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Container Gardening on the Patio or Deck
Liven up your deck or patio with plants in containers. You can
use them to grow vegetables and salad greens or create focal points
or privacy screens by planting them with bright colored flowers
combined with cool green foliage. Attaching containers to the rail
of your deck keeps them at a convenient waist height too.
 Container
plantings on the patio or deck create a smooth transition between
the house and the yard. They turn the deck or patio into an outdoor
room - a space that is neither wholly house or wholly garden.
Any container will do as long as it has good drainage. Match final
plant size to the depth of the container. Short shallow containers
look better with shallow rooted sprawling or low growing plants.
Taller plants with deep roots need deeper containers. If your container
is large enough, plant tall blooming plants in the middle and toward
the back and lower growing blooming plants in front. Finish it off
with a trailing bloomer like Nasturtiums. This will give your larger
container added interest and varying heights of blooms.
Use lightweight potting mix to prevent the container from being
to heavy to move around.
Water and fertilizer are key for container gardens. Plants in containers
dry out much faster than those planted in the ground.  Fertilize
when you first put plant the container and again once a week with
half-strength fertilizer. You will most likely have to water your
containers every day, but this is an excellent time to check them
over and give them any other attention they may need to keep them
looking their best. If you don't have the time to water every day,
invest in a self watering microtube system. Just place a tube into
each container, poke holes in the tubes where you want the water
to come out, attach it to your outside spigot and set the timer.
Viola, a garden that waters itself! Your Southern States dealer
has everything you need to get set up.
Place containers under hanging baskets and pots to extend the varying
height of blooms and to let the containers benefit from the water
and fertilizer runoff from the plants above.
Choose plants for your containers with the same light requirements,
keep in mind where the pot will eventually be located also. For
the best success, plant sun lovers together and place the pot in
a sunny location - the same for a shady place.
 Group
containers together for a big impact. Containers planted with a
single color provide lots of punch. This can be advantageous when
trying to hide an eyesore like an electric meter, gas meter, or
air conditioner. Just set a container of bright red geraniums or
magenta petunias in front of the offending mechanism and folks will
see only the flowers.
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