How to set a plant in a container

Some time ago I had a couple friends ask me about how to start their own little garden. They had never really tried gardening beyond having a little indoor plant they bought out of a whim, so growing their own vegetables and mayor crops felt a bit too overwhelming. They wanted to know all the basics and I was very happy to answer all of their questions and get them started.

One of their first questions was how to set a plant to grow in a pot. I think this is a very good question, one that many people who is starting also have. So I decided to make a post about it. Here it is, a small introduction to container gardening for anybody wanting to start their own garden. I made it back when I plant my globe amaranth

How to plant in a container

To start, let's check the fundamentals. The basic layers for a plant in container are as follows.

The layers in a pot

• At the bottom a drainage layer, this will help the water flow properly and avoid water clogs and damage to the roots because of this.


• Then there is a base layer of soil. Here is where most of the new roots will grow.


• On top of that, it goes the root ball of the plant, all surrounded by more of the new soil. The root ball is the main mesh of roots from the plant, usually all what was on the starter pot.


• And finally, the top layer made of mulch. The mulch is just a protective cover over the soil. It is good to retain moisture, reduce erosion, provide nutrients and suppress weeds.

With this knowledge, we are ready to set our plants in their pots.

What you will need

A good pot and gravel for drainage

• Gravel or other material for drainage You can use broken pottery, washed seashells, packing peanuts and many others.


• A proper sized pot Not to big, not to small. Even if the plant will grow a lot, is best to repot several times in gradually bigger pots, than to put in a huge pot from the start.


• Good soil Depending on your plant different soils will be more recommended. However, black, rich in organic matter soil usually works well with most plants.


• Much Peanut shells, dried leafs, shredded or chipped bark, straw, etc.

Black, good soil is best

Setting your plant in the container

1. First, If your plant just came home from a greenhouse or a garden center far away with a different climate, let it rest for a couple of days. This will help it adjust to its new environment.



2. Water one day before or in that morning to assure the plants have plenty of water and also because working with moist soil is much easier. Remember, the soil must be moist, not damp.

This hole was too big, so I got some wood sticks in to help

3. Rinse or scrub the container to get rid unwanted materials, then check to make sure it will have proper drainage. If the hole is to small, make a new one, if it is too big, put something to partially obstruct it.

Good draniage is essential

4. Add a layer of drainage material. Between two to six centimeters should be enough, but adjust it depending on the size of your pot, and remember to make it even.

Add enough soil to have a good base

5. Add the soil, compost, or potting mix, to have the soil base. Put enough soil to assure the plant will be at the proper height. Some plants, like strawberries, have a depth they like to be. For those make sure the amount of base soil will not make the newly potted plant be deeper than it was in the original pot. Others, like tomato, prefer to be buried deeper than they were, so they can grow new roots from the stem.



6. If you are going to add some fertilizer you can add it in this layer. But make sure it is slow release fertilizer, to prevent it from burning the growing roots of the plant.

Hold the plant firmly, then carefully turn upside down

7. Now the tricky part, get the plant out of its old pot and into the new one. To remove the plant from its old pot, slip your hand over the top of the pot, holding the plant's stem between your fingers and the soil with your hand, then turn the pot upside down. Give the old pot a little pat and gently sake it and pull it up until the root ball is out .

Untangle the roots

8. At this point, you will be holding the root ball. If the roots encircle the plant, very gently try to loosen up some to untangle them a little. This will help the roots to spread out in their new pot and prevent many problems later on. If the roots are too tangled together you can snip a couple or slice about a centimeter of the outer layer of the ball.

Place the plant in the pot

9. Carefully place the plant on its new home, make sure is centered and leveled, then spread out the roots a bit more.

Add soil around the roots and press to get rid of excess air

10. Then add the rest of the soil evening it out and pressing the soil against the plant, just enough to eliminate any large air pockets without compressing the soil.

Good soil will make its own mulch

11. Add a final layer of much if you want to, the plant with sure appreciate it, although is not completely necessarily.



12. Finally, water thoroughly, until water runs out the drain holes, to moisten the roots and to settle the soil.

And there you have it, the plant is set.

Take good care and it will live happily

Keep it in place with plenty of light but away from direct sunlight for a couple of days If you can. Also take extra care of it for some time to make sure your plant adjusts to its new house. And remember, plants should be moved into larger containers as they grow. So you might need to repot them later, maybe every couple of years or less depending on the plant.

Time to harvest the seeds from the globe amaranth

One of the favorite flowers of my garden this year was the globe amaranth (gomphrena globosa). It had an amazing color, with a lot of flowers and buttons.

