Container Gardening

I have a long rectangular planter basket on the side of my house. Pre-shaped liners (like these ones*) don’t seem to come in the right size for it, so I buy coco fibre fabric by the sheet and cut it to size. It’s available from some of the big box stores, from Amazon*, and my…

I’ve purchased many beautiful plants that came in those ubiquitous plastic planters with the plastic hangers on them. I’m not fond of the look of these hangers, so even if I do plan to hang the plant up, I always take it out and repot it into a nicer hanging basket. Often though, I want…

Large planters provide room for lots of creativity, and add more impact to a garden than you can achieve through a collection of small pots, when planted up well. I’ve gardened a pair of large planters for a client for more than a decade, and had an idea that I’d like a substantial pot of…

For the style of gardening I like most and try to maintain, the goal is to have garden beds that are packed full of plants to the point that it looks they’re bubbling out. They’re densely packed in, but each plant has sufficient room to do its thing, and there’s a variety of height, texture…

I believe that watering is the most important factor in determining whether or not you’ll have success growing plants in a hanging basket. Water them too much and they’ll die. Water them too little and they’ll get crispy and die.   This is true for plants growing in the ground as well (which is why…

Containers, urns, pots and hanging baskets are a lot of fun to put together and they can add a lot of pizzazz to your garden.     Planters are a big deal for me. I create a lot of container plantings for my own garden every year, along with a few for clients. On my…

When I first started growing plants in pots I wondered if I really needed to buy “potting soil” (called “potting compost” in the UK), or if I could use something cheaper, like topsoil or regular garden soil. I read a few articles that said you really should use it, but aside from potting soil being…

Hanging baskets are a must have in my garden. In particular, I love to have a big basket of bright red geraniums hanging on the front of my garage. They’re easy to find at a good price and they pack a lot of oomph. What I don’t love is the cheap plastic hanger and basket…

I noticed an empty open spot at the front of our garden, near the sidewalk. Bare soil (or bare mulch) is a rarity in my garden, by design. Actually, saying it’s by design sounds like have a plan—if there’s an empty space I see an opportunity to cram in another plant! I still have a…