Container Garden 411

Once you’ve chosen a spot for your container water garden – remember, 6 or more hours of direct sunlight a day, no overhanging trees, and a nearby water source (and power source if you’ll be using a circulating pump for a waterfall) – you get to the fun part. Most home and garden supply store chains carry all the materials you need to create small ponds, including plastic liners – but you’re only limited by your imagination and a few basic rules in choosing a container for your water garden.

It must be easy to drain.
It must be non-porous.
It must be deep enough to support the plants you want to grow.

I’ve seen water gardens that use everything from old bathtubs to an assortment of terracotta pots (with plastic liners) to large baskets (also with plastic liners).

For a container water garden, you won’t actually be planting the plants in the bottom of the ‘pond’. Instead, each plant will be planted in its own separate pot and submerged in the water.

Assemble your equipment
You’ll need your containers, plants, bricks or terracotta pots, gravel, heavy soil, aquatic plant fertilizer tablets and a garden hose.

Pot your plants
If they’re not already in suitable pots, you’ll need to pot your plants. Do not use potting soil, vermiculite or peat moss – all of which will wash out of the pots and foul the water. Instead, you want a very heavy, mud-clay like soil. Fill the pot 2/3 full with soil. Push a fertilizer tablet into the soil, then carefully spread the roots of the plant over the surface of the dirt. Add a few inches of dirt and lightly tamp it down, then cover with an inch or so of pea gravel. Repeat until all of your plants are potted.

Arrange your plants in the container
This is where the bricks come in. The tops of the plant pots should be no more than a few inches below the surface of the water. Stack bricks, upended terracotta pots or construction blocks in the container and place pots on top of them to vary the heights of the plants.
Add pump for fountain or waterfall if using one.

If you’re adding a fountain or a waterfall, situate the pump per the manufacturer’s directions.

Fill with water.
Using the garden hose, fill your container with water until the plant pots are submerged under a few inches of water. If you ‘fill from the bottom’ by dropping the hose into the bottom of the container and letting the water level rise, you’ll reduce the chance of disturbing the soil and gravel in your plants.
Enjoy.

Don’t forget that the point of the exercise was to have a lovely, cool water garden to enjoy. Make sure that you place a bench or comfortable sitting rock nearby where you can enjoy the beauty of your own miniature pond every day.

To get the best results from your container gardens, be sure to learn about garden composting techniques which can help you grow more flowers much more quickly.

One of the exciting things about container gardening is that you get to experiment with all kinds of flower colors. You can mix it up or be very specific to show off a theme.  Now realize that the plants in the pots are confined. I made the mistake of stuffing my container with all types of flowers only to have some get crowded out. They just died. I wanted instant beauty and didn’t consider how much the flowers would grow. I hope I’m not the only one that has done that before.  

Lesson learned: Flowers can grow like children; they need extra room, because they are going to grow – up and out.  I hope that analogy makes sense.

Therefore, in container planting, the subtle color and combinations of color that might not stand out in a border setting are right in front of you. I loved looking at my tulips earlier this year, and so did the postal woman, my neighbors and the kids running through my yard. It was awesome. 

 If you are unsure about how to use colors in your containers, let me tell you what I did along with a few other ideas.

•  Look through some magazines at the bookstore for inspiration. Cut out the pictures of examples that you like. Now if the magazine is in the bookstore, please just don’t tear out the picture, buy it.
• Think about how you want to feel, when you look at the container every day. I know I wanted my colors to be happy, and bright, and shocking for spring.

The following color combinations also work well. White is very versatile and supports most other colors. Put a little green and it takes on a feeling of freshness. Use colors like yellow and green and it reminds me of a bright sunny day with freshly cut grass.  My power color choices are red, oranges and pinks. Using colors in containers is like that HGTV show, “Color Splash” with David Bromstad. He’s much better, but I do get some inspiration from him and “Myles of Style”, Kim Myles.

If you are a little color shy, then use one color, and use it in several different types of containers to make a color impact. You can also, use several different types of plants that have different bloom periods to give you continuous beauty.

 What do you do when selecting which colors of flowers you are going to use?