Tag Archive for: Container Gardening

Perk Up Summer Containers with Stunning Annuals

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Give yards and patios a boost by adding containers full of summer flowers to your landscape. Revitalize your summer landscape by pulling together your yard with the addition of easy and inexpensive annuals.

Annuals instantly transform the look of a space from year to year or month to month. Choose from a variety of colors and forms that complement your exterior, your patio or even your pool area. The options are endless.

A good-looking container will set your yard apart from your neighbors. To start, choose your containers and make sure they have proper drainage holes. Check plant tags for the mature size and plan to plant accordingly.

5 Summer Container Garden Tips:

  1. Add a few pebbles or rocks to the bottom of your container to keep dirt from escaping and use Espoma’s potting mix to keep plants healthy.
  2. Select annuals in a single color and variety repeat throughout containers in different parts of your yard. Try planting bright, purple petunias near your entrance or mailbox. Add more in containers on your front steps and finish with a pop of color in a hanging basket.
  3. Pair annuals with matching colors and like-forms. Plant purple geraniums with yellow daisies, or orange snapdragons with an edging of blueish lobelia.
  4. Stick with one color and choose an assortment of different annuals to create a monochromatic scheme.
  5. For best results, feed annuals in containers regularly with Espoma’s liquid Bloom! plant food.

Looking to expand your container garden? Learn how to plant fruits and veggies in containers.

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May Gardening Checklist: 5 Essential To-Dos for a Thriving Garden

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May is one of the busiest and most exciting months in the garden. Flowers are blooming, veggies are sprouting, and summer crops are ready to go in. But to keep your garden thriving naturally, it’s important to use the right organic products to nurture your soil, plants, and harvest.

Here’s your Espoma-approved May checklist to prep your garden for a healthy, productive summer season.

Garden Clean up

1: Tidy Up Your Garden Space

Start fresh by clearing out weeds, dead plants, and old debris — this keeps pests and diseases in check and opens up space for new growth. As you tidy up, top off your beds with Espoma Organic Land & Sea Gourmet Compost to enrich the soil with nutrients and improve texture.

Once your garden is clean, you can apply a layer of mulch to help conserve moisture and regulate soil temperature. This simple prep sets the stage for everything that comes next.

spring crops

2: Harvest Early Spring Crops

Your cool-weather crops like lettuce, spinach, radishes, and peas are likely ready to harvest. After picking, don’t leave that soil depleted! Replenish it by working in Espoma Organic Garden-tone or Plant-tone to restore nutrients before planting your summer vegetables.

For container gardens, refresh the mix with Espoma Organic Raised Bed Mix or Potting Mix so your new plants have a rich, organic base to grow in. Healthy soil = healthy crops.

People planning a project

3: Plan Your Garden Layout Thoughtfully

Before you rush to plant, take a little time to sketch out your garden plan. Group plants with similar needs together, and research what varieties perform best in your area. If you’re unsure, visit a local garden center and look for recommendations — and while you’re there, pick up organic fertilizers suited for what you’re planting (like Espoma Organic Tomato-tone for tomatoes, Berry-tone for berries, or Rose-tone for roses).

Planning ahead ensures you can match the right organic products to the right plants, maximizing growth and minimizing problems down the line.

planting with organic fertilizer

4: Get Planting — and Feed Organically

Once your area is frost-free, it’s time to plant! Whether you’re planting veggies, flowers, or herbs, give them the best start by enriching the planting hole with Espoma Organic Bio-tone Starter Plus. This starter fertilizer contains mycorrhizae, which help plants establish strong root systems and reduce transplant shock.

As the season goes on, continue feeding regularly with Espoma Organic Tone Fertilizers, depending on what you’re growing. These slow-release, organic fertilizers keep plants nourished naturally, without the risk of burning or chemical buildup.

planting

5: Transfer Indoor Seedlings Outdoors Carefully

If you started seeds indoors, harden them off gradually before moving them outside. Once ready, plant them in your garden or containers and mix Espoma Organic Bio-tone Starter Plus into the soil. This ensures young plants have access to the nutrients and beneficial microbes they need to get established and grow strong healthy roots.

For containers, fill pots with Espoma Organic Potting Mix, which provides excellent drainage and moisture retention while feeding plants with organic ingredients. Don’t forget to water thoroughly after transplanting to help roots settle in.

family in vegetable garden

🌸 Bonus Tip: Keep Feeding and Caring All Season Long

Throughout the summer, keep an eye on your plants. Feed every month or as needed with the appropriate Espoma Organic fertilizer for each plant type. Water deeply at the base, mulch to retain moisture, and enjoy the lush, organic garden you’ve worked so hard to create.

With the right products and a little care, you’ll be harvesting beautiful, homegrown food and flowers all summer long — the organic way!

Featured Products:

Espoma Organic Potting soil Mix Big bagEspoma Organic Land and SeaEspoma Raised Bed Mix bag  Espoma Organic Tomato-toneEspoma Organic Rose-tone bagEspoma Organic Plant-tone organic fertilizer

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DIY Paint Can Planter for Succulents

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6 Tips for Stunning Succulent Containers

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The options for succulents are endless. You can spend an entire afternoon at your favorite garden center picking out succulents in all shapes, sizes and colors. And once you have one succulent plant, you can grow even more plants from it!

