Caring For Container Plants - Everything You Need To Know

With more people wanting to grow their own – whether it’s vegetables, fruit or flowers – then container gardening is becoming increasingly popular with those who have limited or no garden space. 

Containers for the garden come in lots of shapes and sizes, as well as different materials. They can also be used in lots of locations, from a planter in your garden, to one on your balcony, to a planter either side of your front or back door, in a small yard, on a driveway - the choices are endless.

If you do have a garden, this doesn’t mean that you won’t want to do any container gardening. In fact planters offer maximum flexibility when being used in any garden, small or large. One large container could be a statement feature, small containers could be placed on steps, doorways, porches, hanging from brackets or on windowsills. Garden planters can even be raised off the ground on plinths or placed on the ground in clusters or used singly. They can be placed by doorways or gateways or by arches.

And finally, garden planters can be used for both decorative or practical purposes. They can be filled with a huge range of plants, from flowers to fruit, shrubs to vegetables, climbers to trailers, allowing you to raise a selection of plants even with limited space.

Here we will give you a brief overview of the types available containers for the garden, but more importantly, how to keep your plants thriving when they are growing in contained space. 

Wooden Planters 

To enhance a naturally styled garden then a traditional planter made from wood might be the answer. Available in a wide range of sizes, shapes and styles, you’re sure to find the right planter to suit your house and garden. 

Metal Containers 

Everlasting Planters These rot and rust proof aluminium planters will last forever – a simple wash down keeps them looking pristine year after year. Their 10 inch depth provides ample space for good root growth, whilst a free draining base ensures your plants are not waterlogged. Click here to see full details.

Although a metal planter might be everlasting, your planting of it doesn’t have to be. Unlike planning a garden which is likely to have plants that might be in them for their life, your gardens life, or until you move house (such as some shrubs or trees) container gardening allows you more flexibility – you can plant a container just to last one season then discard and start again.

This makes planters perfect for small crops, or for colourful planters packed full of annuals. In fact, the same planter can be used to house a wide range of plants throughout the seasons, simply filling with new compost and plants every time the season changes. 

Plastic Containers 

For families with young children, creating a ‘themed’ raised bed will help introduce them to where their food comes from, how it grows and encourage them to try new things.

You could create a ‘pizza’ bed packed with things you could add as a topping such as tomatoes, peppers, basil etc. Or a colourful ‘salad’ bed where you could plant different varieties of lettuce, salad onions, chives, cherry tomatoes, parsley etc. The choices are virtually endless!!

And because these crops will need to be sown again the following year, you can try different herbs, vegetables or fruit each time.

Window Boxes And Hanging Baskets 

Small window boxes and hanging baskets require more attention to keep them looking good as they have very limited space to hold compost yet will be packed full of plants. This means that on hot summer days they will be prone to dry out so quickly that you may need to water them twice a day.

You can make watering and tending your hanging baskets easier by fitting a Hi Lo between your hanging basket and it’s supporting bracket.  

Colour

Did you know that the colour of your planter can affect the plants being grown in it?

The colour of the planter can affect the temperature of the soil and the temperature of the soil will affect how the plants grow. Dark coloured planters will help to increase soil temperatures, light coloured planters will help to keep the soil cooler.

Research has shown that root growth is affected if the soil becomes too warm – although many plants tolerate heat well, for heat sensitive plants root growth could be significantly lower. So on hot sunny days, plants growing outdoors in planters which are small and dark will not grow as well as those in small, light planters.

Although this is important when you’re a commercial grower or a nursery, for home gardeners it has less impact.

Watering

One of the most essential tasks to ensure your planters remain healthy is to get their watering correct. Incorrect watering can result in stunted growth, reduced flowering, smaller crops and increased disease and pest damage.

As plants growing in containers are in a restricted place they only have that limited space from which to access water.

Depending on the time of the year and the weather will also affect how often you should water plants in garden containers – although the important thing to remember is never let the compost within the planters dry out completely between watering's as it then makes it harder to water your plants and recover them from that situation.

To determine if you need to water your plants there are certain things to look out for or tests which can be done.

