Creating a Beautiful Container Garden: Ideas and Inspiration

January is the month to make resolutions and start new habits. Maybe this year, yours is to make more of your garden, even if it's on the smaller side.

No matter what size your garden is or how green it currently looks, you can create a beautiful green haven with container gardening. In this blog, we are going to walk you through what container gardening is, share some tips and tricks and give you some inspiration to jazz up your garden this year.

What Is Container Gardening?

Container gardening is just what the name suggests: growing plants and shrubbery in pots and containers, rather than in the ground.

It's a popular gardening hack for those living in urban areas, as it allows you to turn patios, balconies and small gardens into vibrant green spaces. And if you are someone who likes a change, the containers allow mobility, so you can mix up your garden design as and when you please to keep things fresh throughout the year.

With containers being reusable, this is also an environmentally friendly and budget-friendly gardening system that facilitates a healthy ecosystem as birds can feed from the plants and berries in your garden.

What Plants Can You Grow In Your Container Garden?

Berries

There are a range of berries that thrive in a container or plant pot, and they can add a touch of colour to your garden.

These berries are great options:

• Blueberries
• Chokeberries
• Black Chokeberries
• Pagoda Dogwood
• Winterberries
• Arrowwood Viburnum 

Flowers

You can mix some of these berry plants with some flowering plants so that you have a variety of flowers in your container garden. The following flowers grow well in containers:

• Sunflowers
• Coreopsis
• Little Blue Stem
• Rudbeckia
• Cosmos
• Coneflower
• Trumpet Creepers
• Columbine

The above flowers also produce seeds and nectar for wildlife to feed on, promoting a healthy ecosystem in your area.

What Kind Of Containers Can I Use?

The great thing about container gardening is that you can use any container that will hold enough soil for your plants -- no need for specific gardening plant pots! This lets you get creative and keep to a small budget.

If you want to stick with a more traditional look for your garden, then conventional plastic, terracotta, or wooden pots and troughs can be used. You can also give a household item another life by recycling things like buckets, bathroom furniture, tins, or empty cans.

There's just one rule for the pots you use: they need to be big enough for your plants to have plenty of space to grow while also having adequate drainage.

Some Tips And Tricks

Container gardening is easy, but that doesn't mean there aren't some tips and tricks to it. So here are some things to consider.

Location

While containers allow you to be flexible about where you put your plants, it is important to think about positioning.

Most plants require sunlight, so will need to be put somewhere where they will receive a few hours of sun each day. Alternatively, plants that don't need much sun and will thrive in darker areas can be put where there will be more shade.

You can't control the weather any more than we can, but you can shelter plants to try and reduce the impact that wind and cold weather can have on them. Below walls and fences are often great places for container gardens.

Compost

Plants like nutrients, so choose a nutrient-rich compost to fill up your containers. Home-made or multipurpose composts are usually the best options to use because they are lightweight and hold plenty of water for the plants.

We recommend that you avoid using garden soil because this is heavy and is likely to contain weeds that will compete with your plants for nutrients.

Watering

Plants need plenty of water to survive, but because they aren't in the ground, they can't soak up water from the soil around them. This means that you will need to water them more frequently than plants in plant beds.

In hot, sunny months, this is imperative to keeping your plants alive because the compost can dry up within hours, so give them a good soak either in the morning or evening. If you need someone to help out with this, the team at The Real Green Gardener can lend a hand with our maintenance service.

Feeding

With container gardens, feeding is the same as watering; you will need to provide more food as they aren't able to get it from the surrounding ground.

Slow-release fertilisers or liquid feed are great for providing the plants with the nutrients they need. These should be added around every fortnight to give your plants the best chance of growing.

Get Support From Our Expert Gardeners

At The Real Green Gardener, we're passionate about helping everyone grow a green safe place to enjoy, no matter what floor you live on or the size and shape of your free space. Whether you need help designing a garden to be proud of or picking plants to go in your already landscaped garden, we're here for you.

As well as a design service, we offer three different planting packages, where our expert team will select a variety of plants that will thrive in your unique conditions.

Gardening extends beyond the initial layout and planting, which is why we offer a maintenance service too where we can take all the stress of maintaining a garden away, allowing you to enjoy the luxurious greenery.

Get in touch with our team to learn more about how we could help you create a beautiful container garden perfect for your space.

Call us on 01202 722943, or complete our contact form, and we will get back to you.