About – Container Gardening

Container Gardening is a free informational resource about growing plants in pots, planters, window boxes and hanging baskets. The guides are written for beginners: people with a patio, a balcony, a porch or a doorstep and a few containers, who want to understand what a potted plant needs and why, in plain language.

What the site covers

Basics: a starting guide, plants that are forgiving for beginners, how to read the light in your space, laying out a patio and common mistakes.
Pots and planters: container materials and types, what size pot a plant needs, and drainage holes and saucers.
Container soil: what potting mix is and why soil dug from the garden is a poor fit for pots, filling a large planter and reusing old mix.
Container care: watering by checking the mix, fertilizing, repotting, deadheading and working out what a struggling plant needs.
Flowers: choices for sun and for shade, combining plants in one pot and planting a hanging basket.
Vegetables: which crops are realistic in containers, with plain guides to tomatoes and lettuce.
Herbs: herbs that suit pots, which ones can share a planter, and growing basil.
Seasonal care: starting pots in spring, getting them through summer heat, and fall and winter care.

If you are new to growing in pots, begin with Container Gardening for Beginners. From there, the most useful next reads are How to Choose Containers for Plants, Potting Mix for Containers and How to Water Container Plants. To decide what to grow, see Best Plants for Container Gardening. If a plant already looks unwell, go to Container Plant Problems. Every guide is listed on the Guides page.

How the guides are written

No universal watering schedules. You will not find “water every so many days” here. Container conditions vary with pot size and material, potting mix, the plant, sun, wind, temperature and season, so the same pot can need water at very different intervals from one week to the next. The guides explain what to check, such as how the mix feels a couple of inches down and how heavy the pot is, so you can decide for your own containers.

Sizes are starting points. Pot sizes, spacing and amounts of potting mix are given as commonly suggested starting points, worded as “about” or “at least”. Varieties differ, so the plant tag or seed packet for the plant you bought comes first. See What Size Pot Do You Need? for the reasoning behind the numbers.

Planting times depend on where you live. The guides describe conditions, such as “after the danger of frost has passed”, and not calendar dates. Your local climate and frost dates decide when that is, and a local extension service or garden center can tell you what is usual in your area.

Problems are explained as possibilities. The same symptom can have several causes. A wilting plant may be standing in dry mix, or in waterlogged mix with damaged roots. The guides list the likely causes and the checks that help you tell them apart. They cannot diagnose a plant with certainty from a description, and they do not claim to.

The illustrations are original drawings. The pictures on this site are illustrations drawn for the guides. They are not photographs of real plants. They are there to show an idea, such as where water should drain or how plants are arranged in a mixed pot, and a real plant will look different in its details.

No product endorsements. Pots, potting mixes, fertilizers, tools and other supplies are described by type and not by brand, so you can use what you already have or can find locally. The site does not recommend, review or rank products.

Plant safety and sources

Some popular container plants are toxic to pets or people if eaten. When a guide mentions this, it points to a source instead of making its own claim, such as the ASPCA list of toxic and non-toxic plants. Check the list yourself for the plant you own, by its botanical name where you can, because common names are shared by different plants.
If a pet or a child eats part of a plant that was not grown as food, contact a veterinarian, a doctor or a poison control service right away. Do not wait for symptoms, and do not rely on this site.
Edible crops. Wash vegetables and herbs before you eat them, and grow them only in containers that have not held chemicals or unknown substances.
Weight and fixings. A large pot full of wet mix is heavy, and a hanging basket or railing planter must be held by hardware rated for its weight when wet. Follow the hardware maker’s ratings and the rules of your building, especially on a balcony.
Follow the product label. When a guide mentions a fertilizer, a pesticide or another product, the label on the product you bought is the instruction to follow, including its directions on amounts, protective gear, use on edible plants and keeping it away from children and pets.
General information only. The guides are general information. They are not professional horticultural, veterinary, medical or structural advice.

What you can rely on

This is an informational site published under the name Container Gardening. We do not claim credentials, awards or qualifications.
We do not publish invented reviews, ratings or testimonials.
We do not guarantee results or harvests. Plants are living things, and one can decline even when it is cared for well.
Time estimates in the guides are approximate.

Corrections and suggestions

If something in a guide is unclear, looks wrong or links to a page that no longer works, please tell us through the Contact page. Mention the name of the guide and the section so the problem can be found quickly. Corrections are always welcome.