PRACTICAL MATTERS

Tubs, barrels, pots, window boxes, hanging baskets, and all manner of recycled vessels have fantastic potential as places to grow plants. Their roots thrive in the warm well-drained environment of a pot, but to remain vigorous and healthy they need a little more watering and feeding than the average garden plant.

Choosing containers

Firstly, make sure your pot has a drainage hole. Then ask yourself if it’s large enough. The smaller the pot or the bigger the plant, the more often you will need to water. On the other hand, a pot that’s too big is a waste of potting mix and nutrients. Worse, especially for indoor plants and others that require warmth or sharp drainage (such as succulents and orchids), a pot that’s too large can lead to root rot. As a guide, the new pot should be 3cm to 5cm wider than the old one. If the plant looks about right in proportion with the pot, you are probably on the right track. For fast growing perennials, vege plants and fruit trees, it’s best to err on the larger side. Hanging baskets are particularly vulnerable to drying out if too small.

Terracotta means ‘baked earth’ in Italian and has been used by gardeners for centuries – for obvious reasons. It is both practical and beautiful, even more so with age. There are lots of shapes and sizes to choose from, from affordable machine made pots to highend hand crafted ones.

Though porous, and therefore losing more water through its sides than a plastic container, a terracotta pot breathes. This is great for plants because it means that the roots are less likely to overheat in the summer or become waterlogged in the winter. That’s why terracotta pots are so good for spring bulbs.

Plastic pots have their advantages too. As well as holding water for longer, they are lighter and easier to move around than clay or concrete pots and, unlike terracotta, they are not prone to crack after a heavy frost. The best of them are made from long lasting, UV resistant plastic.

Potting mix

It’s false economy to scrimp on the mix. Your container plants will thrive for much longer if you use a good quality container mix. Do not use garden soil in pots. Top quality container mixes are a balanced blend of ingredients designed to combine optimum drainage with best possible water holding capacity.

Food

Because pots need frequent watering they also need frequent feeding, as nutrients are washed away. Feed little and often or use controlled-release fertilisers. Concentrated powdered fertilisers are bad news in pots, as they burn plant roots. As a general rule, use controlled-release (aka ‘slow release’) fertiliser at potting time, with top up feeds throughout the growing season.

Fast growing flowering annuals and vege plants thrive with frequent feeds of liquid fertiliser. Always make sure your potting mix is moist before feeding with liquid fertiliser. Trees and shrubs in containers need a boost of controlled-release fertiliser every spring.

Water

In summer, daily watering is the general rule. In very hot, dry weather you may need to water twice a day. Windy weather will increase the demand for watering as water loss is increased through both leaf and pot surfaces.