Container gardening or pot gardening/farming is the practice of growing plants, including edible plants, exclusively in containers instead of planting them in the ground. [1] A container in gardening is a small, enclosed and usually portable object used for displaying live flowers or plants. It may take the form of a pot, box, tub, basket, tin, barrel or hanging basket.
Pots, traditionally made of terracotta but now more commonly plastic, and window boxes are the most commonly seen. Small pots are called flowerpots. [2] In some cases, this method of growing is used for ornamental purposes. This method is also useful in areas where the soil or climate is unsuitable for the plant or crop in question. Using a container is also generally necessary for houseplants. Limited growing space, or growing space that is paved over, can also make this option appealing to the gardener. [2] Additionally, this method is popular for urban horticulture and urban gardening on balconies of apartments and condominiums where gardeners lack the access to the ground for a traditional garden. [3]
Many types of plants are suitable for the container, including decorative flowers, herbs, cacti, vegetables, and small trees and shrubs. [4] Herbs and small edible plants such as chili peppers and arugula can be grown inside the house, if there is adequate light and ventilation, and on outdoor terraces, larger vegetables may be planted.[ citation needed ]
Containers range from simple plastic pots, to teacups, to complex automatically watered irrigation systems. This flexibility in design is another reason container gardening is popular with growers. They can be found on porches, front steps, and—in urban locations—on rooftops. Sub-irrigated planters (SIP) are a type of container that may be used in container gardens. [4] [5]
Re-potting is the action of placing an already potted plant into a larger or smaller pot. A pot that fits a plant's root system better is normally used. Plants are usually re-potted according to the size of their root system. Most plants need to be re-potted every few years because they become "pot-" or "root-bound". A plants' roots can sense its surroundings, including the size of the pot it is in, and increasing the pot size allows plant size to increase proportionally. [6]
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants as part of horticulture. In gardens, ornamental plants are often grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants, such as root vegetables, leaf vegetables, fruits, and herbs, are grown for consumption, for use as dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use.
Raised-bed gardening is a form of gardening in which the soil is raised above ground level and usually enclosed in some way. Raised bed structures can be made of wood, rock, concrete or other materials, and can be of any size or shape. The soil is usually enriched with compost.
Forest gardening is a low-maintenance, sustainable, plant-based food production and agroforestry system based on woodland ecosystems, incorporating fruit and nut trees, shrubs, herbs, vines and perennial vegetables which have yields directly useful to humans. Making use of companion planting, these can be intermixed to grow in a succession of layers to build a woodland habitat. Forest gardening is a prehistoric method of securing food in tropical areas. In the 1980s, Robert Hart coined the term "forest gardening" after adapting the principles and applying them to temperate climates.
A flower box is a type of container in the form of a planter or box that is usually placed outdoors and used for displaying live plants and flowers, but it may also be used for growing herbs or other edible plants.
This is an alphabetical index of articles related to gardening.
Potting may refer to:
A window box is a type of flower container for live flowers or plants in the form of a box attached on or just below the sill of a window. It may also be used for growing herbs or other edible plants.
A flowerpot, planter, planterette or plant pot, is a container in which flowers and other plants are cultivated and displayed. Historically, and still to a significant extent today, they are made from plain terracotta with no ceramic glaze, with a round shape, tapering inwards. Flowerpots are now often also made from plastic, metal, wood, stone, or sometimes biodegradable material. An example of biodegradable pots are ones made of heavy brown paper, cardboard, or peat moss in which young plants for transplanting are grown.
The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for growing edible plants and often some medicinal plants, especially historically. The plants are grown for domestic use; though some seasonal surpluses are given away or sold, a commercial operation growing a variety of vegetables is more commonly termed a market garden. The kitchen garden is different not only in its history, but also its functional design. It differs from an allotment in that a kitchen garden is on private land attached or very close to the dwelling. It is regarded as essential that the kitchen garden could be quickly accessed by the cook.
A monastic garden was used by many people and for multiple purposes. Gardening was the chief source of food for households, but also encompassed orchards, cemeteries and pleasure gardens, as well as providing plants for medicinal and cultural uses. Gardening is the deliberate cultivation of plants herbs, fruits, flowers, or vegetables.
Horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits and vegetables and also flowers or ornamental plants.
Jardinière is a French word, from the feminine form of "gardener". In English it means a decorative flower box or "planter", a receptacle or a stand upon which, or into which, plants may be placed, usually indoors. The French themselves mostly refer to tabletop "planter" versions of such receptacles as cachepots ("hide-pots"). The French tend to use jardinière for larger outdoor containers for plants, and for raised beds in gardens in some sort of isolated frame, such as a stone wall, especially growing vegetables and herbs.
Mazus reptans, common name creeping mazus, is a low-growing perennial plant native to the Himalayas region of Asia.
Sub-irrigated planter (SIP) is a generic name for a special type of planting box used in container gardening and commercial landscaping. A SIP is any method of watering plants where the water is introduced from the bottom, allowing the water to soak upwards to the plant through capillary action. It is possible to automate the watering and thus SIPs are popular with professional landscapers in buildings or urban settings. Commercialized versions of a Sub-irrigated planter condenses humidity from the environment and feed it directly into the plants' roots. SIPs are available as commercial products or as do-it-yourself projects made from plastic buckets, boxes or storage totes. One of the disadvantages of such closed systems is that soluble salts cannot be flushed into the lower soil profile and build up over time.
French intensive gardening also known as raised bed, wide bed, or French market gardening is a method of gardening in which plants are grown within a smaller space and with higher yields than other traditional gardening methods. The main principles for success are often listed as soil improvement, raised beds, close spacing, companion planting, succession planting and crop rotation. Originating in France, the practice is popular among urban gardeners and small for profit farming operations.
There are many ways to garden in restricted spaces. Often a small or limited space is an issue in growing and cultivating plants. Restricted space gardens can be located on small lawns, balconies, patios, porches, rooftops, inside the home, or in any other available place. Gardening in small places can be applied to edible or floral plants. Growing food has many benefits including saving money; healthier, fresher, and better tasting food; knowledge of pesticide and fertilizer exposure. Gardening is a good form of exercise and has been proven to be therapeutic.
Micro-irrigation, also called Micro-spray,localized, low-volume, low-flow, or trickle irrigation, is an irrigation method with lower water pressure and flow than a traditional sprinkler system. Low-volume irrigation is used in agriculture for row crops, orchards, and vineyards. It is also used in horticulture in wholesale nurseries, in landscaping for civic, commercial, and private landscapes and gardens, and in the science and practice of restoration ecology and environmental remediation. The lower volume allows the water to be absorbed into slow-percolation soils such as clay, minimizing runoff.
Foodscaping is a modern term for the practice of integrating edible plants into ornamental landscapes. It is also referred to as edible landscaping and has been described as a crossbreed between landscaping and farming. As an ideology, foodscaping aims to show that edible plants are not only consumable but can also be appreciated for their aesthetic qualities. Foodscaping spaces are seen as multi-functional landscapes which are visually attractive and also provide edible returns.
Gardening Naturally was a TV show series hosted by Barbara Damrosch and Eliot Coleman. It was created from 1993 to 1994 and ran until about 2003. It first aired on TLC and later reruns were shown on Discovery Home and Leisure.
Click and Grow is an Estonian indoor gardening company, founded by Mattias Lepp in 2009. It develops consumer electronic products for growing edible plants indoors.
