How To Care For A Container Garden With Garden Pots
Ensure a successful container garden with some basic gardening skills. If you start with the containers, make sure any garden pots made from porous materials (such as wood or terracotta) are sealed with a quality water sealant on the inside of the pot. Otherwise, a lot of the water meant for your plants will be soaked up by the pots.
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.
Watering your plants on the top surface of the soil is another way you can water. However, if you do, avoid over watering by filling it a little at a time (about a cup or so) and be sure to keep an eye on how much water seeps into the saucer. Try not to overfill the saucer. Use a hand sprayer to spray your houseplants with rain or bottled water. This will keep calcium from forming on the leaves.
Plant Food
The nutrients in most potting soils don’t last much more than five or six weeks since garden pots are generally small. So, vital nutrients will need to be replenished. Plant food, for the most part, comes in granular and liquid forms. Since they last a long time and keep a steady supply of food going to the plants, slow-release granules are recommended.
Keeping Control Of Pests
Systemic and Contact insecticides are the two main types. The first, systemic insecticide works by pouring it right onto the soil where it gets absorbed through to the root system of the plant. From here it goes right up the stalk and to the leaves where it is ingested by the bugs when they eat.
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’d like to know more about garden pots, visit AllGardenPots.com