planting in containers
Here is a compilation of tips and suggestions that will enable you to enjoy your garden whatever the size of your plot. For even a tiny balcony or window sill can be transformed into a place of delight. Hanging baskets can also be used to grow tomatoes or strawberries and take up no valuable floor space.
Vegetables, flowers and herbs can be grown in the smallest of gardens. Even a balcony that receives plenty of sun is space enough for a pot and a balcony trough. By choosing plants that interact with each other for their mutual benefit can be of enormous help in the garden encouraging healthy growth to a vast array of plants but also warding off pests and diseases.
A medium sized pot could contain fruits such as red or white currants; a trough would have space for six plants, such as strawberries with lettuce, cherry tomatoes with parsley or radish with chervil. The golden rule of planting is wherever possible to plant after 4pm: this is when the sun’s heat is decreasing in it’s intensity, and the plants will then have the benefit in settling in during the cooler part of the day.
Plants that are grown in containers need plenty of nutrients however. Plants bought from the garden centre will have been pre-fertilised by the grower, so you should refrain from feeding for 3 to 4 weeks. After that use a general tomato feed or seaweed extract and feed as per instructions. Watering regularly is also a must if plants are to stay healthy and stress free.
A good defence to ward off slugs and snails would be to create a barrier by smearing petroleum jelly half way up the pots and containers. Other plants that help each other in the vegetable garden by stimulating growth and warding off pests are as follows – beans and cabbage, leeks and carrots, onions and lettuce and carrots and beans.
In a fruit garden however, plant nasturtiums and chives alongside apple trees to keep your trees free from pests. If you grow tomatoes, you can suspend the finished plant over the branches of the apple tree to keep it free from blight during the winter. Always try to use a natural form of pest control wherever possible, especially on food produce. This is also being mindful of wildlife and of the environment.
No matter how small your garden, by using pots, tubs and troughs you can create your own little paradise, for the word paradise derives from the ancient Persian word meaning ‘enclosed garden’
Image credit: Sydney Rae on Unsplash
