I would start putting those water holding crystals in any new containers and also would mulch the tops of my containers to help control water loss. Self watering containers are fantastic because they draw the water from the bottom where the roots are. If you decide to mulch...make sure the mulch doesn't touch the stems of the plants.

If containers are grouped together it helps control evaporation as well as making it easier to water. Before watering check the weight of the container as well as sticking your finger in the soil to see if it actually needs watering. Some containers may need less watering than others based on the type of pot used and the type of plant in the pot.

Choose pots that are made of resin or plastic. They are light weight, can be moved easily and retain water better. Glazed pots are better than terracotta pots when it comes to water loss. The larger the pot the less you will have to water, and of course they all need proper drainage holes in the bottom. The pot should also be large enough to allow proper root growth. Roses will require a larger pot than say annuals or shallow rooted perennials.

And finally, you can always put in raised beds. I prefer making all my raised beds by using the lasgana gardening method. Basically, you are gardening on top of the soil. First you lay wet newspaper down to smother the weeds and grass, then add layers of compost, grass clippings, leaves, topsoil, whatever organic matter you have. I usually make mine in the Fall to plant in the Spring, but I have planted immediately with much success. I will attach a link that will better explain it. Another good method is Weedless Gardening by Lee Reich, PhD...basically a modified version of Patricia Lanza's Lasagna Gardening.

Good Luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Lasagna Gardening 101

My patio is totally bricked, so all my gardening is in containers.
Each year I try something different.
It may be the plants or the layout. Usually both.

Here's how it looked last year-
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And in 2003 -
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And 2002... the 1st year I went "all out"
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Here is a link that might be useful: More pics

I'm impressed, OoS. Very nice. ;o)

Al

Sure happy to see you and those pictures back, OoS :-) They inspire me, since I have roughly the same situation and shape, tho smaller.

Hi Michelle - as noted, you shouldn't have to water your poor babies daily or twice a day if you can do some things to help stave off moisture loss, which can be tricky on hot sunny days but it can be done. Adina72 had some good recommendations for things to try.

Any plant you want can pretty much go in the container. In many cases, we addicts go to a nursery and the plant jumps into the cart and comes home with us and we can make suggestions to fill up your whole space too. LOL

Some current pics of my container space:

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OoS - anything new that you're trying this year? Inquiring pots want to know! :-P

All those pictures are spectactular....great job!!!

New? Ummm... Last spring I had the brick in part of the yard leveled. It made it a lot easier to put things in different places. Before, I had to place the table just right so all 4 legs actually touched the ground. LOL!
This year, I may move the table (I have a new one now) into the yard some more & surround it with pots.
Plant-wise - I have a whole bunch of coleus. I like all the colors I can get with them.
I didn't use the fountain last year because of a raccoon that made frequent visits to my yard & kept pulling over the birdbath to get to the water.
I didn't relish the idea of him stomping thru my herb garden to get to the fountain. YUK!
Not sure what I'll do about it this year.
I have decided to pass on tomatoes this year. In their place in the back I'll put my dahlias. They were spectacular last year & will look great along the back fence.

Now if the weather will break, dry up & WARM up... maybe I'll actually get something done!

I know what you mean about the weather. Suddenly there is this awful chill-to-the-bone wind blowing in from the NE and the temps took another dive. :-( Had to close the windows and doors because it started getting cold in here.

You know it's partially your fault that I'm trying sunflowers this year. :-p I love how yours turned out. One of my sisters was considering getting a solar water feature but now that you mention the raccoons, I may recommend against that idea.... I can see them now - getting into the veggies, "washing" them in the fountain, and then lounging on the deck. :\

OutofSpite, Thats a lovely garden! what do u do in the winter? i am new to gardening and have space in my deck so thinking of lots of containers now, but i am not sure what to do in winter as i dont have much space inside to bring all the pots. I am tempted to try cantaloupes, never knew that they grow well in pots, how big should the container be?
Thankyou.

Coleus are great for those of us who want to fill up the spaces on the patio but don't have lots of room inside. Take small cuttings in the fall, and keep them going over the winter on a sunny window sill. They will stay fairly small, but will take off the following spring when they get outside.
The new "sun" coleus give loads of color.
Pelargonium cuttings did well for me over the winter also.

