If you find it hard to contain your frustration with trying to grow healthy plants in Florida’s sandy soil, try containing your plants instead. In our neighborhood many homes have small patios where container or “potted” gardens can provide a simple and rewarding alternative.
You’ll find that weeds are easier to control, and small plantings are more accessible to tend and enjoy. Here are a few more of the many benefits:
§ You’ll save water by irrigating, less soil area.
§ Both water and nutrients are concentrated where they’re needed.
§ Groupings can be rearranged to suit plant growth or simply to change design.
§ you can move plants inside if the weather’s bad or just to enjoy them awhile.
§ Using different soil types allows for a variety of plants, even specialized exotics.
For containers, I prefer the large plastic grow pots used in tree nurseries. They even make ones that are square-sided for compact groupings. For new pots ranging in size from 2 inches to 6 feet in diameter, call Universal Enterprises (355-8505). There may be minimum quantities required for purchase of some sizes. The large, low ones can be ordered without drain holes and make excellent pond liners - in or above ground.
To begin with, it’s very important to “build” the container properly, especially when planting herbs and other plants requiring excellent drainage. The larger the container, the more important this becomes because more soil holds more water. You want the entire bottom surface of the soil to “breathe” as well as to drain. First, use broken pottery, shells or pebbles to block the drainage holes in the pot — the more irregular-shaped the better.
Next, add a two-inch (or more) layer of washed shell or gravel covered with a plastic mesh “soil fabric” or “weed barrier.” This will insure that the planting medium won’t plug the spaces between the drainage material.
As far as knowing the best potting medium to use, try to duplicate, the type and consistency in which the young plant is already growing, assuming you bought it
from the local garden center or the Saturday farmers market. Add enough soil mix to allow for the new plant’s root system. Pack soil lightly, up to the top of the root ball, never setting it deeper than it grew in is original pot. Leave a few inches on top for “groundcover” such as bark mulch, but be careful when using rocks or pebbles not to block air from entering the soil. Plant food comes either in pelletized or water-mixed form. Ask your grower or nursery person which type they recommend.
Remember that several plants can occupy one container, as long as they don’t compete for space. One pleasing example is the tall, “African iris” combined with yellow- flowering weedelia. Or for an herbal mixture, plant lemon grass with perennial verbena or trailing mint.
As for displaying your plants, one attractive method is to arrange smaller pots around a larger or taller one creating a natural mass planting effect. This is appropriate for many vegetables, herbs and flowering plants which have a rather short season and may be replanted as needed.
You can find more information on container gardening in neighborhood book stores or at the Public Library, and examples can be seen everywhere right here in Laurel Park. The possibilities are endless, so use your imagination and have fun getting “potted.”
Written by Jack Notestein
Laurel Park News, Volume 7, Summer 1997