20 Container Gardening Mistakes That Nobody Talks About

Foreign. If you've ever tried to grow something in a pot and thought, why is this not working? This video is for you. Today I am breaking down the 20 most common container gardening mistakes that I've seen all my clients make. So whether you're growing in a few pots, you've got a balcony garden, you love grow bags, or you just want to start small, you got to watch this video before you plant a single thing. I remember one of my first garden consultations. My client said, nicole, I'm so, so glad you're here. I can't even keep something in a pot alive. And I looked at her, held her hands and said, don't worry, because that's the hardest thing to do. Even though growing in containers can be amazing because it's flexible, you can move the containers around, they're small, and you can start really quickly. Growing in containers is actually the hardest thing to do because all of the plants nutrition, water, soil and care needs is up to you. So today I'm going to break down some ways that you can set up your containers so they're easier to maintain and you can actually keep your plants alive. The biggest mistake most people make when it comes to container gardening is starting with a container that is just too small. I recommend having a container that's at least one foot wide and one foot deep. These little things are going to dry out so fast, you're going to have to literally keep the plant watered like, twice a day. I remember I did a little brand collaboration one time with a brand I absolutely love, and they sent me these containers they wanted me to promote, and not even kidding, their herb containers were about this big. I couldn't even get the starting plant to fit into that container. So I love the brand, but I just couldn't promote their thing because the container was just too tiny. So don't make that mistake. The next mistake most people make is giving a plant too much sunlight, too much sun. Wait a second. Don't plants need as much sun as they can get? Yes, if they're growing in a raised bed or in the ground. But if they're in a container, they're going to need about half as much sunlight as they would need growing naturally. This is because these plants don't have a lot of space to reach down into the soil to get more nutrients, to get more water, and to stay vibrant in that harsh sunlight. So I found that container gardens really need about 2/3 or 1 half of the amount of sunlight they would need if they were growing in the ground. Mistake Number three would be planting a heavy feeding plant in a container like this one. So if you're growing a plant that needs lots of nutrients, lots of water and lots of soil space, the last thing you want to do is plant it in a pot. Even this, which is the right size, one foot wide, one foot deep, it's still not big enough for a heavy feeder, something like tomatoes, squash, zucchini. Those plants are going to need a big container to grow in. Right here I've got potatoes growing, and I would never grow potatoes in a container much smaller than this one, because potatoes are heavy feeders. They need lots of water and nutrients and space to spread out. Putting them in this kind of container means I hardly have to do a thing to keep them growing. And they've got plenty of room to get all the food and nutrients they need. Mistake number four is not having a simple watering system. All the plants that are in container gardens, they have to be watered pretty much every single day. So you got to get yourself on a schedule to be sure you're keeping your container gardens watered. If you're not great with keeping a schedule, you want to have something that maintains the water on its own, something like an olla that you can stick down in the container, fill it up with water once a week and let it self water your garden throughout the week until you remember to come back and take care of it again. Do not plant a plant into a container without a watering plan first. The next mistake to avoid when it comes to container gardening is not paying attention and investing in good so soil. Do not buy cheap big box potting soil to put into your container gardens. If anything, the soil in your container gardens matters more than it does in a raised bed or in an in ground garden, because this is all the plant's going to get. So instead of the plant being able to reach its roots deep into the earth, instead of earthworms being able to come up and take care of your plants through a raised bed or in ground garden. This is the extent, extent of the ecosystem you're creating for your plants. So you want to start with a great soil mix. I recommend topsoil, compost and coarse sand, all mixed together with earthworm castings. I've got more details about my soil system right below this video. But don't skimp on the soil when you're building a container garden. The next mistake to avoid in container gardening, no matter how cute those little containers are at this store, you've got to get one that's got a drainage hole if you don't have drainage in your container garden, no matter how many rocks or pebbles or little systems you build to keep the water off the roots of your plant, the roots on your plant are eventually going to rot. So if you buy a pot that doesn't have a drainage hole, you're basically signing yourself up for a lot of root rot. Once you've got a drainage hole, make sure you don't make the next mistake, which is not having a way to catch the drainage. So, so many of the containers we grow in, we want to have on our patios or decks or even indoors. And if you don't have a way to catch the water, I found that I'm more hesitant to water those plan when I know I've got to move them to the sink or move them outside, or if they're going to make a big mess on the balcony or patio, you want to be sure you've got a little drainage tray to catch all that water and be sure it doesn't make a mess. Then you can just use that water that drains off to water it again. The next mistake to avoid in container gardening is choosing plants that are going to outgrow the pot. Whenever you buy a plant for your container, you want to find out the maximum size that plant's going to grow to and buy a pot that can handle that growth. When we buy these plants, they're so tiny, and they fool us into thinking that something this size will last throughout the duration of that plant's lifetime. But that cannot be further from the truth. So before you put a plant in a container, be sure the container matches the full maturity size of that plant. That being said, when you plant your container garden, you want to be sure there's as little soil exposed as possible. But even as you match the plant size to your container, you do want to be sure, even from the beginning, that you leave as little soil exposed exposed as possible. So plant a variety of plants together in your container. Cover the soil. This is going to mean that the nutrients will stay in your container longer, and your container is going to be less likely to dry out, meaning you don't have to water it quite as often. The next mistake to avoid is not making your pots portable. If you're putting in large containers or things that are going to weigh quite a lot, you want to be sure they're on wheels before you plant them up. As the seasons go, as the days warm up and cool down, you really want to be able to move your pots to different places on your property. Sometimes you want