Globe amaranth is definitely one of my favorites

Funny thing, globe amaranth it is native back at my country, but I didn't knew the plant until I got to japan. They are very common here. Usually they are grown in gardens as cut flowers, but it is also normal to see them as a urban wild flower. I have seen many growing on some sidewalks or on the ground patch around the train tracks.

Their name here is 千日紅 (せんにちこう）, which translates something like a thousand days red. I think is a perfect name, because flower's color last so long. Even now that mines were so dried the little globes still have very vibrant colors.

My globe amaranth was almost completely gone

Because I liked them so much, I wanted to have it again next season. So I decided to harvest some seeds from my plant. I wanted to wait until the plant dried completely by itself. But I don't really had the space, so when I moved things around to make space for the new rack I had to take it out.

I took out the heads from the dead flowers and save them apart to let them finish dry. I could tell many of the lower seeds were ready to pick but they still had a bit of moisture on the tip of the flowers. I think is best if I wait a bit longer to set them apart. I really hope they will grow well next season and bloom as nicely as this past ones.

I will store this Globe amaranth seeds after they dry

I would recommend to any gardener to have some on their garden. Because of their height I think they will make very nice background flowers. It is a beautiful plant, very hardy and with blooms that last forever. They even add a nice touch of color even when they are dry.


And remember, the carnival is on the 17th!

Be ready with a post about what do you plan on doing at your garden this year, maybe about one particular plant you want to have, a renovation you will do, a special patch you will grow, a new gardening technique you will give a try, or any other project you have prepared for this new year.

More flowers for blooming day!

This weekend there was a big sale at the garden center and I could not resist at all. I end up buying a second rack and planter to have even more flowers on my little balcony garden. I also got a bunch of other things, but I will introduce those later.

I set the flowers on their planter today, I hope they continue to grow and bloom even though the weather is getting a bit cold.

When I finished setting them up,
I got a nice sunset for reward

Here is a little list of the flowers I got, and also my other flowers for blooming day.

The new flower pot

I got a bit more of the same, but also some new ones.

• Stock I found another color that I really like


• Lemon marigold There was also a chocolate marigold that really smelled like chocolate, but this one is from mexico so it won my heart

The marigold has a very nice minty lemony scent

• Pansy Some more, to have flowers all winter


• Nadeshiko(fringed Pink) The season is almost over, but i really like the color


• Alyssum Can't get enough of the scent

I really like this color of alyssum,
hope I can get some seeds from it

• Blue ballon scabiosa Very puffy, and with a very nice color too.

As for my other flowers, my geranium is still blooming nicely and I have new flowers from the red geranium

I hope this one will continue blooming in December

New flowers from the red geranium

The globe amaranth, one of my favorite flowers, is also blooming. Although they are starting to dry now, I will try to get some seeds from it for next season.

Globe amaranth is definitely one of my favorites

The other flower pot is still nice. It suffered a bit from some wind last week but still have plenty of color.

The pansies keep growing too

The winter cosmos got a bit bald from the wind but a lot of new buttons are comming

Happy blooming day!

Here are the two flower pots together

My little garden in japan october 2010

A little late but here is a quick check on how my little garden in japan has done this month

• All my lettuces and kalanchoes continue to overflow their pot. I cut some away, but they are still so many.


• The old strawberry died, it didn't make it while I was in mexico, but I guess that was expected.


• I got a new geranium, and some new strawberries, I will make sure to take extra care this time, and plant them in two pots.


• I also got a crave for herbs lately. I got a lemon thyme and tomorrow I plan on buying more.


• From Mexico I got an aloe and a maguey. I don’t know if they will have enough light to grow here, but I guess is worth to try.


• I sow a new bed of lettuce, kalanchoe and one or two coriander in the pot where the strawberries used to be. They are already sprouting.


• The roses have been flowering a lot, and i am thinking if I should get a new red rose.


• I have a lot of mints growing because I separated the plant, now I dont know what to do with it.

All the other plants continue to grow happily. They are all doing great.

And for last, Here is my submission to blooming day, is a small one but I hope is good

The rose has been blooming a lot lately

My globe amaranth continues to flower

New geranium flowers

My flowers

Every garden needs flowers. They look great, smell great and help to attract many beneficial insects to the garden.  

My flowers at their best

Having a garden is a tradition that starts with my grandparents. They always had a very full of life garden. My grandpa had grapes, strawberries and even an "amaze everybody he could grew it" pineapple. My grandma on the other hand always had many beautiful flowers, she often woke up early and cut some flowers to adorn her house, filling it all with the fresh scents.

