Sometimes the idea of growing a garden is daunting. Where’s the best spot? Does it have enough sunlight? Does it have the right kind of soil? How am I going to keep it from being eaten by pests or deer? How am I going to water it?
Anyway if you’ve ever given thought to this, and find yourself overwhelmed, maybe a full on garden is a bigger project than you want to tackle, especially if you are a new gardener.
One way to break into gardening more easily is to have a container garden.
A container garden can be as simple as a flower pot, that you either add seeds to, or you buy little plants for.
Determining What You Want To Grow
The first thing you will need to do is decide what you want to grow. Maybe you want to grow herbs, flowers, vegetables, plants, shrubs, or make a fairy garden.
Herbs
Many people start with an herb garden. You can start with seeds or you can purchase your favorite herbs at your local home improvement store or nursery. Some herbs are easier to grow than others.
Your climate is also a factor. In some locations, herbs will actually grow year-round and some locations only for the current season.
Take for example Minnesota, you’re only going to have the summer season as things will freeze in the winter time.
And take California for example, where you can grow rosemary year round, and it can become huge like a giant shrub.
Depending on the size of your pot you can typically get three to four herbs in a single container. If you are planning on growing mint, you need to know that it’s a very invasive plant and really does best to be on its own. Even in the ground it likes to take over the earth and spread.
Some of my personal favorite herbs are rosemary, mint, basil, and cilantro. That being said, I have found cilantro to be very difficult to grow.
It basically dies or gets super straggly and turns yellow. I have personally tried to grow it numerous times and have not ever had luck with it. At this point, I just purchase it regularly. That’s not to say you won’t have better results, but hey, I wish you luck!
Basil is also very hit-or-miss. It seems to get very finicky about the wetness of the soil and sometimes the stems rot right at the base of the soil and you basically end up throwing it out.
If you can get the conditions correct for basil, I think it can be happy. My present basil is out on the deck in a container mixed with mint and is seemingly happy and producing for me. It definitely does not like to dry out and does better outside than on my counter. It is coming back for me after I let it dry out.
I think that the easiest herbs to grow would be rosemary, sage, mint, and thyme. In addition to numerous types of herbs there are also numerous varieties of those herbs. For example there are 600 varieties of mint and 150 different species of basil.
Your local nursery, of course, will not carry that many varieties. If you wanted to get a very specialized item, you would likely have to order the seeds through a seed catalog.
Your local nursery will likely carry a few different varieties, for example, they probably have sweet basil, purple basil, and Thai basil. They will also likely have spearmint, peppermint, and chocolate mint available for you to purchase.
Vegetables
Tomatoes and peppers grow great in a container. Some tomato plants get huge so you’ll want to read about the height and width before you throw it in a pot.
You can also add a stake or a cage to help support your tomato. Or you can pinch it back to keep it a more maintainable size. Some varieties are designed specifically to stay small and compact.
Tomato plants like to be planted a little deeper than the dirt level they are received at and they tend to be a little more sturdy if you put them in this way.
I also like to remove extra stems that have no flower clusters as these are basically little suckers. You will have better fruit production if you remove these.
It is best to remove them when they are still young and can just be pinched off with your fingernails. Some people like to leave 2 leaves on the sucker to shade the fruit that will grow below. I usually remove the whole sucker, but I think leaving the 2 leaves is a good idea.
What Are My Neighbors Growing?
Another idea of choosing what you want to grow is by looking around you and seeing what other people are growing and having success with.
I have found this to be very resourceful. Some things grow better in different places than others based on the moisture in the air, the dryness of the land, how much sun or water they receive, many many factors.
For example: roses, geraniums, birds of paradise, and bougainvillea grow terrifically in California. In Georgia I have tried to grow vinca flowers several times and I have had no luck. Other things grow wonderfully here like lantana, snapdragons, coleus, canna lilies, and azaleas.
Selecting a Container
So once you’ve determined if you want to grow an herb garden, flower garden, shrub with flowers, or vegetables, then it’s time to select your container.
You may have a flower pot already in your possession that you want to use. Or you may want to go to a local home improvement store or nursery to pick something up.
You can even use pails or buckets if you want to do a larger scale vegetable container garden. If you go this route, it’s not a bad idea to drill a hole in the bottom for drainage.
Determining the size and budget for your container is another factor. Personally I have had good luck shopping at a Marshall’s, TJ Maxx, or HomeGoods and have found lovely containers usually around the $40 price point for a large container and $15 for a small container.
