Container Gardening – a new way of mainframe gardening

Growing plants in containers is the best option when space constraint is a major problem in urban places. Its really a little different than gardening on the ground.

Container gardening solves the issue of time & space constraints – so ‘No place’ is no more an excuse.
The best part of container gardening is you can keep at your work desk, dining table, window sill and balcony.

With organic container gardening, today we can merge decor and necessities at one go. The positive side of container gardening is you can shift them, you can do a combination of plants, and you can use containers of multiple sizes and shapes to make your surroundings healthy & vibrant.

Choosing a container

Anything that holds soil and has drainage holes may be transformed into a container for plants. Your choice of container size is according to how big the plant is that you want to accommodate. The style of the container communicates your values, cleverness, loud, classy, environment-friendly, recycled and more.

Container material can be clay, terra cotta, cast iron, cement, wooden box, basket, old bags, moulded plastic – anything that can hold sufficient soil for the plant.

Building Soil

Soil to be used in containers need to be well aerated and well drained. Refer to building soil to improve your soil understanding.

Choosing and combining plants

Container gardening is nothing but a living flower arrangement. The type of decor and style you want determines the type of container for your plants.

Choose plants like Aloe Vera, snake plants, spider plants, ferns, peace lilies, various palms, fig-trees, money plants (devil’s ivy), dragon trees, snake plants, and caladiums for indoor places and small or big apartments. You can plant herbs and creepers too at your window sill. Pick plants of similar requirements in one container if you like varieties.

With outdoor containers, you can enjoy non-stop colours all season long. Most of the vegetables, flowers, herbs, and shrubs can grow successfully in containers. Be it aromatic plants, medicinal plants, or organic vegetable plants, you need to select the right location for the containers according to the availability of sunlight. For aromatic plants also consider the wind frequency.

Container gardening adds versatility. Containers could be anything, from old bottles, tyres, kettles, and bags.

Vegetables and Herbs in containers:

Urban gardening with vegetables is more popular these days. Getting organic vegetables is expensive and rare, so growing in containers becomes an achievable target.
Tomatoes, chillies, beans, spinach, brinjal, carrots, and radishes are good options for containers. Cucumber and bitter melons also can be grown with trellis. Okra, onions, and fenugreek (methi) all can be grown organically.
The easiest way is to source the seeds or dry the seeds (say, of chillies). It takes about a week for the seeds to sprout. After you see about 10 leaves in each of the small plants, transplant them into a bigger pot/grow bag – one plant per bag or pot.

Make sure you use organic fertilizers & composts and organic foliar spray whenever needed.
Most vegetables need 6 hours of sunlight each day. So choose your place accordingly. Watering should be done according to the place you kept the container and the soil used. Most of the vegetables require a moist soil.

Perennial shrubs in containers

The beauty of container gardening is – you can keep the containers in a patio garden, a rooftop garden, a balcony garden or a big backyard garden. Brugmansia, bougainvillea, Begonias, marigolds, Vinca, boxwood, various crotons, lemons, roses, anything is possible. Keep in mind the shady area and the sunny spot and you can grow the shrubs easily.

Best fruits in containers

Papaya, lemons, Custard apple (sitaphal), banana, pomegranate etc can be grown in pots. Strawberries can be grown in hanging containers. You can grow a mini-orchard of fruits in patio containers. Rooftop containers can be used to grow bananas in sunlight but kept away from wind. The bigger pot size and more sunlight exposure are needed.

Water :

Container gardening requires attention. The frequency of watering depends on weather, plant size, and pot size. Don’t let the soil in containers dry out completely, as it is hard to rewet. To keep large containers attractive, spread a layer of mulch as you would in the garden. This will also help retain moisture. Be sure to keep mulch an inch or so away from plant stems. There are self-watering systems also which you may consult with experts.

Other care

Container gardening plants need regular feeding. Fertilize them by watering them with diluted fish oil resin soap, seaweed extract, or compost tea. Or foliar feed by spraying the leaves with doubly diluted preparations of these solutions. Use Organic Foliar nutrition spray and keep an eye on pests. Keep removing deadheads and dry leaves.
Keep an eye on insects and disease damage. Spray organic pesticides to control them