Out of necessity, containers were my first garden.
When I first began to garden in Chicago, I had a third-floor balcony. Pots and containers and window boxes were my garden.
Here at Maplehurst, I have almost five acres at my disposal.
Why haven’t I “disposed” of containers?
With so much ground to cover and fill, why mess about watering pots?
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Here are the reasons why I STILL love container gardening:
- Containers help bridge the garden with the house: I love to create mini-gardens in pots on front steps, porches, and patios
- Containers offer a nurturing environment for small or special plants: sometimes my mail-order roses are too small to go straight into the garden. I give them a year to grow on their own in a container before letting them duke it out with other plants in a mixed border.
- Containers help me manage my urge to collect: I want to grow every plant I read about, but not all of these longed-for plants fit the style or color schemes of my current garden. If I really want to try growing something but don’t know where to put it, a pot is a perfect solution.
- Containers bring the garden up close: For instance, I grow tulips and daffodils in the ground, but I love growing them in pots. When in bloom, I can feature those pots right on our outdoor table. When the blooms fade, I can tuck them out of sight.
- Containers need watering and feeding but they don’t typically need weeding: I like growing edibles in containers because I don’t have to keep them weeded while I wait for harvest
- Containers allow us to grow heat and cold sensitive plants year round no matter our weather: because I grow my pelargoniums in pots, I can keep them outside in summer and inside in winter. I can also protect some plants from strong sun or intense heat by moving them into shadier or more protected places. Containers give us flexibility.