If you visit a plant nursery or garden center, you will notice they are all filled with beautiful containers in every color possible. You might even wonder how they come up with these brilliant container gardening ideas.
They look marvelous, eye-catching, elegant—and expensive!
Luckily, you do not have to spend a fortune to create something similar. Here are some container gardening ideas for beginners. These are simple, quick and easy approaches to help you start decorating your garden.
The best part, you do not have to empty your wallet to create a beautiful container. If you do a quick search at your house, you can find most materials to create a standard container for your lovely plant.
Some good examples are old boots (if you have some holes in the sole, perfect!), unused baskets and cheap wooden barrels? Oh yes—you can create beautiful, quirky containers that combine huge personality with a refreshingly low price tag. Save that money!
Here are three simple ideas to get a stunningly low-cost container garden. Let us dig into our container gardening tips
Get those boots out
You may have walked so many miles in your old boots that you have worn holes in the soles. What! Your shoe soles do not have holes yet? No problem, let us drill some.
The idea is, don’t be too quick to toss that old boots of yours when it gets too worn out to wear or dump them in the garbage. Instead, pack them with flowers and trailing plants to turn them into living conversation pieces.
Drill a few holes for the excess water to drain. Fill the boots with a good-quality potting mix down to the toes. Remember, not to fill to the very top, because you will need room to add plants.
Let us get planting:
- Choose an upright focal point (we used a miniature rose and a primrose) and put it toward the back of the boot.
- Arrange trailing plants like ivy and baby tears, so they cascade sideways over the boot’s tongue.
- Add compact fillers like violas for colorful accents.
- Carefully tease the roots apart and add additional soil around and between the plants.
- Water and gently tamp the soil.
- Using old boot laces or thick twine, tie the tongue of each boot shut so the soil will not spill out.
back to menu ↑Like all containers, these old boots will need bi-weekly applications of liquid fertilizer or plant food as the plants grow.
Let us get the baskets out
Yellow flowers, any color flowers or Herbs. We can try a basket of herbs. This idea has double benefits:
a) It brightens a sunny balcony or patio.
b) It flavors your favorite recipes.
If you use perennial herbs like sage and rosemary, you can enjoy this basket year after year.
Keep the herbs pinched back, so they stay lush and full.
Here is how to get a basket container ready
- Place a shallow plastic container inside a slightly larger basket.
- Fill with moistened potting mix.
- Start in the center with a tall, upright herb such as sweet bay. 4. Loosen the roots of the herbs before planting them.
- Use shorter, bushier herbs such as oregano, sage, and parsley around the edges of the dish, with trailing rosemary cascading over the side.
- Water and gently firm the soil.
As the plants mature and the parsley goes to seed, replace it with a heat-loving herb like basil.
Feed with diluted liquid fertilizer every other week and rotate the basket, so all sides get proper sun light.
During the winter, bring the basket of plants indoors or protect them from frost, depending on your weather conditions.
The next one comes with a twist, a barrel container.
back to menu ↑Flower Power – Colourful Flower Barrel on the roll
A barrel of flowers cascading into your border is easier than you might think, and it is a clever way to pack color into an area of poor or compacted soil.
A pink and purple color scheme with different varieties of dianthus and daisies mixed with ornamental kale should bring a color appeal to those dull fields.
- Set the barrel down on its side on landscape fabric (to serve as a weed barrier).
- Position the barrel, so it blends naturally with the plants around it. You may need to wedge a stone or brick under the barrel to keep it from rolling.
- Drill drainage holes in the part of the barrel that will have soil in it.
- Add fresh potting mix in and around the barrel.
- To plant, cut holes in the landscape fabric and mix some of the potting mixes into the soil underneath.
As you finish planting, water with a liquid fertilizer. Add mulch to the entire area to tie in the barrel plantings with the rest of your garden landscape.
There you go, three simple container gardening ideas to help you get thinking. I am sure you will discover more things around your home which you can use as containers for your lovely plants.
I am sure you will discover more things around your home which you can use as containers for your lovely plants.
Using old washtubs, ringer washing machines ( electrical components removed, old claw-foot bathtubs and the like also work well and give your yard a vintage feel.
These things can be spread around the yard or grouped for a larger “garden” look.
I remember using a pair of children’s cowboy boots I bought at a yard sale for 50 cents. Cut when grouped with other containers. Wood stools (no cushion) make a great plant stand too. I use them to add height to my courtyard container garden.
You can also use old milk bottles as containers. They work pretty well within this scene as well.
You can use the above tips and discover some of the best container gardening ideas.
We hope you like these container gardening tips and will give it a shot.
Happy planting everyone!
