What is a Container Garden?

You may be wondering: What is a container garden? What types of garden can I really grow in pots?

You will be surprised at the wide variety of container gardens.

Basically, a container garden is any combination of plants grown inside a container rather than directly in the ground. Container gardens can be grown indoors or outside, and can be as large or as small as you desire. This includes houseplants, terrariums, flower planters, herb pots, fairy gardens and many other options.

You can use traditional containers such as planters and flower pots, or anything else that can hold plants - a coffee cup, recycled yogurt container or even a bathtub!

Questions about container gardens

What is the purpose of a container garden?

There are various reasons for choosing to garden in a container. Obviously, if you're growing plants indoors then you have to grow them in some type of pot. But even outside, containers can be easier to access and manage than a full in-ground garden. Containers also make it easier to keep pests away from your plants, use the exact type of soil you prefer, and keep weeds at bay.

How do I start a container garden?

Starting a container garden is very easy. You probably first need to decide on your goals for your container garden: inside or outside? what size of garden? what types of plants? Then, you can follow the directions in this container gardening basics article to start your container garden.

What can I use for container gardening?

There are lots of options of things to use for container gardening: it is really only limited by your imagination.

Of course, you can select any number of traditional planters or pots that are designed for houseplants or patio plantings. These are easily available in any nursery garden, big box home improvement store, or online.

There are also lots of cute planters available in the shapes of animals or other designs that you can coordinate with your decor or your interests.

But you don't have to purchase a container specifically designed for plants. There are many types of recycled items that make excellent containers for planting, from old kitchen dishware or pots (teapots, coffee mugs, soup bowls, etc) or recycled plastic containers such as from yogurt or cottage cheese.

You can also build your own containers from wood, clay, or even repurpose cardboard boxes!

What are the benefits of container gardening?

What is a container garden benefit to you?  In a container, you can manage the type of soil more easily, keep plants contained so they don't overgrow the garden, and more easily keep pests at bay.

Container garden types

These are just some of the types of container gardens:

• Vegetable container gardening,
  
• cactus garden,
• succulents in pots,
• water gardens,
  
• rock gardens,
• terrariums,
• fairy gardens,
• dish gardens,
• container herb gardens,
• aquaponic gardening,
• potted bulbs,
• zen garden container,
• air plant displays.

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