Picking Plants
I have found it easier to purchase plants than to start from seed. Although I think there is great joy in watching the seeds come up from the soil, I still prefer instant gratification.
Seeds
If you want to start your plants from seeds, there are some steps you can take to get seeds to germinate faster. One way is by wrapping them in a damp paper towel or planting them in an old egg carton with seed starter or potting soil.
Some people have found tenting them like a greenhouse helps too by using old gallon sized milk cartons to cover and protect and provide warmth which can help them grow faster.
A potential issue with seeds can be thinning them. Ideally, you don’t want to have a bunch of seeds planted right next to one another as they will compete. Thinning them out can sometimes disturb the roots of the strong ones. Only planting one seed in a spot can sometimes have a low success rate.
Letting these tiny little living things dry out or getting too much water can also end their life prematurely. Hence the more forgiving nature of buying plants that are already a few inches tall.
On a side note, these seeds were all put in, likely early May, and this is what they look like today, end of July. Do they look happy and flourishing? Do they look like they were worth waiting 2 months for? The answer to me is no.
Flowering Plants
As stated earlier, every region has plants that grow better in their zone.
The sky’s the limit with picking the flowers you like. You may want to make the container a single color with a variety of plants or you may want to have three or so contrasting colors.
I have a sister-in-law who does a lot of purple and orange plantings together and they look lovely. I have found that I like to do purple and burgundy and yellow together. I also like to do just white and green.
Certain colors can really catch my eye for some reason. I love the deep salmon colored geraniums and the bright orange colored New Guinea impatiens. I would say those are two of my more favorite flowering plants. My hubby loves the hibiscus so we get one every year.
I think gerbera daisies are lovely although I have not found them to grow well for me. Zinnias have been hit-or-miss for me and when their flowers are done they need to be deadheaded or they look rather ugly.
Some plants look good only in the spring. Take, for example, pansies. Pansies on into the summer look straggly and more like weeds, but in the spring they are a showstopper.
Pansies and snapdragons both have a higher tolerance for colder weather and will typically get you through the hump of early spring to safe summer planting season.
I typically do an early spring planting as I’m so longing for some color and life in my yard. Something to show the signs of spring. These are a great choice for this.
I sometimes plant pansies with an evergreen shrub, palm tree or other larger plant. It can then be kept as a focal point in the planter year round and you can change the other plants around it seasonally.
After spring, when the pansies are getting rather straggly, you can transplant them to another less obvious location. Sometimes they will even come up the following year.
Then with your planter, you can put in some colorful annuals. This would be the time where you could put in impatiens, if the pot is in the shade, or petunias if your pot is in the sun. Or any other combination of annual plants.
It is important to read the guidelines on the plants. They allow for a little bit of deviation from the sun/shade advice, but for the most part you will not get the amount of blooms or colorfulness if you plant a sun-loving plant in the shade.
Some plants have been altered to have a higher tolerance for sun or shade than they once did, New Guinea Impatiens for example.
Another side note about buying plants is that sometimes we get so excited by seeing all of these plants that we over buy.
Usually if you have a shrub in your planter you can really only fit in about another 6 to 12 plants.
I usually like to give my plants about a 3-5 inch diameter around each plant, allowing for growth and for them coming together. If the plant itself is bigger than 5 inches diameter, then give it a good 2-3 inches more on all sides.
Also allowing for whatever plant is next to it to have the same amount of space. So if each of those plants is going to have a 2-3-inch of growth excess on each side, you’re going to want to give a good 3-5 inches between the two plants.
On the other hand, if you buy to many plants, you can always buy another pot. Hahaha!
Another couple of my favorite plants would be begonias and angel wing begonias. They are both lovely in a container and seem to do well.
Again, high bang-for-the-buck. They produce well and stay looking great and are relatively inexpensive. I like that I can buy a 6 or 8 pack for around $2.50.
Sweet potato vine comes in both a bright golden yellow-green and a dark purple; it provides a nice contrast and fills in any open spaces.
With my container gardens, I typically like to have some different heights. I like to have some taller and some shorter plants in there. I typically plant them according to the best view from where I’ll be sitting or walking onto the deck or patio.
Trailing plants are a great addition to container gardens. Both the sweet potato vine and bacopa are trailing plants and look fantastic hanging over the edge of a container.
Bacopa likes to receive regular watering. If it is left to dry out for an extended period of time, it will take longer to reflower for you.
To tell if my plants need water, I just stick my finger down into the soil and if it’s dry, give it a little water and make them happy campers.
