Gardening fanatics, with no space for a garden, like apartment dwellers and those in shared housing, can be assured gardening is not inevitably gone from their lives. You can always build a container garden on a balcony, patio, deck, or sunny window. Not only the joy of flowers but vegetables and some fruits can be grown. You can raise perennials, annuals, and even shrubs and small trees all in a container. Container gardening can present its own set of challenges. It requires proper planning just like any other kind of gardening. Youll need to find your USDA zone (to identify plants suitable for your zone), see how much daylight you get in your apartment or balcony, and from there you can select the best plant variety. When buying plants be prudent and choose ones with a healthy appearance and good natural shape. Trunks should be straight. Stay away from plants with twisted, slanted or deformed stems, which can affect the healthy growth of a plant. Try to buy your plants from the local nursery unless you have the right conditions to raise seedlings indoors. For your container, glazed ceramic pots with drainage holes are a good choice. Terracotta pots are nice looking, true, but dry out quickly and leave your plants without moisture. Wooden containers are good, but can be susceptible to rot. Cedar and redwood are fairly rot resistant and make nice containers but make sure the wood is not treated with creosote or other toxic materials that can damage the plants. Although you in general dont want to keep your container garden plants outside when the temperature dips below 45 F, there are plants that are frost resistant for colder climates. Eulalia grasses, Mexican feather grass, Cornflowers, Lavender cottons, Jasmine, Million bells, and Stonecrops, stand up to the frost well. If you follow these few suggestions you will be off to a good start with your new minature garden creation. |
