a mini-garden. Strawberry pots require a planting technique all their own. You can't just fill them with soil and stick some plants in the top. However the planting technique, as shown here, is very simple and once planted your strawberry pot will just get better looking throughout the season.
Overwatering - How to Prevent Overwatering of Containers
It’s hard to tell when enough is enough. About.com’s Guide to Container Gardening shares some tips for giving your container plants just enough water.
Frost - Protecting Containers from Frost Damage
How to get your containers through a cold winter, in tact.
How Can I Over-Winter My Container Plants?
Plants are always better off in the ground during winter in freezing climates. If you must leave your plants in containers, you’ll need to provide some extra protection. Here are things to consider before you decide to overwinter your container plants and how to keep potted plants alive through the winter.
How Do You Over-Winter Outdoor Plants in Containers?
How Do You Over Winter Outdoor Plants in Containers?
Bring Outdoor Accessories Inside this Winter for Year Round Enjoyment
Cold weather used to mean moving all your delicate flower pots and garden ornaments into the garage for safe keeping. Why just store your garden accessories and have them take up space when you could put them to good use indoors. Here are some creative ideas for using garden items indoors during the winter.
What is a Soilless Potting Mix?
Starting plants from seed is a lot of fun, but it’s not so much fun to watch them wither and die shortly after germination. One way to gain an advantage is to use a sterile potting mix, because you never know what problems come along with soil from the garden. If you’re going with a potting mix anyway, you might want the further advantages a soilless mix brings. Here’s a rundown on what’s in the potting mix if you leave out the soil, and why you’d bother to in the first place.
Soilless Potting Mix Recipes
A soilless potting mix is preferable to using outdoor garden soil for several reasons. And there are many good soilless mixes on the market. However if you need a large quantity of mix or have a need for a special blend, it is often easier to simply create your own potting mix. Here are some basic recipes to try and to improvise with.
Container Garden Book - Container Gardening for Canada
Container gardening allows you to experiment with plants and to grow plants in small areas and problem sites. This handbook on container gardening gives tips for making the most of potted plants, combining containers and choosing plants for color and interest.
Help for When You Need to Move Plants Around
Large plants are wonderful to look at, but a handful to move. Place your large pots on plant caddies, for easy movement anytime. You can roll the plant to the sink, to water, roll it into the sun, roll it indoors or out or anywhere you want. Plant caddies can be decorative or invisible, but they're always functional. Here are some top pick plant caddies.
Square Foot Gardening Success Kit
This truly is square foot gardening and for someone with a small terrace or patio who wants to experiment with a few plants, it’s a good idea. The kit comes with everything you’ll need to get started growing, except a plant. They leave that choice up to you.
UltraGrow Plant Container Insert
Gardeners put all sorts of things at the bottom of their plant containers to help water drain through and keep bugs out. Here's an elegant little product that takes the place of playing with stones, broken pots and screening and you can use it over and over again.
Ups-A-Daisy - Plant Container Insert
Ups-A-Daisy is a false bottom for overly large planters. It will save on soil and keep containers from becoming unduly heavy. However it doesn’t fit all planter sizes and sometimes you actually need the extra soil, even if it means you can’t lift the pot.

Explore Gardening

About.com Special Features

Holiday Central

What to eat, where to go, fun things to do and how to save money on the perfect gifts. More >

Make Your Own Scented Pine Cones

Bring a little of the fall season in your home with this easy-to-make craft. More >

  1. Home
  2. Home & Garden
  3. Gardening
  4. Container Gardening

©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.