Ideas On How To Use Container Gardening To Decorate Your House And Garden

Ideas On How To Use Container Gardening To Decorate Your House And Garden

Nearly every house and garden presents numerous attractive settings for container plants. Suburban gardens, estates, small city backyards, and summer cottages--all can be enhanced by this type of gardening. A simple arrangement consists of similar container plants at each side of the doorway. If the house is informal, painted tubs will make a cheerful note, while urns or ornamental pots are more appropriate if the architecture is formal. Sometimes, the front entranceway can qualify as an outdoor place for house plants, but be sure they are not exposed to strong sun and wind.

Unexpected areas like side and rear entrances can also serve as backgrounds for pot plants in casual groupings. If the site is informal, make casual groupings of one or two tall plants with smaller ones in front. Either way, allow for a few large plants in tubs or boxes for accent and height.

Container plants may line walks and paths that lead to the house, garage, or garden. If the driveway adjoins the foundation of the house, plant containers may be placed there.

Tops of garden or terrace walls are ideal places, too. Put small pots and boxes on tall, narrow walls and large containers on low, broad surfaces. Hanging plants of ivy geraniums in the sun and fuchsias in the shade will cascade from walls, as they do in the patios of Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Here sun-loving plants, like geraniums, most annuals, cacti, and succulents can be grown, but, again, include large specimens for height to give a garden feeling. Many gardeners like to insert container plants in flower borders to introduce unusual specimens, such as tropicals in the North. Large tubs can be set at the corners and small pots may be scattered among the permanent flowering plants. Bare posts that support sectional roofs over patios or paved surfaces of contemporary houses look more attractive if potted plants are clustered around the bases or permanent boxes for plants are built there. Try planting climbing ivy in a pot and train it to climb the posts.

Steps leading to a driveway or street or to different levels in a garden can be emphasized with pot plants. Tree trunks cut to the ground or left a few feet high make good pedestals for large containers. Happy Gardening!

A good gardening tip is that you can make more plants from your existing house and garden plants. This will cut out the expense of buying new house and garden plants. Look around for healthy plants to take the stem cuttings from to plant in a peat moss mixture using rooting hormone. This is what is called the mother plant. Make sure the mother plant has enough stems so the cutting will not kill the mother plant.

If you start your house and garden plants from stem cuttings instead of seeds it will take half the time to root. There a just a few things you will need : a mother plant, a flat for potting with a peat moss mixture, a sharp knife or razor blade, rooting hormone, containers for holding water and rooting hormone, alcohol, pencil or a stick, and a plastic bag.

Common sense tells you that you should take a stem cutting from the plant's thickest green non flowering stems. The plants growth rooting hormones are concentrated there. Choose green, non-woody stems for taking the stem cuttings from the mother plant. Newer growth is easier to root than woody stems.

Any large leaves must be removed as their wilting stresses the stem cutting and will definitely slow down the rooting process.

With your sterilized instrument make a clean cut in the bottom node. The roots will be formed from the sliced node.

Fill a clean plant pot or container with a peat moss potting mix to hold your stem cuttings for rooting. By using a peat moss potting mix you are giving the plant an atmosphere where the cutting will stay moist, not wet and sloppy.

½ sand and ½ peat moss or

½ perlite and ½ peat moss or

Equal parts sand, perlite, vermiculite or peat moss instead of vermiculite.

Start by dipping the bottom inch of the stem cutting into the water and then the rooting hormone. The rooting hormone stimulates the stem cutting to send out new roots from the node. You will need to dip the cutting into the water and then into the rooting hormone. If, after you have finished with your stem cuttings you have some of the rooting hormone left, throw it away. Once a stem cutting has touched it the rooting hormone becomes activated.

Moisten the peat moss potting mixture and poke holes in it to accommodate your plants. After you have successfully placed the stem cutting in the medium, gently press the potting mixture around it. You should plant your cuttings about 4-5 inches apart to allow for air circulation and room to root.

Place the container into a plastic bag and put it in a warm spot in the house. Keep checking you stem cuttings. If there is resistance the plants are ready to be transferred into individual pots. Now you will have a new plant that you have cultivated from the mother plant.

Now use all these gardening tips and grow some new plants using stem cuttings.

What plants, other than ferns and cut-leaf maples, would you recommend to be included in a Japanese garden? There is a great variety of plants that could be used in a Japanese garden. Japanese gardens have evolved from primitive "Tei" gardens, to gardens that were influenced by the Sung and Tang Dynasties.

These gardens were very sumptuous and depicted dramatic landscape features. There were also Buddhist gardens that depicted paradise on earth. My favorites are the Zen gardens and their simplicity. As you can see, there are many different types of Japanese gardens, and they could use many different types of plants and materials.

Bonsai refers to the miniaturizing of a plant, but it does not identify the type of plant that it is. There are hundreds of different types of bonsai plants. A complete description of the plant - leaf dimensions, leaf color, number of stems growing from the soil, does the stem branch or grow straight, does it have bark, and any other distinguishing characteristics that would ID your plant.

There are many types of bonsai trees out there for example: Madagascar palm bonsai tree, jade bonsai, and azalea bonsai. Bonsais are potted in a variety of different containers of different sizes and shape and with varied soil compositions.

Azaleas Bonsai are tough to keep because Azaleas do not tolerate dryness and Bonsais have little soil and small pots so they dry out quickly. The fungus gnat larvae feed on the decaying roots. Remove all loose soil and rocks from the surface and place 1/2 inch slices of raw potato on the surface of the soil. These potato slices will attract the gnat larvae.

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