Saving space is the greatest benefit of container gardening. Many people live in apartments or in homes with very little yard space. Container gardening allows you to have a garden on a porch or patio, or even indoors.
Some people have these gardens in their sunroom, in the kitchen window, or even in the window of a spare bedroom. Others utilize a closet space to grow plants by using a grow light.
Another major benefit of container gardening is the ability to move plants if you need to. If you're growing your plants outdoors and bad weather comes, you can bring your plants inside where they'll be safe. If your plants are getting too little sun or too much, you can easily move their containers to a better location. And you can even move your plants on a whim if you decide they'd look better elsewhere.
Plants grown in containers don't contract diseases as easily compared to plants grown directly in the soil. It's true that plants grown in containers can still become infected with diseases, but you will find the probability is much less than if you had grown them in your landscape. Potting soil is generally free of disease-causing organisms, so your plants will be safer.
It's easier to feed your plants when they're in a container. You can make sure that the fertilizer you put in with the plants will get to them. When you use fertilizer on plants in traditional gardens, often it will end up going to other plants or just drain away. When the plants are in containers, this is not as likely to happen.
Since your plants are in such a small area, the fertilizer may be washed away quickly. This means that you should take the time to fertilize the plants more often than plants that are in traditional gardens. However, usually you'll find that plants get more fertilizer even though it washes away quickly than they would if you had them in a traditional garden.
When you grow your plants in containers, you'll also be able to extend their growing season. By carefully insulating pots by wrapping them in blankets or other insulating materials, you can keep their soil warmer than the ground soil. You can start your plants early indoors or in a cold frame, then you can easily move them to larger pots outdoors when the time is right.
You can also use careful insulation to continue to grow plants after the first frost, and you can even bring plants indoors once it becomes too cold to keep them outside even if insulated.
One of the biggest benefits of growing your plants in containers is the fact that it makes gardening accessible to almost anyone. Handicapped individuals find growing their plants in containers makes it easier to locate plants where they can easily reach them. Many people in wheelchairs like to place their pots on a low table to make them more accessible. Elderly people who can't work traditional gardens may find container gardening to be an excellent way to once again enjoy their favorite hobby.
Even small children find container gardening to be fun and easy, since they don't have to have someone till the soil and there isn't raking, weeding, and hoeing to worry about.
So, if you don't have room to grow your own traditional garden, you can still easily grow the garden you want when you go with a container garden.