Colorful Plants
Coleus, Persian Shield, and sweet potato vine, along with some ornamental grasses and fescues look really nice in a container. The balance of leaf textures with the flowers can bring harmony to your planter.
I like to have some large leaf items as well as some very dainty plants. I really like the contrast. If you have a lot of very fine little plants in there, it almost can get straggly and weedy looking.
Shrubs
I have found some topiary style roses to grow well in a container but I have typically not put a shrub rose in a container. One thing about container gardening is you want it to look good the whole time.
Roses go through cycles where they are not necessarily looking marvelous throughout the year. I don’t want to have my container looking shabby for any part of the time.
Another reason I am a huge fan of planting evergreen shrubs in a container.
I have a spiraling blue spruce. I have boxwoods. I have little junipers that I’ve tried to make into bonsai.
One of my little bonsai shrubs I’ve planted into a planter I use for my gnome home. Some people love to do fairy gardens, but I am a little more plain and this works for me. All white accessories, even better.
Using evergreens is definitely a low maintenance/high-impact way to use a planter.
It’s always welcoming at the front door of a home or business. Another benefit, is that you can keep it year after year and just go around it with some fresh plantings for the different seasons.
One thing I’ve done lately is to put moss at the base of some of my shrubs. I’ve done this instead of planting flowers because I really love moss and the simplicity of it almost reminds me of a zen garden.
There are a few different types of moss out there that you can purchase. Irish moss comes in both a very bright green-yellow and a dark green color and are readily available at most nurseries.
I have dug up some moss from the backwoods of my yard and just put it in my containers. I basically take a triangle trowel and shave off about a one inch layer of the moss and put it on top of the surface area of my planter.
This tool enables me to not end up with too thick of a dirt layer, thus bringing the soil level too high above whatever my plantings are, that they’re not used to.
Changing things up
Sometimes people think that once they’ve done a planting that they’re done. The bottom line is you don’t ever have to be done! You can change things up as many times as you want. If a plant I have isn’t looking happy, I move it somewhere else and put in something new.
Sometimes I walk through a garden center and they have clearance plants. I think to myself, I could make that plant a little happier than it is sitting here, so I just take it home.
I like to give plants a new chance. Some of them start out looking 90% dead. But if I only paid a quarter for a plant or a dollar I’m like, hey I’ll go for it!
Some of these plants do end up dying because I haven’t cared for them as much as they want or they were beyond their life zone when I purchased them. Many of them actually do live and thrive, and I love getting plants for a discounted price.
My local Lowe’s has things marked down all the time. By marked down, I’m talking 50 to 75% off. Some things can look just terrible on that clearance rack and then come back to life marvelously. New Guinea impatiens and verbena being amongst them.
Sometimes you don’t know the color of the plant because it won’t have any blooms on it when you purchase it. If you’re super picky about what color it is, this may not be the route to go.
Also sometimes there are specialty annuals that are usually $5 a quart and you can get them for a dollar a piece. These are usually a nicer plant when they get going. Some that I’ve seen in this category include New Guinea impatiens, gerbera daisies, buttercup petunias, and geraniums.
Regular petunias can get straggly over time. The buttercup petunias, also known as a spiller plant, can have tons of blooms and are quite vibrant. They are an overall lovely plant and if you can get your hands on them, do it! They work marvelously in a container.
Not only do I change up my containers seasonally, but I also do so as things die back or just aren’t happy.
Keeping a container fresh and looking great is not as hard as it looks. They require very little time and some can get away with being watered as little as once a week.
That being said, if it is a smaller flower pot, it will need to be watered daily. A friend of mine wonders why her plants are not flourishing. The answer is she is not watering them regularly and they are dying.
If you are not the type of person who is going to water your plants, you’re better off getting something that requires very little maintenance. Moss roses don’t mind if they get dried out. Succulents are also much more forgiving if they get dried out.
Many people have the idea that they want to garden or be a gardener, but they really don’t have the heart and passion for it. If that happens to be you, it would be advisable to do something or grow something that’s more on par with who you are.
It’s like people who get a dog that wants to run all day and they want to sit on the couch. You need to do something that’s compatible with your personality. The same goes for choosing plants.
I don’t think I have ever had the same style plants planted in my container two years in a row. I definitely like to choose plants based on my mood or what catches my eye.
