Landscaping with Containers

Make your Garden Landscape Portable

Container gardens can go far beyond the pot of patio tomatoes or mums in terra cotta. Whether used singly or arranged in groups, plants grown in decorative containers can be used as landscaping on their own merits.  Container landscaping is ideal for the busy person who cannot take care of a typical garden. 

Containers made of terra cotta, stone, glazed earthenware or painted woods can be used as focal points or punctuation marks in a more formal garden. Dwarf trees in large pots might be used as the main focus of a raised bed, able to stand high against taller plantings like wheatgrass and lilies.

For casual landscapes, container gardening is limited only by imagination and drainage. About anything can be used as a pot, but the larger the better. The larger the pot, the more insulated plants and their roots are from baking in summer and freezing in winter. Larger containers also may not need to be watered as frequently.

Concrete urns, whiskey barrels and terra cotta pots are traditional containers.  Try using more imaginative items-There are old baby buggies, wheelbarrows, sinks, chairs, children’s red wagons and the front-end of a Volkswagen planted up. Almost anything that can hold dirt, can become a plant container.

Fairly new on the market are containers made with fiberglass, foams and plastic blends. These are very durable and lightweight, especially when compared to terra cotta, which tends to break from the freezing and thawing when left outdoors in winter.

On the patio, groupings of plants can be changed, arranged and rearranged with minimum effort, bringing to the forefront plants at the height of their beauty and screening those that are not. In the dooryard or entryway, pots of colorful plants coordinated with the exterior of the house make an easy-to-maintain miniature landscape. Window boxes are another traditional aspect of container landscapes, bringing the outdoors to view within the house.

Don't be afraid to experiment. Most garden centers mark their plants way down in late summer and fall, making it even more tempting to try various combinations for containers. A dwarf Alberta spruce, boxwood or yew can be used as a centerpiece in a pot with cold-tolerant perennials or annuals planted around it for a fall/winter setting.

For even more seasonal options, consider planting a plastic pot in the container. The plastic pot can start out holding a slightly smaller container of mums. Replace faded mums with another container, this one with pansies or a small evergreen to extend the combo well into winter.

Good drainage is a requirement. If using an ornamental container that does not have drainage holes, consider double potting: Add an inch of bark or gravel at the base of the decorative container; fill with partway with soil; then place a smaller pot with drainage holes inside the fancy one; and add more soil to lightly cover. Don't use regular soil from the garden in containers. It may contain insects or disease that will attack the container plants. Use a lightweight soil-less mix that includes vermiculite and perlite, two natural additives that aid drainage.

Adequate water and a regular program for fertilizing also are important steps to beautiful container landscaping. Use a water-soluble fertilizer according to label directions. Fertilize and water even in fall and winter if the plants are still green and the soil in the pot is not frozen.

Container gardening lets just about everyone indulge their enthusiasm for growing plants. With a little imagination, a moveable landscape will be a delight all year long.