Thank you all for those wonderful pictures. Great work everyone. All of a sudden I feel like picking up a big book and going out into the garden to read.

nilaa - In the winter, I just move everything to the perimeter. I use slats from mini-blinds to mark the pots that have perennials. I don't want to yank up the wrong thing in the spring.
I put some mulch on the perennial pots.
Also, I usually have pine branches in a pot by the front door for Christmas. In January, I take those out & put them over some of the pots as well.
Here's the yard just before Thanksgiving last year:
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The area has been cleared & the bird feeder poles are in place.

Jenny -
Consider the sunflowers as payback for the blueberries! LOL!
Last year I actually ate about 30 berries before the birds got what was left.
The reason I had blueberries in the first place is all YOUR fault!

Sunflowers are SOOOOOOOO nice. The bonus for growing them was this:
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Up to that point, I had never seen a goldfinch in my yard before!

OutofSpite- Thankyou for posting that picture, i have one more doubt and sorry to pester u with more Q, for next summer season do u put new soil in those pots or just mix some compost and start planting?

Heh heh... :-p

I'd love to see a goldfinch up here. It's bad enough that I had that hummer visit late last summer and now I have all these hummer plants and feeders. LOL My little sunflower seedlings are outside hardening off in their summer container. Gotta move them into the sun this weekend.

Hopefully this year you'll get more blueberries! I still have some in the freezer from last year's harvest. I just hope the bees got to them okay because the temps were pretty cool during the time some of the later bloomers were blooming and when it's cool, the bees lay low.

We are redoing our backtard and all the plants are in large containers:
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cheers
Michelle

nilaa - Since I'm not married to Mr. Trump, there's no way I'd be able to afford to dump the soil & buy new for all those pots! LOL!
I dump out the pots on a sheet of heavy duty plastic, mix in peat moss & perlite. Back in the pot it goes.
I sometimes have to buy some potting mix for some of the pots if the previous occupant had so many roots, a lot of the soil ended up getting tossed with the plant.
It doesn't happen that often because once I start amending the soil from assorted pots, I have more soil anyway-so it sort of balances out.
Of course, when I end up with extra soil - I get another pot... and another plant... ummm.... plantS! LOL!

"I'm not married to Mr. Trump" LOL. Thankyou for replying. yeah more soil..more pots and more plants.
Nila

Here's my patio several years ago when I was really into container gardening. I decided to take it easy this summer---our Gulf Coast summers are VERY hot and humid, and just do container plants inside.
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Very nice, Ladybug!
I try to do something a little different each year.
Last year it was a cantelope. This year, one of my neighbors gave me a packet of pimpkin seeds. LOL!
Pumpkins usually grow on the ground. Mine is growing UP!
After a battle with squash vine borers - had to pull those pesky things out of the stem with a pair of tweezers - YUCK! - and now face with powdery mildew (which is winning, BTW)
I *DO* actually have a small pumpkin!
I rigged up a cheesecloth hammock (like I did for last year's melon) to support its weight.
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It just started turning orange a week ago.
The question is... who is going to harvest it first? Me or the squirrels?
They already made off with the sunflowers - and they weren't even ready to be made off with!!

As for this year's yard....
Here ya go-
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What you can't see in that yard shot because it's out of the frame is my "Coleus Corner". It would be in the lower right of the pic - you can just see a piece of it.
Here's a shot of the corner itself.
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Here is a link that might be useful: LOTS of PICS!

Michelle,

Let me say up front that I don't container gardden myself. I have a huge yard so have no need to. But I've given growing in pots a lot of thought, to see if I could come up with helpful suggestions for those that do.
Plants "transpire" water, their version of sweating. And just like us, the hotter they get, the more they'll "sweat." So anything you can do to keep your potted plants cooler will help.
A. If you have a choice of sites, putting them where they'll get only morning sun, but afternoon shade, will help a lot. Plants really do very little growing after the temps reach the 90s anyway.
B. If such a location isn't possible, then just leaning something against or wrapping something around the pots to keep them cooler will help. Remember, only the plants themselves need sun, not the pots.
C. If they're available, a nice layer of grass clippings on top of the soil will keep it a lot cooler and moister between waterings. The clippngs will also prevent weeds and provide all the nutrients your plants need. Don't let them touch the stems of the plants, though, cause they could rot them. You could make small "collars" from yogurt cups to prevent that.

