Gardening Bytes

Posts Tagged ‘Potting Up Plants’

I have a tradition I have carried on from my childhood at Christmas. My father planted a small pine tree in a container, leaving it out in the garden during the year. At Christmas he brought it inside and the tree was used for a number of years as our Christmas tree. After a number of years when the tree was too large to be brought in my father planted it out in our two-thirds of an acre yard to continue its growth. This was very earth friendly idea of my dad’s, who was a true home gardener with a green thumb. Our first potted Christmas tree began life as a two foot tall gallon container blue spruce that grew to three or four feet tall in its container. When we moved we left it for the new homeowners and bought another one, this time a foot tall redwood in a gallon container. After three years our container grown redwood looks great and grows slowly, it will always need to remain a container redwood to keep the size down. After three years this holiday season the redwood Christmas tree is three feet tall and two feet wide. The needles fall off the branches into the container, providing natural mulch all year long. After the holidays the Christmas redwood sits on our deck in semi shade, making a terrific container plant the rest of the year.

Terra cotta pots are a popular pot to plant in, but they often dry out easily, requiring multiple waterings every week. Compost loses moisture quickly through the sides when in a terra cotta pot. A good way to help maintain the moisture in your terra cotta pots and keep your plants happy is to use a lining of plastic in the pot. Line around the inside wall of the terra cotta pot with black plastic or an old compost bag before adding your compost and plant, then water in the new plant. The plastic will help maintain moisture in the pot after watering.