Clever Ideas for Containers in Gardening
One of the best things about container gardening is that you can be as creative as you want with the containers you can use. Just put your mind to work, find old containers for recycling and voila!
You have containers worthy to place a part of Mother Nature in. Here then are cleaver ideas for turning ordinary, old containers around the house into extraordinary beautiful containers with new uses.
Clever Ideas for Containers in Gardening
Toolboxes
Yes, indeed, the old toolboxes that your husband or father discarded in favor of newer ones has new lives! You can turn the old toolboxes into cute planters for your herbs and blooms. You may even just let the handles remain just so you can easily transport them from one windowsill to another as well as to add a cute touch to the whole setup.
However, it is best to use redwood or cedar materials since these kinds resist rotting. If you must settle for soft woods, then apply the appropriate preservative to lengthen their lives. Just make sure not to use chemically-treated wood as it can kill the beneficial microorganisms present in the soil.
Or you may even use the toolboxes as just holders of the pots upon which the plants are directly cultivated in. Make sure to line the inside of the toolboxes with sphagnum moss before setting the pots inside.
Troughs
Old-fashioned troughs make for beautiful additions to the garden. You might say that it is a dream of many gardeners to be complimented on the creative uses in the garden of such utilitarian containers. You can use the troughs for slow-growing plants as well as alpine blooms.
To transform a trough into a container for gardening purposes, the following steps are highly recommended:
* Make a drainage hole at the lowest point of the trough.
* Cover this hole with either a piece of screen or pot shards.
* Mix the potting soil, which consists of equal mix fine-grain gravel and medium rich potting mix. These materials can be purchased at garden supply centers. Don’t use garden soil.
* Arrange the plants in the resulting bed, said plants of which can include thyme, viola, moss and sedum, to name a few.
* Cover the soil with a ΒΌ-inch pea gravel.
* Place the trough where the plants can receive the maximum amount of sunlight.
You can even decorate the trough for more effect. For example, rocks around the garden trough will make for a Japanese Zen effect.
Wheelbarrows
Instead of throwing away your old wheelbarrows with the holes in them, you should make them into containers for a mini garden. This way, you can create a focal point in your garden without spending money at all.
- To experiment with the wheelbarrow, you can place a variety of potted plants until you have achieved the desired effect. You may even paint the wheelbarrow in a complementing shade so as to achieve a painter’s feel to the set-up.
