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

It is just as important not to over water as it is not to underwater. Most garden pots will have a saucer or bowl underneath to catch any extra water and keep it from rotting your patio or deck. The best way to water your container garden is by filling the saucers up with water. This helps you avoid over watering and the water from spilling over the top of the saucer. The water will seep up through the hole in the bottom of the pot feeding the roots of your plants.

Another method of watering is to water your plants at the surface. If you do, however, make sure you fill about a cup at a time and watch how much water ends up in the saucer. You want to avoid overfilling the saucer. Spraying your plants with water from a hand sprayer is always welcome by your houseplants. Try to avoid using hard water though so calcium won’t build up on the leaves.

Plant 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.

Controlling Insects

Systemic and Contact are the two main types of insecticides. Systemic is poured right onto the soil and is then absorbed into the soil to the root system of the plant and right on up through the leaves. This type of insecticide works best for bugs under the soil that are hard to get to and for leaf eaters as they ingest the poison when they eat the leaves.

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 would like to know more about container gardening, visit AllGardenPots.com

Tags: DIY, garden accessories, garden pot, garden pots, gardening, gardens, hobbies, plant selection, pots, preparation

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 21st, 2010 at 3:38 am and is filed under container gardening, garden tools, gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.