Don’t feel embarassed if you believe that container gardening is only for indoor plants, I did too! It’s not until you’re informed that you can grow your container plants almost anywhere, that you’ll realize how much sense it makes to be able to plan your container garden to go wherever it’s best for you… and your plants of course!
By planting your garden in containers, it becomes much easier to move around to get the best possible conditions for your crops. This is an obvious advantage over a traditional garden!
Another problem you overcome with a container garden is the ability to move your plants to a safer location if the weather turns nasty. The plants in your yard have to fend for themselves.
Also your potted garden can be moved around to take advantage of the best growing conditions for your plants. That’s not possible once your plants are in the ground and you find that the position you picked is either too shady or sunny.
You also get to choose where you place your container garden, it needs to be in a convenient position that provides the right amount of sun for your plants and is also easy for you to get access. Nothing reduces your enthusiasm like having to drag everything you need to work on your garden about 100 to 200 yards away every time.
If you’re going to grow edible plants, make sure you locate them as far away as possible from any streets. Traffic pollution will affect not only your plants, but your family too when they eat them.
If you decide on an indoor garden, you’ll need to select a part of the house that’s reasonably warm for your plants to thrive. This becomes even more important if you use air conditioning in your home, find the warmest place you can for your pot plants.
If your home tends to be on the cool side, try and find a room where you can close off any vents or drafts and keep it a little warmer. A room filled with natural sunlight is usually better for them.
Try to avoid some of the more delicate or exotic plants, unless that’s what you want, because they will often require high or low humidity. This means investing in special humidity equipment that can raise or lower the amount of moisture in the air to suit the plants.
Next, you’ll need to choose which plants you want to grow. Be careful! Too many people choose to plant far too many varieties, and end up frustrated. Don’t grow anything you can easily pick up cheaply at the grocery store!
Stick to growing fruits and vegetables that you really enjoy and have a hard time locating locally, or those you find too expensive or too low quality. Tomatoes are a favorite for home gardeners, because their quality in stores if often very poor.
Finally, decide whether or not you want to grow your plants organically. If you’re growing indoors, this will probably be very simple to do. But if you’re growing your plants outside, you could get frustrated with pest control. Don’t worry if you find organic gardening a bit difficult. Like anything, it requires some research to gain experience, but is worth the trouble in the long term.