Mike - there is a relationship between pot size, plant size, and the physical characteristics of your soil. If you use a heavy, water retentive soil and a large pot, you can expect problems no matter how bright or perfect the light is, the temperature is, the nutritional program is. Roots begin to die very quickly in soils deprived of air. If you have a large mass of soil that is saturated, the plant may not be able to use it before some % of the roots die. This cyclic death & regeneration of roots is expensive to the plant. On the other hand, if you are using a soil that holds no, or very little perched water, you're almost unlimited in how large a pot you can use. If the soil holds NO perched water, you can safely plant the tiniest seedling in a 100 gallon container if you choose - with no worry for root rot caused by airless conditions. The plant also greatly appreciates the added aeration, and will reward you with more robust growth and better vitality, all else being equal. So you can see that as the soil improves in drainage and aeration, you are less limited in the choice of pot size. It's probably better not to think of larger soil masses as a superior stress buffer. The plant will eventually be subjected to the same stresses in a large pot as in a smaller container, though again, deeper containers will have a higher % of well-aerated soil when the soil is fully saturated. Buffering against cold is probably of no consideration, and buffering against heat can work for OR against you. Soil masses large enough to heat up slowly also cool slowly ..... Depth of planting doesn't have an impact on aeration. Roots will colonize all parts of a container that provides a favorable mix of air/water/nutrients. While there are good reasons not to bury the trees buttress roots, aeration isn't one of them. Larger pots DO postpone the incidence of encircling/girdling roots, but you need to be sure you're not trading one problem for another (over-potting and it's accompanying problems for girdling/encircling roots. Even if you can't see them, you WILL have problems related to incremental and cyclic root death when you overpot with heavy soils. Fast draining, well-aerated soils, as noted, reduce the potential for problems. Al

B2alicia- Beautiful photos! You've really improved on what you started with and made it so inviting :) Gardenweed- Wonderful path! It's amazing how old/antique it looks...did you mortar the blocks? I would love to get a path like that for my mom's house. Your fence is so rustic and charming. Was it difficult to install? The fence, path and plants are just a beautiful combination. Tk- Focus on one area at a time and really do something you love. Sometimes, it's hard to ignore other areas, but mowed grass always looks nice and it gives you more time to focus on a few beds and really make them what you want. I think the hardest thing sometimes is realizing how much we can really take on AND maintain. Look at all my weeds this summer! LOL I have to realize there's only so much I can do and focus on those areas. Remember, you have almost 1 1/2 acres! It's going to take a little time to make it everything you'd like it to be...but I know you're going to get there...eventually :) Lois- Cute picture! It took me a minute to find your little visitor LOL. Pots can be hard to keep watered. I've had better luck with a few big pots of cosmos than smaller ones. I had a few large containers of petunias and star jasmine, with a really big cosmos container, by the front porch. They could easily go two even three days, before I had to water them again...and that was with 90 degree weather. Melissa- Have you ever thought of creating a potager? It doesn't have to be a big garden, but it's perfect for mixing roses and vegetables with other edibles. A rose in the middle, or several along the edge of the garden, or even on a couple of sides, will look beautiful with maybe blueberries and a few beds of veggies and herbs. Edible flowers are nice, too and bring in lots of "good" bugs :) There are a lot of beautiful pictures over on the potager forum, or just google potager.

cynjrana, How big is too big ? that is both for pot and the pepper you are growing? I don't know how BIG Thai chili can get, but for most ANNUAL peppers (grown for one season) a 5 gal. containers should be big enough. In zone 7, I would estimate your growing season to be 4 to 5 months. Then even a smaller pot might do. But If I were growing in Florida and SoCal, (with over 8 mos. growing season) I may have used a bigger pot. I look at it this way: Bigger pot uses more potting soil, more fertilizer and the pot itself costs more. I want to get a bigger bang for my buck. Most of my peppers are planted in 3 to 4 gal. containers. So far they have not been growing much. I have practically 3.5 months till the end of my season. I don't need bigger pots. JMO This post was edited by seysonn on Thu, Jun 5, 14 at 7:42

Goodness , Arnie, that's a big ask. You've probably described the potentially hottest and harshest part of a yard, with pretty much direct sun for lots of the day, reflection off the fence / pool water and pavers and then the retained heat off the paving. And the notorious sometimes over 40 degree Perth summer's day. Whatever you plant would need sizeable containers and maybe some insulation of the pots themselves inside larger pots, plus an almost guaranteed supply of water (like a timer irrigation dripper system) , or they are kind of doomed from the start. Sorry, that's just my imagination working from your description. On the temp. criteria, I could only think of bouganvillea surviving but they are not going to cover a fence. I wonder if there is any way you can "cool down" that ugly fence in other ways first. Only if you own the place of course if you are renting it's back to square 1 If you own, then I was going to suggest you think about a cooling mural - maybe even get some local graffiti boys involved , to give you a tropical look. Take that hot shine off the fence and then perhaps a few tubs of palms like golden canes, or even some pots of non-invasive bamboo/ tiger grass - and then intersperse your big planters of things like ... well jasmine might go OK, or mandevilla on trellises. Pandorea are hardy, too ) there's the white as well as the native pink.