Tips for Patio and Container Gardening

Pot Gardening is quite popular for many reasons. At the top of that list is the fact that in comparison to the total population, only a few people have a big garden or yard where they can actually plant flowers and plants in the ground.
Does this mean that everyone who has small gardens or lives in high rise buildings shouldn't enjoy the beauty of flowers and the pleasure of gardening? It certainly doesn't.
If you don't have a garden or yard, there is no need to give up your gardening hobby! Pot gardening, or container gardening, provides the solution. You can have plants and flowers on a patio, a balcony, or even in your house. You can also grow vegetables in containers. 

Container Patio Gardening

Just remember how beautiful balconies and windows can look with flowers in pots and containers.
Patios can look barren without any plants, but placing a few lovely containers around with flowers in them will change a patio completely and bring a bit of nature to your balcony.
You can position them so they are in the perfect spot, where they have enough sunlight or shade. And when you fancy a change, just move them around.
This way it's actually much easier to be a gardener: you can provide perfect conditions for the flowers and plants, including choice of soil type, and pest control, which are much harder to take care of and control in a big garden.

Container Gardening Flowers

Naturally, pot gardening is useful for other reasons as well. Most flower species don't survive in the winter if they are left outside: and why it's a good idea to bring them into the house in containers until the cold winter days are over.
Some gardeners prefer to plant young flowers in containers before spring comes to get some early growth established, and then plant them outside when they are a bit stronger.
If you have plants in containers, you can also just move them around in the house as you like, and take them with you even when you move home - you can certainly not do that when they are planted in a garden.
I have quite a few trees planted in containers that I fully intend to take with me when I sell my house. I have purple Beech trees, Maples, Pines, and even some Dawn Redwood and Swamp Cypress, all in pots or containers.

Type of Container

For pot gardening, there are many types of containers that you can buy. They can be made of wood, terracotta, ceramic, metal, concrete and so on. Some of these materials are porous, while others are non-porous.
This means that while some of them let the roots of the plant breathe and water evaporate, others are very solid and don't let water in or out of the pot.
Containers made of metal or ceramics are like this: make sure that they have holes in the bottom, because otherwise they might trap too much water and kill the flowers through waterlogging of roots and lack of air circulation.
You can get containers in all shapes and sizes and you can always be creative; you don't necessarily have to spend money on containers.
You can use many things in decorative ways, barrels, pottery, buckets or anything else you think that might fit. I even planted flowers in a pair of old workman’s boots once. I also stacked some old books, made a hole in the middle, and planted a vine in them. After a season of rain and sun the books reverted back to being a lump of book shaped wood. It was an interesting effect!
Pot gardening is also very convenient because you can hang them on the wall, or put them on a stand. Window boxes and hanging baskets are very popular, since they immediately catch the eye with their beauty, and they are never in the way.
If you have pets or small children and you are worried that they will knock over the containers, you can just use these baskets and keep the flowers safe and out of the way at all times.   http://www.easyshadegardening.com/pot-gardening.html