Container Gardening?

Hi all!

As a new thing, I am going to do some gardening this year.

I have a plain back yard play around with however I was wondering if container growing is best to start out with as gardening is new to me!

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

Hi Tiger and welcome to the forum.

It all depends on how much space you have - your garden's shape and size. My first reaction is to have a go at both.

Growing in the soil is the easiest. You must ensure your plants have some water at the beginning, but once established they will not need any more looking after.

You can grow almost anything in pots, and a big advantage is that you can move the pots around. However the plants will be entirely dependant on you for food and water. This means that you will have to water them virtually every day in the summer, and you will need someone to do this if you go away. They will also need feeding at some point, as they will use up all the nutrients in the pot.

But the essence of gardening is to learn by trial and error - so have a go.

 

I'd say do both. With containers, you can get an almost instant result, which can be a confidence boost, but longer term, sticking stuff in the ground has always worked best for me.

 

If it's reliably hardy I put plants in the ground.
But if it's tender I use pots so that they can be protected over the winter.
I also use pots for growing plants that I'm unfamiliar with - it's easier to execute them!

 

Big thank you!

hey guy!

I'm shocked to see the replies in this post and all are very good responses!

I am hoping to secure a camera for snapshoting my progress as I go because that can be a big motivator in gardening is keeping track of everything.

Hopefully within the next week (or so) I'll have some shots ready for display.

Thank to everyone again for the replies!

 

I have lots of shrubs in containers in my garden including Rhododendrons, Escallonias, Elaeagnus, Arbutus unedo, Daphne odora aureomarginata, Osmanthus and others. They do need a bit more tlc but you can always use water retaining gel and mulch to save having to water them as often.

I do enjoy looking after them so I don't mind if they need my attention more frequently.

There are four reasons I prefer to use containers (although I do have borders which are planted up with a variety of shrubs and climbers as well).

1. I don't intend to stay here indefinitely, so I don't want to tend them lovingly, get them to a decent size, and then have to leave them behind.

2. They are moveable, so you can move plants around for effect or use them for screening.

3. I can have more plants than I could if I just used my borders as I have a fairly small garden.

4. They make a paved area look much more attractive.

So I would say do both, but do plenty of research on the internet as to what you can plant where, what sort of compost or mulch to use, and what sort of fertilizer.

There are lots of very helpful people on GC as well so if you need to know anything you can always ask

 

And there's me.

 

Ah yes. But you are always entertaining if nothing else :WINK1: