Useful Tips for Starting a Container Garden
With spring still a month away and the growing season even further, now is a good time to start thinking about starting a container garden. With that much time to plan and, more importantly, procrastinate, just think about how many episodes you can secretly watch of Project Runway. Damn you, Santino! Brother man, you're a gutsy designer but when will you ever get with the program?
One: Size up your land. Engage a surveyor to plot your land and plant several handsome oak trees. Luckily, if you're thinking about container gardening you most likely have a patch of blacktop. Perfect. No need to hire an expensive surveyor, which means more money you can sink into your garden or waste at dog track. When sizing up your land, think about how sunny or shady it will be. How sheltered is it? Are there trees or houses that will cast shadows in the morning or afternoon? Also, is there easy access to a hose?
Two: Go get some containers. Just how big a container should be is a source of endless debate. At left are plenty of links if you want to join in on the fray. Use some common sense and you'll be fine. The bigger the plant, the bigger the container should be. Lettuce will do fine in small six-inch container but a cherry tomato plant needs at least a five-gallon container. My favorite place to get a container is Home Depot. For a few bucks you can get a sturdy five-gallon bucket suitable to handed down as an heirloom to your kids.
Three: Drill holes in your containers. The folks who make these paint buckets and storage bins are sticklers for detail and almost never install drainage holes in their product. Fools. As such, use a drill and a big drill bit and punch a whole mess of holes in your new container. This is an important step. Excess water needs to drain away otherwise the plant will, for lack of a more scientifically-accurate term, drown and die. Think about all the rain each plant might get. Without holes that water would have no where to go.
More later.
One: Size up your land. Engage a surveyor to plot your land and plant several handsome oak trees. Luckily, if you're thinking about container gardening you most likely have a patch of blacktop. Perfect. No need to hire an expensive surveyor, which means more money you can sink into your garden or waste at dog track. When sizing up your land, think about how sunny or shady it will be. How sheltered is it? Are there trees or houses that will cast shadows in the morning or afternoon? Also, is there easy access to a hose?
Two: Go get some containers. Just how big a container should be is a source of endless debate. At left are plenty of links if you want to join in on the fray. Use some common sense and you'll be fine. The bigger the plant, the bigger the container should be. Lettuce will do fine in small six-inch container but a cherry tomato plant needs at least a five-gallon container. My favorite place to get a container is Home Depot. For a few bucks you can get a sturdy five-gallon bucket suitable to handed down as an heirloom to your kids.
Three: Drill holes in your containers. The folks who make these paint buckets and storage bins are sticklers for detail and almost never install drainage holes in their product. Fools. As such, use a drill and a big drill bit and punch a whole mess of holes in your new container. This is an important step. Excess water needs to drain away otherwise the plant will, for lack of a more scientifically-accurate term, drown and die. Think about all the rain each plant might get. Without holes that water would have no where to go.
More later.
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