Succulents at Base of Planter 
Moss at Base of Planter
Planter With Palm and New Guinea Impatiens 
Container Planters 
Topiary With New Guinnea Impatiens
Palms and Begonia Planters 
Cordyline in Planter
Spiral Blue Spruce and Hibiscus in Planter 
Grapefruit Tree in Planter
Funny thing about going to the garden center is that everything catches my eye. Everything calls my name like ‘take me home with you!’
Tropical Plants
One thing you may not have considered is to use tropical plants in your container garden. Tropical plants are a high-impact, low maintenance, fabulous way to do a container garden!
Yes, you’re going to pay more for one individual plant, however it’s going to last you all summer long and bring you great joy! I have bought palm trees for $12 and some planters come with two palm trees in a single pot. This is usually a special purchase price in the beginning of spring. I have gotten them both at Walmart and Home Depot this way.
I’ve then used extra care and separated them and put them into separate pots, and added additional plants around them. This is an inexpensive way to bring a large plant to your container. Large plants have a high-impact wow factor!
Think about if you put in a six pack of marigolds that you basically spent $2 on. Your flower pots would not say dynamic.
If you take a Cordyline, which is a lovely hot pink tropical plant and costs around $16, and you put that in your container, it now says Bam! Look at me!
That is a high-impact planter. If you plant an elephant ear in there and then some shade loving plants in different heights like New Guinea impatiens or impatiens. Again now you have a high-impact planter. These tropicals can be show stoppers all on their own without adding any additional plants.
I am all about high bang for the buck. So if I can have a planter that’s big and bold and marvelous, that is my first choice. My second choice is low maintenance. I don’t want to be spending everyday watering and fiddling with the plants.
Some fiddling is enjoyable and therapeutic. To remove any spent leaves or flowers makes the plant look fresh and happy and also gives you a closer look of any needs the plant may have. Does it need more water? Does it have any little flies flying around? Does it have yellowing?
So a note on dryness: if a plant gets dry, give it water. If it has little flies flying around: spray it with a squirt bottle filled with water and a little bit of dish soap and it usually will take care of the problem. I spray both the plant itself and the soil. If it has yellowing on the leaves: it usually means you’re giving it too much water and you may need to give it less going forward.
Another little cheater way of keeping your planter looking nice, especially in the winter time when it’s too cold for real plants, is to throw in some artificial foliage. You can purchase some artificial grasses or other foliage that are made out of plastic.The initial investment might be 5 to $10 a plant, but they do not typically fade and can last for years. I sometimes do this indoors too.
I have intermingled this type of thing with real because having an all fake planter does not look terrific. From a distance it can give the look of a healthy, well maintained yard though.
Sometimes you can even incorporate some seasonal decor. In the fall you can add some little mini pumpkins along with your mums.
I tend to do this around Christmas time where I add artificial poinsettias to my front planters to match my wreath. In the past, I have also added large pine cones.
Filling in some of the empty space in planters can be done in many ways. I have some hand blown glass watering orbs that I think look nice and fill in the gaps when the planter is lacking plants.
Vacation Watering Tips
As much as I like my blown glass watering orbs, they really don’t hold enough water for the plants to be satisfied if I’m gone for a week. I have found wine bottles and Simply Lemonade containers work much better.
I just fill them up and shove them upside down into the soil. Usually at a slight angle. It slows the watering and gets them through. A neighbor is also great, but in a pinch at least I don’t come home to dead plants.
Setting a Plant Budget
Gardening is like a hobby to me. Do you know how much money people spend on hobbies and crafts and hunting and fishing? Lots! Hobbies around 10% of their income. Crafters average around $60 a month. Hunters average $2800 a year and fishing around $1300 a year. Yikes!
So, what does that mean to me? It means I can buy some plants! I think my goal would be to spend $100 for seasonal updates.
I usually have some other expenses that I would include with my gardening budget. I include dirt, which I usually get gifted from my kids via a Lowe’s gift card that they amusingly write for “dirt.” Rascals!
I also would put fertilizer or compost in this expense category, or wait, that could be under home improvement. Haha!
Extra Tip
One thing, other than fertilizer and compost, that can help make your container gardens flourish, is epsom salt. If you add a teaspoon to a gallon of water, swish it around, and use it once a month, your plants will thank you.
Another thing I do is collect rain water using rubbermaid tubs. I then use it to water my containers. To me, rain water is about 70% better than tap water as far as making my plants happy.
What did you do this year for your planters? What mood were you in when you picked out plants? How are they coming along? I’d love to see you share your planters and offer any tips or tricks you’ve found helpful. Happy planting!
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