Tips for Outdoor Container Gardening

When your yard area is limited or you want to create a special décor in the outdoors, outdoor container gardening is a wonderful option. With container gardening, you can stack the pots on top of one another in a rack giving your surroundings a nice green look while conserving space and making it easier to manage the plants. For those interested in growing organic plants, container gardening is the only option if the yard soil is not suitable. You can grow a variety of flowering plants, herbs, vegetables and salad greens in outdoor containers.

Here are some tips in getting started with outdoor container gardening.

The container: Only your imagination limits the container you can use. You can use old buckets and pots or some fancy decorative mud, clay or terracota pots and planters. The only things to look for are that the containers should not be made of rusty material, they should have wide opening to avoid crowing of plants and should be rot-resistant. Select the container's size according to the plant you plan to grow in it. Plants with bigger and longer roots need at least a 5-gallon container. Make sure that the container has enough holes to provide good water drainage.

The growing medium: Prepare a growing medium by mixing soil, compost and sand in equal measures. Add peat moss to the mix so that the mix holds water. Add a little lime to the mix if you think it is acidic. You can also buy from stores that sell potting mix for your plants. Put ½"-1" of coarse gravel in the container before filling it up with the mix - this will help with draining excess water. As you fill the container with the medium, leave 1½"-2" of gap between the mix level and container's height. You can add mulch in this space later. Check that the soil is free from insects and weeds.

Plant the organic seeds: Plant the seeds in trays or seeding pots filled with a thin (1/2" to 1" thick) layer of the potting medium. Place them where there is sufficient air and sunlight. Once they germinate and grow a few leaves, carefully place them in containers. Follow instructions on spacing requirements for the vegetable (they come with the seed-packet).

Watering and fertilizing: Germinate the seeds in the potting mix separately. And transfer the plants to their containers once they grow a couple of inches long. Container mixes tend to lose water and fertilizers quickly - so they must be replenished regularly. Based on the requirements of the plants, periodically water them and add appropriate fertilizers. If you have an organic container garden, you can use fish and compost-based organic fertilizers. Once a week, leach with plain water to drain away excess fertilizers.

Pesticides: Check the requirements for every plant in your garden and accordingly use appropriate pesticides. Container plants are prone to crowding and consequently bug and mite infestations. So inspect and treat your plants periodically with pesticides.

Sunlight: Not all plants like the same amount of sunlight. Cabbages and lettuce can do with some shade while cucumbers, eggplant and tomatoes like at least 6-8 hours of sunlight every day. Again check the sunlight requirements for your plants before you decide where and how you place them with respect to the availability of sunlight.

Stores like Home Depot sell all the tools you need for outdoor container gardening. The seeds and plants you buy often come with instructions on water, fertilizer and pesticide requirements.