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container gardening for vegetables

 10 Tips for Maintaining Your Container Gardens



Keep your foliage and flower container plants great throughout the summer! Whether you have a patio or window boxes, here are 10 tips for maintaining a container garden and helping prepare your containers for colder climates.


Beautiful gardeners are wonderful as a welcome entrance to your home. In addition, container gardening with cooking materials is a great solution for those who cannot keep a traditional garden on the ground.


However, containers must be maintained. Small things can ruin them, but paying attention to details guarantees completeness.


Container Garden Maintenance Tips 



Mulch container surfaces to prevent soil compaction or root damage. Heavy rain and high-pressure pipe bursts can damage the potting mix and roots or make it harder for water to penetrate through it, creating a rough surface. Spaghetti moss, fish gravel, pebbles, and shredded cedar bark are attractive barriers to prevent these problems. Cedar bark has the added benefit. It contains a resin, which gives it a pleasant aroma that repels many insects. Cocoa bean mulch too.


Pinch annuals when you plant to force branches. Inpatients and begonias especially benefit from the early pinch. The plants grow shrubs and produce high-quality flowers. About six weeks later, pinch again after the first heavy flush of the pinch has been spent on another spectacular show. Pinch the flower stalks above the leaf or bud.


Destroying old flowers to promote new flower formation and prevent seeds from forming will stop flower rotation. Geranium (Pelargonium), Dahlias, Nicotiana, Verbena, and Osteosperm, in particular, require deadheading. Return to buds or branches and remove colorless and damaged leaves.


Water frequently. Since containers are useless from ground moisture, it is important to water once a day. In hot, dry weather, you should water twice a day. This is especially true for plants with close spacing filled with a small amount of soil. When you pour the water, all the soil in the pot should be concentrated — not around the edges. If you find that your containers dry out too quickly, you probably have too many plants in the soil in the pot. If your plants are crowded (or cross their peaks) pull them out.


Continue to fertilize. In containers, with limited soil and frequent watering, it may be necessary to provide nutrients to grow the plants or they will weaken. Slowly release the compost particles into the potting soil. Then, add extra nutrients by dissolving water-soluble fertilizer in the irrigation can once a week or two during the growing season. Use one-and-a-half to one-quarter strength diluents or follow the package instructions.


Be a clean housekeeper and remove plant debris from containers. If left untreated, the decay of leaves and flowers often promotes disease and invites pests.


Continue to control the retreat and ascent by trimming the plants from time to time. Otherwise, even rumblers like DiCondra, Ivy, Helicrisism Petiolar, and Petunia will climb up and drown their neighbors.


Rotate the containers to encourage the plants to grow evenly on all sides and not get too many legs.


As the seasons change, move your containers if necessary, protecting the plants from excessive sun and strong winds. Tip for future planting: Reduce the load on the heavy pot by filling the bottom of large pots with recycled foam peanuts that come in shipping cartons. Then fill the pot with the mixture. Peanuts create large air pockets and increase drainage, both of which promote strong root growth.


You can keep your container by changing plants as the seasons change. For example, plant bulbs and primrose in the spring, annual flowers and vegetables in the summer, and then pansy and colorful cabbage or kale in the fall.


Getting ready for winter




Most container plants do not tolerate winter. Even container perennial plants and trees cannot tolerate frozen roots in their pots. Also, many types of pots can crack in freezing weather. (Choose powder-free plastic pots and reduce your irrigation work during the season!)


If you live in a cold climate, do your best can treat treated as annuals and throw out or compost. Or, you can store your plants in a pot that is not heated but in a frozen garage or basement.


Also, old containers should be thoroughly cleaned before use for the second season. Add the bleach to the wash water and apply to the cracks and crevices using a scrub. A clean pot will not spread diseases to new plants

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