I'd also like to make some comments on your saying that you are growing things in pots because you are "in (a) hot dry zone 8 with only sand in my yard."
I've been gardening since 1972, and like all True Gardeners, I often share things with others. And several times people would say they just loved what I gave them, which would prompt me to ask why they didn't garden themselves. And more than once the response was, "Oh, we would love to, but we have such terrible soil." (Sometimes very sandy, other times heavy clay.) It took several years- I am a bit slow sometimes, lol- but I finally came to realize that many people seem to think that soil is a permanent thing. If you're lucky, you have good soil and always will. If you're unlucky, you have bad soil, and there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing of course could be futher from the truth. If you do the right thing, which is bascially Add Organic Matter to the soil continually, you can transform the worst soil in the world into the best. (I started out with HORRIBLE red clay, great raw material for making bricks or pottery. I now have the most beautiful, black, crumbly, fertile soil you could find anywhere.)
And if you started out with the best soil, but didn't add organic matter year after year, it soon would become just as bad as the soil you have. I know a gardener in Michigan who has very sandy soil. He started putting his grass clippings in his garden just this year, and he can't beLEIVE how much better everthng is growing than ever before! He has more tomatoes, peppers, greenbeans, watermelon and other things than he knows what to do with.

So, if you did want to grow things in good old Mom Earth, and you can get grass clippings, all you would have to do is add a good 3-inch layer on top of the soil. You don't even have to dig out any weeds that might be present first. Just trample them flat and cover them. I've turned even sections of lawn, both in my yard and in friends', to garden or flower bed simply by covering them with grass clippings.
I have not the slightest doubt that you could very successfully grow anything that does well in your area in your soil, and maybe even a few things that are not supposed to do well there?
If you have questions on mulching, either post them here or e-mail me. This practice has soooo many benefits that it's a shame many people don't know about it.

Tyrell

Michelle,

I love those little wheel cart thingys you have on the bottom of your pots...when my lemon tree gets too heavy for me to comfortably move, i'll have to invest in one of those...where did you get them?

Also, how do you post your pics directly in your posts (this is for everyone). I have some pictures of my plants, but I haven't a clue on how to post them.

Thanks,

Jessica

HI there, I live in Denton, TX and my yard is hard, gray, clay--in the summer it bakes into pottery--the cracks are big enough to lose a small dog in! I do all my gardening in containers. I get lots and lots of compliments from the neighborhood. I find that you have to take your own microclimates into account when choosing plants. Since it is so VERY hot here in the summer I choose plants like Earthkind roses, Rose of Sharon, Miniature crepe myrtle, purslane etc. things that bloom in hot weather. Along with lots of vines because we are lucky enough to have fences for them to grow on. If something starts to wilt too much I find that putting a saucer under that pot in the hottest driest weather and letting it hold the water after you water the plant keeps it going. I water every other day. (Takes 1 1/2 hours--lots of plants) The best arrangement I have found is perennials in BIG pots in back and put very flowery annuals (begonias, fanflower, etc.) in smaller pots in front of them for a layered look. I love pots and try to pick beautiful ones, but big pots are very expensive and I don't have the money, so the annuals in front give them a layered look. If I don't put annual pots in front of the big pots I plant purslane, fanflower, or various sweet potato vines (Pinkie is by far my favorite) in the larger pots. these drape over the pot and keep it from looking stark. By June it all looks like a regular garden and most things aren't even obviously in pots at all. I find that I actually save water with the pots since it is controlled and I know how much each thing needs and has been given. I can control things like cannas so they don't run wild and can move them wherever I need them. I adore container gardening--it has so many, many benefits and besides I hate getting down on my knees! (LOL). You can email me at westviewtrl@juno.com if you want to ask any questions.
Betsy Hutchins