If you have an empty box or pot at your house, you can give container gardening a try – it’s easy! In many ways, this is the easiest type of gardening of all, as you can more easily avoid many of the common problems that other types of gardeners have to face, such as pests. For instance, the following suggestions will show you how you can grow virtually anything (flowers, herbs, or vegetables) using the container garden strategy.

Type of Container

Your initial decision will be selecting the kind of containers you would like to use for your garden. The range of things you can use for containers is huge; anything from cans, to boxes or plain old flower pots. When you pick wood containers for your garden; it is best not to use chemically treated wood and realize that this material will deteriorate over the years. To avoid standing water in the container; it will be necessary to put holes in the bottom of the container. Knowing that light colors have less of a tendency to retain undesirable heat that could be too hard on your plants; you may want to stay away from using dark-colored containers. When you are considering the size of the container you will need; you of course will have to relate that to what plants you will be raising in them. You would not want to crowd your flowers or herbs into an area that it will not be able to thrive in.

Temperature and Humidity

For sure, a container garden is not as arduous a task as your traditional outside garden, but it does have separate issues that you will need to attend to like controlling temperature and humidity requirements. You will be one step ahead of the game if you grow plants that can be found growing in your area already or at least will adapt to your environment. If you decide to grow plants that are accustomed to a dry climate, like cacti; you may have issues trying to provide an overly humid atmosphere or excessive low temperatures. If you decide to plant tropical type plants you will have the extra duties of keeping them hydrated and supplying the additional water they require. It is not a good idea to intermingle plants that do not have well matched growing requirements.

Sunlight

You have to consider the lighting of your container garden, whether it’s indoors or outdoors. Daily sunlight will give your plants ultimate growth potential. When you are not able to give your plants the necessary light via the sun; it will be necessary to provide it in some other way. You could purchase grow lights; these will give off heat parallel to that of sunlight. If your plants are indoors and fairly far away from any windows that would provide sunlight; these are a great idea. When you are not equipped with the grow lights; you can use a 150 watt light bulb to keep the area somewhat warmer for your plants. If you have never tried container gardening, there is really no excuse not to at least try it. Almost certainly, you will find out that container gardening is pretty simple, particular if you already have an understanding of conventional gardening. Even people who have never gardened before, however, can easily find a few pots or planters and plant some seeds and soon reap the rewards of a container garden.