How To Take Care Of Potted Plants

Your guide to a perfect little garden

Posted on

2 November 2016

Posted by

Editor

To create a garden blooming with flowers, vegetables and ornamentals you don’t need to be an expert. With simple garden pots and common sense gardening tips, you can get started on your quest for the perfect little garden. Here are some tips that will help you grow healthy vegetables and ornamentals.

Pick the right container

Almost anything can be used as a container for plants. If you prefer lightweight containers, which are easy to move around, look for resin, fibreglass, and plastic. Make sure there’s more than one hole in the bottom of the pot in order to allow water to flow out of it freely. The roots of the plants can actually drown and die if excess water is not removed.

Use potting soil, not garden soil

Using the soil from your garden is not a good idea, to say the least. Garden soil could contain weed seeds, insects and fungal diseases that will do more harm than good for your plants. Instead, use potting soil which is well aerated, sterile, lightweight, and has a good balance of organic material and mineral particles like peat, sand, or perlite. A low maintenance option is to buy potted mix containing a time-release fertiliser, just follow the directions to add it to the mix.

Don’t overfill the pot

If you’re growing plants in large containers you’ll be surprised to know that you don’t have to fill the whole container with soil. Most vegetable roots penetrate only 10 to 12 inches into the soil. Adding more soil than that is simply wasting soil. A trick to use less soil is to put empty plastic soda and milk bottles in the bottom third of the container. The container will be lighter and easier to move, you’ll be recycling to help the environment, and you will use less soil.