10 reasons to try gardening in pots

If you have limited outside space, such as a balcony or a small courtyard garden, creating an attractive outside space using pots or containers is ideal. Even if you think you’re not green fingered, a complete novice can create a spectacular container garden in very little time. The house cleaning professionals at MOLLY MAID believe that adding some colour to your outside space can be very uplifting for the whole family!

All you really need to get started is a container, some potting soil and either seeds or plants.

• Container gardening is good value: You can use almost anything for a container. Even an old bucket found at a sale, with a few holes punched in the bottom, can make a great container garden. Just look around your house and you’ll be surprised how many things will work: from outgrown toy bins to bright plastic tubs. Put drainage holes in the bottom, fill them with potting soil, add pansies or nasturtiums and for a few pounds you’ve made a lovely visual statement.

• Garden in any space: Even the smallest space can be enhanced by a container garden. Beautiful flowers and vegetable gardens can be grown on fire escapes, window boxes, patios, decks and balconies. Whatever space limitations you have, you can design a container garden that will thrive. No sun? A terra cotta pot filled with different coloured coleus can make you want to sing. Too much sun? Fill a basket with succulents to make a beautiful garden that will largely look after itself.

• Climate no issue: With container gardening you can be liberated from your geography and climates. Although, you will need to be aware that in many outside spaces or even on a single deck or patio there are tremendous varieties of conditions – from sunny, warm and protected to shady and cool. Just ensure you have the right plants for your particular spot.

• Children love container gardening: Encourage your children to embrace the outdoors and their inner nurture. Children are often drawn to eat the vegetables they grow, so if you’re having difficulty with them eating their peas or tomatoes try growing them in container gardens and they could eat them right off the vine. Children love the success that container gardens give them, and they take pride, at a very young age, in growing something their family can eat.

• Garden in a container to avoid pests: This way you will avoid nasty pests from devouring your vegetables or your heavenly plants.

• Container gardening can bring instant satisfaction: There are few things in life that can give you the instant gratification that a container garden can. In the space of a few hours, you can go to a local nursery, pick out healthy, beautiful flowering plants, fill a container with them and be rewarded with a spectacular, professional looking garden! An added bonus is that you may never have to weed it! Watering is a necessity though.

• Gardening in containers can suit any style: No matter what your style is, container gardening is very flexible. You can go for a modern look — think bright green grass in a stark white container – or a more formal arrangement – matching urns filled with cascading flowers flanking an entrance. You can even have containers that will survive the winter, bringing cheerful green accents to areas that would otherwise be bland and boring.

• You can grow almost anything in a container garden: There is almost no plant that can’t be grown in a container garden. It’s easy to grow vegetables and herbs, and even trees in a container garden.

• Lacking in mobility? Even those of us with back problems, or those that don’t wish to fight with a spade, will find that growing in containers is far more manageable making it easier to move plants around as well as maintaining them.

• Gardening in containers can suit any personality: With container gardening you can have great results being as relaxed or ambitious as you want to be. A couple of pansies in a pot may be enough to start with, or you might want to landscape an entire area with containers. All you need to be a successful container gardener is willingness to experiment, a tolerance for the unexpected and a love of playing in the dirt!

Have fun!

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