Back at my parents, we also used to have lots of flowers in the garden. Usually we grew petunias for spring, and "Nochebuenas" (Poinsettias) at winter, but we had many others as well, including a huge bugambilia that covers the whole front fence.

My Calla lily blooming this summer

Having a garden here in japan, I could not miss out on having some flowers of my own. I already had a Calla lily, and a Kalanchoe but this spring I got a bunch more.

My torenia

It just keeps on blooming

I bought this one at my favorite garden center. It was quite full of flowers when I got it, but at my garden it went crazy growing and blooming nonstop. They remind me of the full white carpet of petunias that I used to have at my parents' house.

Now it continue to give flowers, but it is not as full after the vacation drought.

My Blue Salvia

I love this purple color

I had seen a lot of this flowers around since last year, but I didn't know much about them. Silly me at first I used to believe this was lavender. I think it's an honest mistake, the flowers do look alike a bit. However when I visited Hokkaido last year and I saw the lavender farms, I realize it’s a different plant.

This spring I spot some at the garden center, and I had to buy them. This deep purple color is one of my favorites of all my flowers.

Sadly this plant got a lot of damage on the week of the drought, and it never fully recovered. Now it still have some green and some tinny flowers but I think it's best to take it out. Next year however, it will sure be on my list of flowers to get for spring.

My Marigold

The flower basquet

This is another flower I got because it reminds me of the flowers back in my country. I wanted to have it because I know it attracts a lot of beneficial insects and because I really like the scent. Sadly I lost it because of vacation drought, maybe next year I can get some more.

My Mini Rose

It finally started blooming again

I love roses. It might seem as a cliché but I think they are the most romantic of all flowers. In my garden I have a tinny yellow mini rose. Well, it started as tiny, the pot it came in was barely half a cup. When it started growing I changed it to a bigger pot but then problems started.

At the beginning it was full of flowers, but after a while it stopped. I assume it wanted some food so I prepared some banana milkshake fertilizer and it started blooming again.
Now it continues to live very happily and it already grew five times its initial size.

My Geraniums

Geraniums for my mom

I got this plants because they remind me of my mom. She loves geranium. I remember once we bought a bunch from a plant nursery and then we felt bad because they where only stems (back then we didn’t know that’s how geraniums reproduce).

In my garden I have a red and a white one. They seem to be ok, but they are growing slow because they got a little hurt from lack of water on vacations. The only problem is that white one seems to be growing albino leafs, I think it got too much sun, I hope it recovers soon.

My Globe Amaranth

Butterflies love Globe Amaranth

I didn't knew this flower before, and so far I had only seen it in japan, but it's definitely one of my favorites. I had seen it growing in many gardens here but strangely I didn't found it for sale last year.

I wanted to have one on my garden because with that shape it looks like it’s the kind of flower butterflies go crazy about. Luckily this week because of a post at tokyodiygardening.org and thanks to @a_small_lab I was reminded of them, so I went to my favorite garden center and I found them there. Of all the displays it was the one with the most butterflies, it think I counted around 14.
So that’s how it become the new acquisition for my garden. I got the one with more buttons, so I can be sure to have butterflies at my garden.

Oh and turns out this flower is native back in my country.


So those are my flowers.
Besides from all of these ones, when they were on season, the tomato, the strawberry, the peppers and specially the mints were full of flowers and add to the flower collection.

Strawberry flowers

My plants

Here is a small ever-changing list of the plants on my garden.
I will try to update this page accordingly to my current garden status. All my plants are now on the "my garden" page

 

• Mint: One apple mint and one peppermint
• Beans: No idea what kind I just try to sow some I didn’t eat
• Grape: It's a Pione, I just got it this month 
• Cilantro: Now on the second sow, I hope they are still on season
• Basil: Sweet basil, I want to try to cook with it
• Japanese maple tree (紅葉): The pot actually has four different kinds I'm waiting for autumn to see which one I keep
• Kalanchoe: Pink, donated by a shop
• Strawberry (苺): In memory of my grandfather 
• Tomato: On the end of season
• Pepper: Rescued form a garden shop trash
• Torenia: White, so many flowers
• Blue Salvia: Beautiful purple flowers
• Zantedeschia: My first plant in japan
• Rose: A little yellow mini rose
• Geranium: White and red for my mom
• Globe amaranth*: For the butterflies  

 

All of my plants have been an adventure on its own, some have worked some have not. Also besides from this I hope to acquire some tulips and maybe some other plants along the road.

*Updated 27 Aug 2010: A brand new globe amaranth