Greetings from the garden! My name is Ben, and today, we're gonna look at getting started growing in containers. So, let's jump into the garden and get started. Growing in containers is great if you're working in a small space or maybe you have a balcony or a patio in an apartment. It's important to remember before we get started that what goes up must also come down. Right now, all of our materials are separate. They're dry. But once we assemble our container, this one piece will become much heavier and a little more difficult to move. So, if your lease is up middle of the summer or you have to move at some point, just bear that in mind as you are choosing which containers to bring up, that it will be much heavier than it is when you buy it from the garden center.
Here's what you'll need
You'll need your container with the drainage hole in the bottom. You'll need a big, either, stone or a broken piece of pottery that you can put over that hole. You'll need some gravel that's at least 1-inch diameter to fill the bottom of your pot to help with drainage. And then, you'll need your soil. Let's start by talking about soil. Growing in containers is not the same as growing in the ground in your yard. So, you can't just go out and dig some soil up from your yard and put it in your container. What you need to get is true potting soil or container soil sold at your garden center. So, it'll look something like this. It'll be fairly light and airy and it will probably have some of these little flecks in it and that's perlite. And that will help to reduce soil compaction as you water and as the plants grow into place over the course of the growing season. It should be pre-moistened so that it sets your new plants up for success. If their tiny little roots dry out, they will not be happy. You will be shocked at how much water it takes to actually get your soil to the right consistency. It typically will take quite a few additions, with mixing in between, until when you pick up a handful of soil and squeeze it, it should hold its form and not fall apart easily. If it still falls apart or you shake your hand just a bit and it crumbles, add a bit more water.
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Here's what you'll need
Our next point to set you up for success is thinking about drainage. So, we want to make sure that our plant roots, as they grow down through the soil, don't sit in standing water. Again, whatever pot you buy, make sure it has a drainage hole. But a lot of these drainage holes can be fairly large, and you also don't want to lose soil through that. So, we're gonna begin by taking this old piece of stone. Again, you can use a piece of broken pottery or an old pot that's broken-- anything that isn't totally flat that will block water from coming out. But again, this is so irregular that as I turn it upside down and place it in the bottom of the pot, it'll allow water to flow underneath it without allowing so much soil to flow out, as well. The next thing we're going to add in is our gravel and we only need about an inch or two layer of gravel on the bottom of the pot. We don't need to fill it up very much. And again, this is just to assist with drainage as water percolates through. Our final step is to add the soil. Now, of course, we already have our soil pre-moistened. This is not rocket science. We're just gonna dump it in.
Another important tip
We don't want to fill the soil all the way up to the very top of the container because you will find as you start to water, you want a little bit of a gap so that that water can collect on the surface and filter down. If the soil is filled right to the top, your soil and your water will run off to the sides and it won't get into the soil where it needs to be. Our container is now ready for planting. A final tip for success is to think about the amount of light that your container will get throughout the day. Optimally, we're looking for at least four hours of direct sun. If your space gets less than that, consider maybe joining a community garden plot or gardening with a neighbor. Well, we hope you saw how easy it was to get started with prepping your container. Next time, we'll look at actually planting your container. We look forward to seeing you then, and thanks for joining us. Happy gardening!
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