Container Gardening Tips, Ideas, and Advice

Do you yearn for the hot baked colors of Provence or the brilliant whitewashed walls and scarlet geraniums that typified that village you loved on a Mediterranean holiday? Do you long for sweetly scented cottage-garden blooms, or the stillness and simplicity of oriental gardens?

Whatever your preference, and no matter how small your space or budget, you can create exactly the mood you want with a container garden. Your particular style may come from a single inspiration such as a powerful childhood memory — the sight of a field of scarlet poppies, say, or the distinctive spicy scent of wallflowers. Perhaps you can still visualize that painted narrow boat with its color-washed barrels brimming with flowers. With a little careful planning you can create a container garden that not only fulfills your vision, but also thrives in your particular garden environment and local climate. On this site, we show you how to achieve just the effect you want, whether you have a sunny terrace or a windswept balcony, an exposed flat roof or a tiny, shady basement yard.

An Ancient Passion

Container gardening may seem a modern trend, but people have been growing plants in containers ever since the tending of gardens began. Some of the earliest gardens were small contained spaces within buildings such as the inner courtyard of a Roman villa, or the cloisters of a medieval monastery where medicinal herbs were cultivated for the infirmary and flowers were grown for religious festivals. Herbs are still popular subjects for growing in containers and you will find fresh ways of presenting them here.

In the 8th century the Moors invaded Europe and brought with them an idea of the garden as a ‘paradise on Earth’. Roses were particularly valued and often grown in pots placed on the banks of canals where their beauty was reflected on the water and their prized perfume dispersed by scores of fine spray jets. Today, beautiful water features can be created in containers, offering both soothing sound and the opportunity to grow a range of marginal plants in pots.

The grand French and Italian gardens of the 18th century featured stately classical urns, usually in pairs on elegant plinths. This classical symmetry survives today in the imaginative plantings found in paired pots beside many front doors. Then in the early 20th century Gertrude Jekyll, the pioneering garden designer, planned rows of seasonal pots to adorn the elegant terraces of Edwin Lutyens’ country houses. Following her lead, we show you how to group pots, whether you want a formal or an informal look.

Setting the Scene

Many gardens are restful retreats, offering a place to escape for a little peace and privacy in natural surroundings — and you can use containers to create just the environment that suits you best. So if you feel happiest surrounded by flowers that evoke the old-fashioned English countryside — thatched cottages, roses round the door, tabby cats and home baking – then fill weathered terracotta pots with a profusion of daisies, foxgloves, hollyhocks, lupins and roses.

Containers also allow you to plant flowers with herbs and vegetables in ways that look decorative as well as being practical, a juxtaposition that reflects back to traditional cottage gardens. Edible flowers such as nasturtiums and violas thrive happily in wall-hung pots and hanging baskets. Even a window box can produce cherry tomatoes. This style of container garden will need regular watering and feeding if it is to look its best throughout the growing seasons, but the rewards will make it more than worth while — fresh cut flowers and home-grown salads and vegetables all summer long.

High Style, Low Maintenance

In complete contrast, and perfect if you want a low-maintenance garden, consider an oriental style typified by a subtle and harmonious blend of evergreen plants and shrubs. If you have a water feature inspired by the seaside rather than the Orient, choose timber decking stained soft gray or pale blue, pots decorated with seashells and fishing nets to filter the wind and support climbers.

Whatever your chosen style, it is essential to select container plants for their shape as well as their color. In a shaded area, for example, you could combine the broad leaves of hosta with the arching fronds of feathery ferns and the tall rustling leaves of bamboo and other ornamental grasses.

And if you are choosing a large specimen plant such as a tree, you can achieve magical effects by deciding whether you want a tall spire shape, a soft weeping effect or a branching outline. For pure indulgence you might opt for a romantic garden where scented flowers and shrubs fill the air with aromatic perfume. In such a scheme the colors should be soft and restful on the eye. Choose delicate pinks and blues, pale mauve, apricot and white — which is the color of the most highly scented flowers.

Scented flowers tend to give off their strongest perfume towards the end of the day so place your scented containers near your seats, fix up some soft lighting and enjoy the scene and the scents as the sun goes down.

A Manageable Garden

Container gardening lets you fashion your own miniature world. You may want to grow acid-loving shrubs such as camellias or rhododendrons in an area with an alkaline soil, or create a boggy environment in a sandy area. Just fill the pot with the right mixture and you can grow whatever you like. And if you want a different sort of garden next year, simply choose a new range of plants: container gardening allows you to change your mind as often as you like.

You also have complete control over the level of maintenance in a container garden. No heavy digging or weeding is involved, just the manageable tasks of watering, feeding and perhaps occasional pruning and deadheading. Pot-grown plants generally need far more watering than those in open ground but there are many ways of reducing this chore. And in any case, watering a container garden by hand can be wonderfully soothing at the end of a stressful day. You change down a gear mentally as you sprinkle your charges, examine your plants at close hand, take pleasure in their development, move those at their best into prime positions, nip off spent flowerheads and check for signs of any pests or diseases.

Most modern gardens need some sort of screen to provide areas of privacy and a container allows you to do this by positioning the right plant just where it is needed. You may need a tall bushy shrub to create a windbreak or a scented climber to make a bower. To enable you to roll large plants around safely and easily, we show you how to make a sturdy timber platform mounted on castors.

The portability of containers also means that if you ever decide to move house you can take all your pots and plants with you, and immediately your new garden will feel like home.

Any small enclosed space can become an opportunity for creative planting: raised beds, the narrow strip between walls and paving, a tiny crevice in a flight of steps or planting pocket in a area of gravel all offer wonderful potential for growing.

Whether you are trying to build a garden with only a balcony or yard at your disposal, struggling to cover up a bare wall or to cheer up a dull patch in the border, you’ll find the right plants in the right container can fulfill your purpose without breaking the bank. With the help of Container Gardening Pro, you will discover a year-round, life-long passion for pots — and plants.