How To: Container Gardening

This year, we got a little ambitious and bought a few too many plants for the space we had in our garden beds. So, we decided to take a chance and plant the remainders in pots. I have honestly not had very good luck with pots in my gardens over previous years, so this time we decided to look up the most successful method of planting in hopes of these plants actually surviving.

Here is the planting process that seems to have the most success according to our online findings.

1. Line your pot with a few inches of small rocks or gravel. This will help your plant get proper drainage.

2. Fill your pot up to just about 1 inch of the lip of the pot on top of the rocks with a good quality potting mix. Personally, I have come to love Miracle Grow Moisture Control. It's designed to maintain enough moisture when it's dry, but also drain the moisture out when it's too wet. Basically, you can get away with not watering it everyday or over watering it = a win win!

3. Take a small hand shovel, spade, or just your hand and dig a hole wide and deep enough to accommodate your plants' roots. You want to make sure the plant base is properly covered so make sure it's deep enough.

4. Take your plant and gently place it in the hole. If you are using a plant that has a decent amount of roots that are wrapped in soil, give the roots a slight squeeze - it will encourage them to grow and stabilize themselves quicker.

5. When your plant is placed, pull soil up around the plant and gently press the plant downward. Even out your soil around the plant. Make sure you have not covered up too much of your leaves with dirt. The only way your plant gets sun is through it's leaves - their more leaves that are exposed, the more energy the plant will have and the better/faster it will grow.

So, here are my cabbages that are in pots. We also have a few that got to be planted in the ground, so we will get to do a bit of a comparison as to which way was better :)

The weather is perfect! Get out there and plant something!