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Thursday 3 March 2011

Planting in pots

Gardening in pots can be labour intensive, mainly because of watering. For evergreen and perennial plants, maintaining the soil's nutrients is essential too.

You can partly overcome watering issues using water chrystals in the soil mix. You can overcome watering issues completely by putting an irrigation system in place.

You can partly overcome soil issues by using the right size pot and soil mix. As a general rule, if you're doing a long-term (more than 1 year) potted plant, buy a soil based compost. I would add extra slow-release nutrients for quick-growing plants or heavily planted pots. I've found the most convenient ones are the little yellow fertilizer balls from the garden centre. Look for John Innes' composts which have the right mix of soil, compost, sand and nutients.

I move sensitive plant pots close to the house in winter to prevent waterlogging and wind damage.

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