Contents
INTRODUCTION
Container gardening, aka growing plants in pots, is a booming Gardening method and the most adopted option for most gardeners, Homeowners, and Plant enthusiasts. The reason for this is all you know: it is extremely portable, easy to maintain, pocket-friendly, and so on.
Apart from these reasons, there is a main reason why people grow fond of container plants. That is, it doesn’t require a lot of space to grow plants you love. My fellow Gardeners invent every possible new method to utilise the space and grow plants.
Have you ever noticed why those Gardening experts, professionals and enthusiasts’ plants thrive like that and mine is a little bit sad sometimes? Of course, they knew a lot about how to grow and care. But there is one secret recipe to add for easy gardening.
That is Plant selection. Yes, choosing the right plants is a key point for optimal growth. There are various factors including in plant growth your geological area’s climate zone, Plant size, and Growth habits. There is a huge difference between randomly growing some vegetable plants in your pots and choosing which veggies grow better in your climate zones, and soil types and how to choose them properly.
1. FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING PLANTS
Before digging deep into a specific plant type selection, you need to know some common and basic factors to consider.
Plant Size and Growth Patterns
Knowing the Plant’s mature size and growth habits should be a main consideration for Apartment dwellers and House owners. Let me explain it with a hypothetical situation to understand easily. Just imagine.
If you have a small balcony or a space in your living, and you are planning to buy a plant to decorate that spot. You bought a plant in the nursery or online that is below 8-10 inches in height. After a few months that small plant grows massively like 3-4 feet tall or if it’s a climbing or vining plant that takes the vertical space more than you thought.
The next thing you need to do is, chop the plant or frustrated about where to move these. To avoid this chaos, you need to know about your chosen plant’s growth habits and growth patterns.
Light Requirements
Different kinds of plants need different kinds of sunlight requirements. Shade-loving plants, Partial shade plants, Heat tolerant plants. Choosing plants based on your place’s sunlight that match the plant’s sunlight requirement is ideal for plant growth.
Placing heat-tolerant aka sun-loving plants indoors only makes the plant look horrible they consistently drop leaves, root rot and so on. Meanwhile, placing shade-loving plants outdoors scorches the leaves and burns the plant.
If you choose plants for a specific spot in your house, choose plants according to the spot’s light level. To identify the light and shadow hours of the spot take pictures of the spot every hour from sunrise to sunset. You can get to know how many hours of sun and shade hour the place gets.
If you’ve wish-listed plants you want to buy for your house, identify the plant’s light requirements and find a spot based on it in your house.
Soil Requirements
You can adjust soil or make a potting mix based on your plant’s need that’s a big convenience in Container gardening. But if you prefer to use your location’s garden soil or available soil you must know about the soil types, and acidic levels of soil and buy plants according to those preferably native plants.
And you can combine your garden soil with organic amendments to make the soil more pot-friendly, the keynote is the potting soil should be well-drained and have moisture retention in the meantime.
Because, if the soil is not well-drained it leads to soggy soil and root rot. If soil is not water retention it makes the soil dry and the plant can’t get any nutrients to thrive.
2. BEST TYPES OF PLANTS FOR CONTAINER GARDENING
You can grow any type of plant in Containers, all you need is a different preceptive, patience to set up the garden based on plants’ needs, and a little knowledge about the specific Garden method. This is all you need but for beginners, you can start with these 4 super gardening methods.
Herbs
You can grow your kitchen herbs like cilantro, mint, and thyme or your personal care herbs like rosemary, and basil.
Edible Plants
Starting with easy edible plants also benefits you in many ways, because this is the Gardening method that directly gives benefits as any other gardening type.
Flowers
Flower plants are my favourites, they’re not only attractive but also provide flowers for home use, and decorative purposes and attract pollinators that help pollinate between plants.
Succulents and Cacti
One of the low-maintenance plant varieties, that don’t need frequent watering, is drought-tolerant and hardy. I prefer this for busy people and people who consistently kill their plants because of under-watering and clueless about how to care. It grows in any condition all it needs is sunlight water and well-drained soil.
3. UNDERSTANDING PLANT COMPATIBILITY
If you’ve very small spots for growing plants, it’s better to adopt a minimal approach. Because there is a difference between utilising spaces and cluttering a space with lots of plants. I understand that you love growing plants but it’s not showing love for plants. Plants also need their own space to grow healthy.
Companion Planting
Some plants grow together Tomatoes with basil, Beans with Cucumber, Peppers with tomatoes the list goes on. With this method, you can grow two or three plants combined in a single big rectangular pot.
Avoiding Over-crowding
Not only do plants need vertical space to grow, but they also need some surrounding space to thrive and grow freely. Over-crowding a lot of plants in a small space leads spread of diseases from one plant to another, and small stems not gonna get needed light, you might forget to water beyond small plants because of the blind spots.
4. CHOOSING PLANTS FOR DIFFERENT SEASONS
If you’re a person who wants to grow seasonal plants and is enthusiastic about renovating your garden every season this is for you. Growing annual flowers, herbs, and veggies allows you to change the look of your garden every 4-6 months. It is like dressing up your garden.
Cold-season Plants
These are plants that are tolerable and survive in cold weather. You can grow some common cold season plants Beets, Kale, and Petunia.
Warm-season Plants
Tomatoes, chillies, basils and Marigold are best for Warm season plants. And you can grow heat-tolerant plants in warm weather.
Year-around Plants
If you want to mix some year around beauties with your annuals you can grow herbs, flowers and shrubs
5. MATCHING PLANTS WITH YOUR ENVIRONMENT
Choosing plants according to your local climate zone is preferable because I bought some cold-seasoned and shade-loving plants but most of them do not make it. Because of the high heat waves in my area and lack of humidity. So, choosing plants based on your local climate zone gives the best results.
Indoor vs Outdoor Container Gardening
Buying indoor plants and putting them outdoors is like suffocating plants. It’s also a waste of money because the plant can’t make it you need another plant in no time.
Buy plants based on your needs, if you want a plant to decorate Indoors choose shade-loving plants that gonna tolerate low lights
If you want to decorate semi-shade areas that get partial sunlight, choose aesthetic plants that look good in space and tolerate the light level.
If you want to grow plants outdoors grow veggies, herbs or any edible plants, succulents and shrubs.
6. COMMON MISTAKES TO AVOID
- Choosing plants that outgrow containers. (choose pot-friendly plants)
- Ignoring maintenance (Container gardening is a low-maintenance gardening type, not a zero maintenance)
- Non-seasonal plants or choosing plants that don’t match your local climate.
- Choosing plants without knowing their root depth.
- Selecting plants that require frequent repotting.
CONCLUSION
If I find this kind of article in the past, I would save my time and energy, blacklist some plants and add a few more plants Wishlist, and save money by only buying that is suitable for my garden.
I bought a lot of plants in past that can’t even survive in my climate zones and plants that I can’t afford care. Now I’ve nearly 100s of plants but I choose them carefully. Also, I’m experimenting with some difficult-to-grow kinds, but those are less expensive than my well-grown plant list.
Choosing the right plants that are suitable for you reduces a lot of chores and makes you enjoy the gardening process. Starting with some easy plants helps you learn gardening from your own experience. It helps to build a base knowledge and you can experiment with various plants in future.
This article is an Introduction you can get to know in detail in the Plants Selection category. That helps you to choose various plant types and how to choose the specific plant kinds without hassle.
Mention in the comments which plant you going to buy and which plant you blacklisted from buying.
Happy Gardening!
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