Container Gardening: Sustainable Decorator Touches

When yard space is limited or non-existent and you need to grow a protected garden, indoors or out, try planting in unexpected-makeshift containers. Use a variety of recycled cups or glasses on the kitchen windowsill or arrange outdoor rock sculptures, and you will be able to create imaginative gardens with a decorative flair, as shown in my "Decorative Container Gardening" slideshow.

Decorative Fruit & Vegetable Containers

Herbs, beans, and peas can be planted in worn-out cups along high windowsills and also be planted around potted dwarf trees, performing double duty as natural bug repellent or decorative ground covering along walkways and fences. Favorite kitchen herbs such as mint, oregano, basil, dill, rosemary, and thyme can be grown in bulk, dried and stored as seasoning, or used fresh to cook potent flavoring into family meals.

Peas, beans, grapes, and berries can be planted alongside colorful flowers in cemented-curbside troughs to trellis up decorative fencing. While providing privacy from the street, you can simultaneously grow garden fruits and vegetables to feed your family.

Create an indoor oasis with potted plants and/or fruits and vegetables by any window doorway, offering greenhouse-type protection from the elements for food gardens. Other bonus features of indoor container gardening include weed-control, require less water, and provide interior air filtration, as well as natural room heating.

Recycled Containers for Succulents & Cactus Plants

Unless succulents or cactus plants are potted, just like weeds they will grow out of control, and can be difficult to trim or cut back, due to stickers and sharp points. Never take these unique water-conserving plants out of their containers (only re-pot) or you will have to pay a gardening crew thousands of dollars to remove, and then de-root them.

If your succulents have been transplanted into your yard try corralling them with boulders, or try cementing rocks around them for a decoratively confining planter. Replanting these quickly-overgrown plants right in their broken containers, can help reinforce hillside slopes by preventing slippage.

Cheerful Built-in Gardens & Flower-Boxes

Why settle for window flower-boxes when it's possible to cement together a small curb-style planter from river-stones alongside the foundation of your home. Fill planter boxes with edible garden foods or prolific flowers like geraniums to produce window-box views.

Another unusual type of garden can be planted right into rain gutters that are permanently affixed to exterior house siding, as in this illustrated article "Eating Out of the Gutter". Rain gutters can be decoratively attached along sunny house walls, growing rows of easily-harvested foods that will catch available rain water.

Whatever your garden-decor needs are, from needing more color or privacy, dealing with confined spaces, or growing more food for your family, there is a viable solution with container gardening. Re-using eclectic recyclables saves time and money, while adding decorative charm to your home and garden.