One of the best ways to enhance any outdoor living space is to add a container garden. Your container garden could be as simple as a couple matching pots at entryways or as extensive as masses of different containers scattered throughout your entire landscape. In your front yard, container gardening can add curb appeal and create a gracious welcome to guests and family. When applied to your backyard living space, containers can be used to create a convenient herb and vegetable garden or to simply bring life to a deck, patio or terrace. For townhomes and apartments, container gardening is a must because there it allows you to being a lot of life to tight spaces. No matter what space you are working with, a container garden is an element to consider.
Here are a few better ideas:
- Use pots to define garden spaces. Cluster small- to large-sized containers to enclose a garden space or frame a view. Create “hallways” through a space by placing pots with different shapes and sizes to provide a sense of enclosure. When creating any kind of garden space, whether it’s a room or a hallway, use large containers to create strong corner; as long as you have strong corners, your space will feel much more like a room.
- Use pots to incorporate a wider variety of plants. When planting a normal landscape, you must use plants that require similar light, soil, water and fertilizing conditions. Using containers in your landscape allows you to incorporate plants you love that might have different needs. By planting certain plants in individual containers, they are ensured the ideal soil, fertilizer and watering regimen.
- Take advantage of containers as a forgiving (and movable) form of garden design. If you don’t like the way a pot looks, you can simply move it to another location. Also, you can change the look of your landscape every year or even every season by simply switching out the plants.
- Place fragrant plants near walkways for a sensory-enhanced stroll. It’s almost impossible to walk right through a space without detecting the fragrance of a gardenia, rose or a mix of herbs.
- Use pots to signal change in the landscape. Planters can handily mark transition areas in the garden — the beginning of a flight of stairs, a path or an entry to a new garden space.
- Even empty pots can be useful in the garden. A pot with a nice sculptural form or beautiful color can be used as an element of outdoor art. An interesting container can be used as a focal point or to anchor a seating area. In the colder months, empty pots also add an element of winter interest to the landscape.