to have them exposed to as much sun as possible, like right at the start of spring, and then in the heat of the summer, you probably want to be able to roll them back and get them into some shade in the hottest part of the days. So be sure at the beginning of setup that all your pots are portable. The next mistake I see people make is fertilizing their container gardens. If you set up your garden with a great soil blend full of compost and earthworm castings, that one container will have all the nutrients it needs to get that plant from start to finish. No fertilizer needed. You have such a high risk of burning your plants and actually killing it when you fertilize in a container. All that synthetic fertilizer in one little space is too concentrated for your plants and can end up ruining them before you get to see the harvest. The next mistake with container gardening is putting containers all over the place. If you look at nature, plants love growing together in clumps all in one spot. And container gardening is no different. So as you set up your container gardens, clump them together, large, medium, and small sizes, all in one space. First of all, this is going to make it so much easier for you to tend. You can literally come with one watering can, water all the containers all at once, tend them at once, harvest from them at once. But also you'll find that plants actually love growing together in one space. They feed off of one another, they warm one another up, and they even protect each other from pests and disease. So don't spread your containers out. Bring them all together and you'll have a lot more success. The 13th mistake that most people make when it comes to container gardening is not having a travel plan if you're going to be out for the weekend. If you're gone for a week in the summer, you need to have someone come and take care of your container garden, because it will not be able to take care of itself. I've personally lost so many gardens I worked so hard to grow in the middle of a summer when I was gone for just one week. That just so happened to be the hottest week on record with no rain. So make a travel plan even if you're just gone for a weekend. Get a neighborhood, a friend, someone who you can bribe with a couple of harvests to come over and take care of your container gardens while you're gone. The next mistake is not employing my three in one method. For any container, that's three different kinds of plants in each container. You probably Heard it described as a thriller, a filler and a spiller. So in this case, we have our strawberries in the middle. They're going to grow big and bushy. We're going to have our fillers, things like alyssum and some dianthus. Then we have our spillers, things like tarragon and thyme that can climb over the edge of the container. With this three in one method, you fill the container to its fullest. Every plant gets all the root room that it needs, and it maintains the moisture and nutrients so much better than it would if you just had one plant in the middle. Mistake number 15 is not topping off the soil in your container garden every single season. You don't need to start over with your container garden every time you replant it, but. But you do need to top it off. Think about your container garden in the same way you would a vegetable garden, a raised bed, and use what we call as a no till method. So leave all the soil that's in the base of your container and simply top it off with great organic compost right at the top every time you replant it. This is going to allow the nutrients to slowly trickle down into your container without the cost of an entirely new bag of potting soil every single season. Mistake number 16 is using containers that aren't deep enough. We talked about having a container that's large enough, wide enough, at least one foot wide, but you also want a container that's one foot deep. I've been tempted to use a container like this one because I wanted to grow salad and things that don't have deep roots. But I found that a container that's less than a foot deep is really just too hard to keep watered. I lost all the plants I started in this cute little container because it just wasn't deep enough. Mistake number 17 is ignoring the wind. If you've got your pots on a balcony or a patio or even just out in the middle of your yard, you need to remember that these things are much smaller than raised beds, and they're much more fragile than in ground gardens. So you want to be sure everything is nice and heavy. If you've got wheels in your containers, make sure they're locked. And just make sure everything in your garden is staked down so that it doesn't fly away or get toppled over when there's a windstorm or something kind of crazy happening in the middle of summer. Mistake number 18 is growing the wrong plant for the right season. Just because we're growing in Containers does not mean that the season no longer matters. You're going to have these containers out in the wild and these plants are going to feel the change in the soil, temperature in the air, temperature in the evaporation that's happening. So plants that love growing in the spring say things like lettuces, arugula, root crops and peas. Those plants are not going to do well in the middle of summer, even if they're in a container. So you want to follow the same seasonal chart that you would for an in ground or raised bed garden and be sure that you're always planting for the right climate, even in your containers. The next mistake is not checking for pests regularly. In a container garden, pests can take over literally overnight. Every time you come to water your container garden, you want to check under the leaves of pretty much every plant and be sure that there's no signs of pests. If you've got holes in the leaves. If the leaves are changing colors, that means it's time to go on a scavenger hunt and locate that pest before it takes over the entire container. If you do see pests start to show up, spray the leaves really hard with a forceful spray of water, and you can also protect your leaves with a simple garlic barrier spray. The next mistake is not paying attention to how fast your containers warm up in the heat. If you're growing in a hot place or you're just trying to survive summer with your container garden, you want to be sure you're using materials that hold in the water and don't heat up too quickly. If you're using a metal container like this one, you probably don't want it to be right in the middle of the sun on a really hot day. Also, dark containers can tend to warm up faster than light containers, and unfortunately, terracotta pots will tend to pour pull the water away from your plant and into the clay instead of the other way around. This video is not meant to discourage you from growing in containers. This is one of the fastest and easiest ways to start gardening, but it is meant to save you from the overwhelm and frustration and failures that I've experienced over the years. So tell me in the comments if you want me to dive deeper into any of these mistakes and show you how to fix them this season. Thanks so much for listening to the Grow youw Self podcast. You can keep keep listening anywhere. You love getting your podcast delivered on Apple podcasts, on Spotify, iHeartRadio, you name it, we are there for you. And if you want to read the notes and get our free resources to help you grow more. You can go to gardenary.com podcast.