103 | Container Gardening

Today I’ll be transplanting home grown zinnia and snapdragon garden ready plug plants along with some store bought salvia and buddleia plants into 10 litre (11 inch) black nursery plant pots. I’ll be placing them in the main flower bed behind pine log roll edging to conceal them.

What is container gardening?

Growing plants in containers (plant pots, grow bags, wellington boots) instead of planting directly in the ground is referred to as container gardening. This applies to ornamental and edible plants.

Benefits of container gardening

There are so many advantages when opting to grow plants in containers as opposed to in the ground:

• Flexible | in ornamental gardening, plants can be easily moved around if there’s uncertainty about planting positions until the desired look is achieved.

• No dig gardening | a perfect option if you don’t want to dig (maybe because of health reasons) or can’t dig (rental property, existing in-ground mature plants with large roots makes it near impossible to dig decent sized planting holes or having a hard surface garden).

• Precise watering | you can be certain that your plants will get water straight to the roots where it’s needed most. No more surface water run-off which means less water consumption.

• Precise fertilising | specific plants may need specific fertilisers. Container gardening allows you to apply the right type and right amounts and much like watering, you know your plants are getting what they need.

• Tailored soil mix | enjoy a variety of plants which would have otherwise not have been compatible companion plants due to differing soil requirements.

• Protection | plants can be easily moved if shelter is needed from the hot midday sun or stormy weather. Pots can be individually treated with pest control products or applications (for instance, copper tape or pellets for slugs and snails or chicken wire for rodents).

• Disease control | plants that may have become infected with pathogens can be easily removed from your flowerbed, safeguarding healthy plants.

• Transportable | move your plants around or take them with you if you’re moving to a new property.

• Minimal weeding | if placing pots in a flower bed, the ground coverage from the pots will suppress weeds. There will be virtually little to no weeds within the containers which means no more labour intensive and time consuming weeding.

• Control invasive plants | grow invasive plants with peace of mind knowing that they’ll be incapable of taking over your garden.

• Continuous blooms | swap out fading plants with new ones that compliment the season.

• Versatile | plants can be grown anywhere - patios, porches, balconies or indoors.

• Stylish | create the look you want with decorative pots or cladding.

• Direct sowing | plants that grow best by planting them in their final positions can be directly sown in containers with no fear of having to deal with weeds or root disturbance.

Disadvantages of container gardening

Just a few worth noting which mostly hinges around cost:

• Containers | depending on the space you have or your gardening preferences, you may find yourself spending lots of money buying containers. 

• Watering | be prepared to water on a daily basis be a the plants will be wholly dependent on you especially in times of dry spells. 

• Potting soil | the amount needed could be vast and cost a fair bit of money but by reusing old potting soil and adding a few amendments, this needn’t be a big problem. For growing and potting on my summer annuals and perennials I used:
• 100 litres of peat moss
• 50 litres of store bought compost
• 20~ litres of homemade compost
• 20 litres of seed sowing compost 

Potting up

I opted to use 10 litre plant pots because the diameter and depth are ideal for growing most annuals through to maturity. They’re also big enough for growing multiple plants. 15 litre plant pots would be ideal but cost (for the pots and the soil needed to fill them) determined the final selection. 

For this project, I went with basic black nursery pots because they’re cost effective (especially when bought in bulk - I bought 40 for £36.99 on eBay) and as they would be hidden behind log “cladding”, they didn’t need to be fancy.

Using my homemade soil mix, I potted up zinnias, snapdragons, busy lizzies (all home grown), salvia and buddleia (all store bought) whenever I had a spare moment from the kids. I did 10 pots in total though the space allocated for them could hold about 12. 

Salvia Nemorosa | “Caradonna”

Zinnia | “Orange Lime Queen”

Zinnia | “Green Envy”

Zinnia | Magenta

Zinnia | ”Purple Prince”

Busy Lizzie | Orange

Buddleia | “Hot Raspberry”

Snapdragon | “Carmine”

Snapdragon | “Sonnet Carmine”

July 19 | A few zinnias and snapdragons potted up

Potting up snapdragons | I didn’t come across any information regarding the number of snapdragons that can be grown in 10 litre pots. My snapdragons were quite small (maybe because they’ve been in their growing on cups for far too long). I decided to plant 5 to help create a fuller look.

Potting up zinnias | the general advice is to plant 2-3 zinnias in a 10 litre pot. I decided to plant 4 in each pot for a full effect. I staked the ones that needed a bit of support.

Potting up busy lizzies | last summer, I grew busy lizzies in 1.5 litre pots (1 plant per pot). I was surprised at how big they grew despite being in such small containers. The only disadvantage was that they needed watering EVERY DAY because the containers were small and couldn’t hold much. With this in mind, I potted up 3 busy lizzies per 10 litre plant pot. My reasoning is that they should grow just fine provided they are watered daily and fed weekly. This is the approach I plan to take with all the plants.

Potting up salvia | as these are perennials, I decided to put 1 plant per 10 litre pot. I think they’ll need their own space to grow and thrive over the seasons.

Potting up buddleia | these are also perennials so I’ll be doing the same as I’ve done with the salvia.

Due to time constraints, I couldn’t plant my gladioli bulbs so it’s a project I’ll leave for next year’s display.

Setting up the flowerbed

The pre-existing holes for my pot-in-pot plants limited my options of how I could position the log rolls. Two 2 meter rolls were just long enough to wrap round to the shrub and rose plant. This cordoned off area would house the planted up pots.

Blooma pine edging log roll (250mm x 2m)

July 13 | Log roll installed. Weeds removed on the outside but left on the inside.

July 13 | Log edging wraps round so nursery pots won’t be seen at the side.

To stake the log roll, I used green split bamboo canes (used for staking plants) and cut them to size once they were in the ground. 

Green split bamboo canes (90cm/36”)

Once the edging was in place, I weeded the outside, leaving the weeds on the inside. The theory is the pots would suppress the weed growth on the inside which should make for an easier weeding job later on.

The results met and exceeded my expectations. A space that would’ve been near impossible to plant up (due to a network of large roots from existing mature plants - making it difficult to dig planting holes) was now filled with beautiful, thriving annuals. The log roll edging (typically used for edging lawns) were perfect at hiding the nursery pots. What’s more, once the annuals are spent, I’ll simply refresh the potting soil (provided there were no disease issues) and repot them with my winter annuals.

For updates (if any) on this specific project, type “103” in the search box at the top of the page.

Q&A

I started this project with a few questions in mind and have since found answers to them either through my own experience or via the internet:

Question: What are the typical plant pot dimensions?

Question: How can I conceal the nursery pots without using decorative containers?

Question: Should I plant different plants in one container?