6 Tips to help you Grow Plants in Containers
Gardening can feel intimidating when you’ve never broke ground… or when your soil is rock hard! But you can start without digging and you can do it even if you don’t have a yard! All you need is a deck or a very large window.
Growing in pots and containers is an easy way to get some experience growing veggies and herbs. It is easier on the body as you can set it up in a way that is more comfortable for you. Weeds are less of a pain to control and fertility is easier to manage, but it also requires more watering since plant roots only have a limited space to reach water.
Here are a few tips to get you started:
Make sure there’s holes in the bottom of your containers. We can get a lot of water in a single rain storm and with nowhere else to go, the water will rot your plants roots!
Make sure you put your pots in a sunny location. South facing always get more sun than North facing, and most plants do prefer more sun than less (even if you like the shade!).
Feed your plant regularly as most potting soil do not contain much nutrition. You can add some compost while planting but it’s a good idea to add some liquid fertilizer throughout the growing season.
Acclimate your plants: if you started growing indoors but it’s warm enough out, make sure you slowly put your plants outside over time: one hour the first day, 2 hours the next, etc… as they can get sun burnt or get too cold, depending on the difference of temperature and lighting between indoor and outside. Think about it as your first time in the sun in the Spring and you get sunburn.
The more potting soil the better. I know these little pots look really cute, but bigger containers will need to be watered less often and plants will get much bigger roots if they get a chance (so they’re less likely to die!).
Some plants will die. Not all plants enjoy living in pots, and some have very short life span. So part of the process of caring for plants is also getting rid of the non thriving plants, it’s part of life! There is not a gardener out there who has never killed a plant.
Will you give container gardening a try this year?