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Building a container garden can be as easy as 1, 2, 3. Today, I am gonna show you the basic
foundations of how to make a successful container garden. I like to start of first with
filling the bottom of my pot with the pots
from the plants that I am going to use.
I'll just simply turn them over and put them in the bottom of the pot and then next
I like to add
some bark.
The reason I'm doing all of this is because I don't wanna have to use so much soil.
Only fill it up about halfway.
The next step is that I like to use a good
soil. We prefer Miracle-Gro or Jolly Gardener, but you want to get
something that's great for container gardens.
It will just say on the front of the label.
The three elements to making a great container garden - I like to call it the
triangle theory. Something tall,
something thick and something trailing. We have something tall - this is Cordyline, this is something that is
very easy. It can take full sun, loves the heat and does really well. You want to
make sure to dig a hole big enough for the root ball of your plant. Dig my hole, place it in
here and then just kinda tuck and pat the soil
around the top of the root ball.
See you've got your first T - you've got your tall. Now you need your next T. This is
going to be your something thick.
This is Heuchera -
something that is absolutely fabulous in every garden. It has amazing foliage.
It works very well and it loves the sun. So I am going to simply squeeze the pot.
This is going to be my something thick.
We now have our two T's - something tall and something thick
and now we need something trailing. So, of course, we have to have something that is beautiful and in color.
When you look at the root ball of a plant, if you see that all of the roots are white. You
know that you have a healthy plant.
When they're kinda black that means that they are kinda rotted and they haven't been so well taken care of.
So make sure when you are buying your plants to look for your roots
that are nice and white.
Just add this right here.
Let me turn this around so you can see
our three T's - something that is tall, something that is going to be thick
and something that is going to be trailing.
These are the great components for how to make a great sun container garden.
Now how do you take care of this and maintain this all summer long?
When you have a dead bloom, pitch it off. That way it creates a lot of energy and growth
for the new plants and new blooms to come on.
One of our secret tips to keep our container garden looking good all-summer long
is we like to use Miracle-Gro. It is a liquid feed and we like to do this once
every three weeks. Don't forget to water it.
If it is really hot where you live, we recommend watering your container garden probably
about once everyday. You want to make sure when you are watering that you get all
around the container.
Some great tall plants that work well in your container gardens or what we like to
call the number one plants.
Cordyline, which we showed you earlier. One of my favorites is Purple Fountain Grass. It gets
really tall in a container garden. Has a nice vertical element and it also has a
really nice bloom on it in the summertime. Gaura - it gets about,
I'd say, probably about two to three feet tall and agreat tidbit for you as that it is a
perennial. So that means it will come back next year. Victoria Salvia - this is a nice,
tall vertical element and has a really pretty blue-
lavender bloom.
All of these tall plants
love the sun and can take
the intense summer heat.
Number two plants are plants that are thick.
Superbells Cherry Star.
Oh my goodness, look at it, it's
absolutely wonderful in color and has a beautiful stration of yellow and pink.
This is also a great number two plant because it's thick and it trails.
Another great one is Diamond Frost. We like to use in our container gardens.
It puts off a really nice, white, airy bloom.
Heuchera is a perennial and it will come back every year and what we have found is that it loves
the intense summer heat. One of my all-time favorites is Dreamsicle,
it is a beautiful calibrachoa and you get two-for-one in this one. Its thick and
it trails. I love the bright, intense orange color.
Absolutely wonderful!
Our number three plants are things that are going to trail in our container gardens.
It is something that is going to soften the edges. We love Creeping Jenny, it's that bright
green-chartreuse color.
We also love Angelina Sedum and I just LOVE it because in the fall
the colder it gets - it gets kinda of red, but this is something that can
go all summer and all fall. Our number three plant that we used in our container
garden
is Bubblegum.
Bubblegum Petunia is very prolific and it loves the summer heat and
it's going to put on a really good show for you. So we just gave you all the plants to be
successful in the sun and here's some great plants that work really well in
the shade.
We love to use white Caladium.
Something thick
is your Dragon Wing Begonias. We also have just simple ivy for your trailing.
These are three great plants that will work well for you in the shade.
So we have given you all of our tips and we have shared with you our
triangle theory. So now go home and be successful and go plant a container garden.