With some basic gardening skills, you can ensure a successful container garden. Starting with the containers themselves, make sure that any garden pots made from porous materials (such as terracotta or wood) are sealed on the inside with a quality water sealant. Otherwise, the pots will soak up much of the water meant for your plants.
Watering Your Plants
Not over watering is just as important as it is not to underwater. Placing a bowl or saucer underneath your garden pots will catch any extra water and keep the water from rotting and staining your deck or patio. Filling the saucers up with water is the best way to water your container garden. By doing it this way, you avoid over watering and you keep the water from spilling over the top rim of the saucer. The water actually feeds the roots of your plants by seeping up through the garden pot's hole in the bottom.
Watering your plants on the top surface of the soil is another way you can water. However, if you do, avoid over watering by filling it a little at a time (about a cup or so) and be sure to keep an eye on how much water seeps into the saucer. Try not to overfill the saucer. Use a hand sprayer to spray your houseplants with rain or bottled water. This will keep calcium from forming on the leaves.
Food
Since pots are generally small, the nutrients in most potting soils don't last much more than five or six weeks. Therefore, you will need to replenish the soil with vital nutrients. Plant food generally comes in liquid or granular forms. Slow-release granules are recommended as they last a long time and keep a steady supply of food going to the plants.
Pest Control
Systemic and Contact insecticides are the two main types. The first, systemic insecticide works by pouring it right onto the soil where it gets absorbed through to the root system of the plant. From here it goes right up the stalk and to the leaves where it is ingested by the bugs when they eat.
The other type, contact insecticide, is sprayed directly on the pests. You may need to repeat this method depending on how much infestation there is but contact insecticides work rather quickly.
You are sure to have a thriving container garden with a small amount of monitoring and loving care.
David Haines has been working in gardens since his early childhood and has always been interested in educating others on garden pot and landscaping techniques. If you'd like to know more about garden pots, visit AllGardenPots.com
