Hi! I’m Mitch Baker with American Plant Food Company and today we’re going to plant a container garden. Today the choices are many not only in plants, but in containers. So before you choose plants to put in the container, let’s choose a container that’s going to be suitable for your setting. The materials today available in containers range from concrete to ceramic, to the forms of composite materials. Yes, it looks like concrete, but its light weight, it’s composite, its easy to move around. They could be plastic that also look like terracotta or a concrete.
They could be wood. It could be a window box not just around the container. So they can be square, they can oblong, they can be an urn shape, they can be a bowl shape, anything like that. You’ve got shape, you’ve got texture, you’ve got material, you’ve got color, all of those things to consider. So it’s not just a monochromatic pot. It can be a pot that brings color to the garden all by itself before you ever put any plants in it.
Now, things to consider about ceramic pots: In very cold weather, they are more likely to crack, where the color finish might flake off the outside of the container. So containers like this, if you plan on living them outside year around, it may not last too many seasons. You can bring them inside, pour the soil out and bring them inside, store them in the garage or in the basement, but for year around, containers you want to leave outside concrete, yet heavy, but its durable, it lasts. You can keep something in that year around. Wooden container same thing, you can plant in them and leave plants in them year around.
Much like these Japanese maple behind me, it’s in a wooden container, been in there for five or six years now, does very well in a container. You can under plant that with some other plants like perennials, so they come back each year. Plastic pots can be left out year around and of course, the composite pots. Those can also be left out year around. These kinds of containers have to be drilled for drainage. They don’t come with any drainage holes. So you have to drill these containers for drainage, must-have drainage that water has got a way to get out of there. Don’t count on the layer of gravel or careful watering. You have to be able to allow the water to drain out. So all of these containers the water needs to be able to drain out of them. So the choice is yours but the first step is to choose the container that’s going to do the job for you.