Don't feel embarassed if you believe that container gardening is only for indoor plants, I did too! It's not until you're informed that you can grow your container plants almost anywhere, that you'll realize how much sense it makes to be able to plan your container garden to go wherever it's best for you... and your plants of course!



Containers are great for growing almost any type of plant, because they offer great versatility. If you plant your garden in containers and you need to move it later, it's easy to do it. Not so if you have a traditional garden!

Your traditional garden has to endure any bad weather that occurs. If you grow in containers they can be moved to a safer location away from the weather when necessary.

Also your potted garden can be moved around to take advantage of the best growing conditions for your plants. That's not possible once your plants are in the ground and you find that the position you picked is either too shady or sunny.

Putting your container garden outside gives you a number of options. You can pick a spot that gets the right amount of sunlight and at the same time gives you easy access, this will give your plants and you a lot to smile about. The fastest way to lose interest in your garden is to place it in a difficult, hard to reach location!

Pollution from road traffic is to be avoided as much as possible by planting your garden as far away from the street as possible. This will reduce the amount of contamination to your plants and in turn reduce the effects of pollution on your family when they eat some of your produce.

If you decide on an indoor garden, you'll need to select a part of the house that's reasonably warm for your plants to thrive. This becomes even more important if you use air conditioning in your home, find the warmest place you can for your pot plants.

If you like your home to be cool, you'll need to put your plants in a room that gets plenty of natural sunlight. If necessary, keep any vents closed to give them the warmth they require.

Try to avoid some of the more delicate or exotic plants, unless that's what you want, because they will often require high or low humidity. This means investing in special humidity equipment that can raise or lower the amount of moisture in the air to suit the plants.

Having said that, you should choose varieties of edible plants that you can't readily get at your local store at cheap prices. When selecting the plants you want to grow, it's better to pick a few of the harder to get ones than trying to grow too many varieties... this just leads to frustration and disappointment.

Stick to growing fruits and vegetables that you really enjoy and have a hard time locating locally, or those you find too expensive or too low quality. Tomatoes are a favorite for home gardeners, because their quality in stores if often very poor.

A final consideration is if you would like your container garden to be organic. Indoors it's fairly easy to do, but outdoors, in an uncontrolled environment, it can be harder to control pests. All you have to do is take some time to learn the best organic methods for your garden and you'll be really happy with the results.