portable gardens
Posted on 01. Jun, 2010 by molly in op-ed
words > CRAIG AINSWORTH
Container gardening may seem like a modern idea, but one of the most famous gardens in history was in the middle of the desert and grown out of containers. Built by King Nebuchadnezzar around 605BC, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Hundreds of feet tall in the middle of a sun-baked desert near the modern day city of Baghdad, King Nebuchadnezzar’s famous garden was a mountain of lush green vegetation that was fed by water pumped in from the Euphrates River. Just as in ancient times, modern container gardening can be wonderfully efficient, very flexible, and incredibly beautiful.
If you are living in an apartment, dorm, or just don’t have the space in your backyard, then container gardening can be a wonderful alternative. Container gardening gives you a diverse range of creative opportunities to experiment with many different traditional and inspired artistic options. Traditional containers like Terracotta pots, flower boxes, and hanging baskets can be purchased from garden supply stores, but there are many cheaper, more creative, and environmentally friendly options available.
Choosing a “recycled container” can be fun, but, while you are thinking about aesthetics, also consider what the container’s original purpose. Using anything that stored solvents, paints, or chemicals could be dangerous, even if they are thoroughly washed out. These containers can retain some of the original residue and when your plants soak up the nutrients from the soil they will also absorb the chemicals, which will pass the harmful chemicals on to you when you eat their fruit. Instead, use old pickle buckets, coffee cans, soda bottles, or milk jugs. Other fun ideas to consider are antique pots, old wooden crates, or whiskey barrels. You can get even more creative and environmentally friendly by making your own flower boxes from found scraps of wood or by recycling old wire and buckets to make a hanging basket. There are quite a few options if you approach container gardening with an open mind. Your container needs to be clean, able to hold dirt, and drain water; everything else is up to you.
Before you fill your newly found container, make sure that it has proper drainage to avoid stagnate water and moldy roots. If the container does not already have holes you can typically make some fairly easily using an electric hand drill. After you have checked for adequate drainage and made any necessary changes to your container, fill the bottom of the container with large debris like rocks or pottery shards to keep the drainage holes from becoming blocked and ensure the easy flow of water through your pots.
Gardening on a rooftop with containers is just like gardening in your backyard, except that your container garden will need to be watered 2-3 times more often than your backyard and sometimes even up to 3 times a day in the middle of summer. Plants need at least 8-10 hours of direct light every day. One of the benefits of container gardens is that you have the ability to move your plants into and out of the sunlight, allowing you more control over their growth. Container gardens are also much easer to protect during inclement weather because you can slip them inside quite easily. Like I said, container gardening is easy, flexible and can be incredibly beautiful.
With proper preparation, indoor potted plants can provide produce during the perilously cold period of the gardening season, giving you fresh herbs and veggies all year around.
If you have tips, tricks, or stories about container gardening that you would like to share with other gardeners, please find us at nakedcitywichita.com. If you search “gardening” on the site you can leave comments, read past articles, and discover tips and tricks from past issues.
