Container gardening is all the rage and for good reason. You can easily decorate your front porch with minimum effort and give your house its own personality. It also allows a gardener to be able to install the planter anywhere in their garden and move them very quickly if they so desire. But, no matter what you grow in a container, they all rely on the same information to grow them. If you grow flowers, shrubs or veggies, the basis is the same.
Soil
No matter if you are growing a flower or veggie containers, you always want to use a very good potting soil. Good potting soil allows for drainage of excess water but also the retention of nutrients for the plant. It has a mixture of compost, peat and other organic materials. It also has perlite in the mixture which allows for drainage of the soil. Never use “dirt” from the ground.
Water
There is no rule of thumb on watering plants because there are so many variables. If your planter is in a lot of shade, you may only need to water your plants once a week. Yet, if it is full sun, you may need to water once a day.
The best way to decide if your planter requires water, is to push your finger into the soil. If it is starting to dry out then water immediately. If the soil is moist, then wait until a later time. The moisture target that you are trying to achieve is to have a moist soil but not saturated soil. But, when you do finally water your planter, water thoroughly. Do not put in a tiny amount of water, but rather make sure that it drains out of the bottom of the pot.
What to Grow
Now you must decide what to grow. If you want to design a planter for flowers, follow this link to a blog post that describes how to design your planter. How to Start Container Gardening
If you want to grow veggies such as tomatoes follow this link to When is it Time for Tomatoes?