The simplest way to test if it's time to water your planters is to stick your index finger into the soil in the planter up to the knuckle – if the soil feels dry it’s time to water.

If you want a cleaner, more scientific way of checking the moisture in the soil you could use a Moisture Meter.

Moisture Meter Easily and accurately check if your plants need watering with this moisture meter. Simply insert the five inch long metal probe into the compost in the planter to measure the moisture level where the plants roots will be. The meter splits the moisture level into a range of 1 to 10 so its quick and easy to see when you need to water. Click here to see full details.

Top Tip
In larger containers, especially those that you intend to leave with the same plants in situ from year to year, adding a layer of mulch to the top of the container will help to retain moisture. Plus, has the added benefit of looking attractive too.

Drainage

When you’re choosing your planters make sure that you consider the drainage they offer – although you want to keep plants well-watered, you don’t want them to be sat in a pool of water which can’t escape, as this will potentially rot the roots and kill your plants.

For plastic or ceramic planters look at the size of the holes in their base – you want them to be large enough for excess water to drain out yet not so big that compost gets washed away. If you have plastic planters with no holes you could try drilling them yourself to provide drainage – although this is not an option with terracotta or ceramic pots. If these have no holes in them you are best to use them as the decorative ‘outer’ pot, using a plastic pot to fit inside into which you grow your plants.

Don’t be tempted to cover the holes in the base of your planter with a layer of gravel or broken pots to prevent compost from escaping - it won’t help with drainage and could block the holes. You could instead add a paper towel, piece of newspaper, a bit of weed mulch etc at the base of the pot before adding the compost.

Nutrients

As with watering, because your plants are growing in a compact space with limited compost, they will soon use up the nutrients within the compost as they grow. So it’s important to top up the nutrients when you water – ideally during the growing season once a week you should add a water-soluble fertiliser when you water.

If you have an automated watering system set up to keep your container plants watered, then adding fertiliser into this system is easy if the manufacturer has designed a container which can be added to your irrigation system to hold and dispense fertiliser.

Gardena have done exactly this when they developed their Fertiliser Dispenser.  

If you prefer to provide your plants with nutrients as a foliar feed then this could be supplied using a pressure sprayer to spray the leaves.

Gardena Hand Pressure Sprayer Ideal for applying water, nutrient rich water or pest repellent to your plants this 1.25 litre sprayer is perfect for your container gardening. Easy to use the ergonomic pump and handle grip makes it easy to build up pressure for effortless watering at the press of a button. Click here to see full details.

Pest Control

There are a few things you can do prior to planting your containers which should help reduce the chance of pests:

• Clean the containers prior to planting – in hot soapy water or using a natural cleaner like Citrox.
• Use fresh potting compost – bags of potting compost should be pest free. If you need to store open bags of compost it’s best to keep it in a sealed container, such as our Storage Seat or Dry Bin, to keep pests out.
• Check plants before placing into your container – if you’re buying plants from a nursery, swopping plants with a fellow gardener or bringing them out from your greenhouse always look on the undersides of leaves, underneath the pot, and when you remove the plant from the pot ready to put into the container check the root ball.

These simple little chores will help reduce the chance of pests setting up residence with your new plants.

Deadheading

Whether your garden containers are the only space you have to raise plants, or if they form part of the decoration within a larger garden, it’s important to spend some time to keep them looking their best. This involves deadheading spent flowers and removing tattered leaves.  

Ultimate Outdoor Gloves Ideal when handling plants in your garden, these gloves keep your hands clean and comfortable as you work. Water-resistant, they use the latest technology to keep water out whilst allowing warmth and moisture to escape.  Combine this with maximum flexibility and tactility created by using a thin coating and seamless liner ensures you could work comfortably for long periods.   Click here to see full details.

You also need to be ruthless when it comes to container gardener – you only have limited growing space so need to make the best of it!

This means that plants which don’t grow well or clash with others in the same container should be dug out and replaced with a different plant.

To do this – and in fact when planting containers for the first time – it makes your life easier if you have a trowel with a narrow head to fit easily into compact spaces, such as the Multi Trowel from Darlac.