While planting succulents is a pretty straightforward process, there are a few tricks to ensuring they stay healthy in their new homes.

6 Tips for Creating a Succulent Container

  1. Choose a container. Almost any container can be used for succulent gardening if it has proper drainage. Terra cotta, glazed pottery and wooden boxes are some traditional choices. If you’re feeling crafty, check out our Garden Answer tutorial and create your own.
  2. Don’t let water pool. When placing the plant in the container, the succulent needs to sit above the rim of the pot. If your soil is low and your container has poor drainage, water can pool on top and damage the plant. Don’t let your succulent rot! Make sure to use Espoma’s Cactus Mix when filling your container.
  3. Add Plants. It’s up to you to choose how many plants to put in your container. Succulents that are crowded and planted close together often grow more slowly; and these plants are slow growers to begin with! More space between plants means it’s easier to water and there will be better air flow.
  4. Thriller, filler and spiller. This classic gardening concept can be applied to succulents, too. Add some oomph to your container by choosing a “thriller,” a tall plant that will add a vertical element such as aloe. Next, place a medium succulent such as echevarias. For spillers, look for trailing succulents that will “spill” over the edge such as sedum or string of pearls.
  5. The final touch. For a finished look, top off your container with decorative stones or dried moss.
  6. Feed ‘em. Give your succulents a boost by fertilizing as needed with Espoma’s newCactus! Succulent plant food.

Now that your container is complete, find out what succulents need to keep growing!

DIY Your Own Succulent Planter

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Have a container you think would be perfect to add succulents to? Laura from Garden Answer shows you how to make a quick succulent arrangement…in just one minute.

For this DIY, you will need:

Container for succulents

Drill

Drill bit

Organic Cactus Mix

Succulents

  • Donkey’s Tail Seedum
  • Zwartkop Aeonium
  • Crassula perforata- String of Buttons
  • Springtime crassula
  • Firestorm Seedum
  • Panda Plant
  • Watering can

Cactus! Succulent plant food

Be sure to share your own DIY succulent containers in the comments below!

Plant A Fall Container

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Laura from Garden Answer shows you how to plant a fall container that will add beauty to your landscape all season long.

Grab Your Books for a Lesson in Gardening 101

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Going back to school is equal parts nervous jitters and genuine excitement for what could be. Remember what it was like to have a new backpack, a fresh outfit that makes just the right statement and your stack of empty notebooks waiting to be filled?

It feels like anything is possible at this time of year!

Molbak’s Garden + Home is here to help teach you gardening basics. Already an experienced gardener? Now is the time brush up on your lessons.

Espoma’s Gardening School 101

1. Build a Foundation for Success. For a garden to be great, superior soil is a must! Perform a quick soil test, study the results and your garden will be A+ in no time!

soil test

2. Back to School Shopping. Examine your garden equipment to see what should stay — and what needs to go. Look for cracked handles, rust and missing or loose parts. Then, go shopping for replacements.

Plan your garden

3. Get a Whole New Look. A new school year means it’s time to reveal your new look. Do you want to be refined? Edgy? Colorful and bold? Sweet and simple? Define your garden look and do your homework — then start pinning!

Espoma Pinterest

4. Make a Plan for Success. The only way to improve this year’s performance is to analyze the successes and failures of last year’s garden. Your assignment: create a new garden plan.

plan your garden

5. Meet the Teacher. Hi! It’s a pleasure to see you! At Espoma, we’ve been teaching organic gardening practices since 1929. Comment with questions below, post them to Facebook or tweet us. We’re here to make you the best gardener you can be.

Espoma Facebook6. Sharpen Pencils. Clean and sharpen your garden tools to get them ready for the new season! You can DIY or take them to your local garden center.

Garden tools

7. Find New Friends. Follow us on Facebook and check out our posts to find gardeners who are just as passionate about organic growing as you are.

Garden Party

Patio Party photo by Proven Winners

Throw your cap (or gardening gloves) up in the air! You passed the Back to Gardening School Class! Your garden will thank you for it later!

How to Plant Fruits and Veggies in Containers

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Short on space? Grow fruits and vegetables in galvanized buckets! Laura from Garden Answer shows you how to plant the perfect companion plants for containers. Try zucchini, peppers, tomatoes and marigolds or raspberries with strawberries.

Container Garden Tip: Extend Summer Color! ????

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4 Tips to extend the life of containers for a summer of color.

 

Containers filled with bright blooms are great additions to any patio, yard, or landscape. Containers help add beautiful pops of color and are easy to maintain with the right care.

Before summer’s heat and dry conditions get the best of them, give containers what they need to extend their life into summer with these 4 easy tips.

liquid fertilizer, potting soil, container gardening

1. Deadhead. Use pruners or shears to snip off dead or dying flowers, stems, and foliage. This is called deadheading. Don’t be afraid to clip stems back a little to encourage new growth. This not only makes the plant look better, it helps encourage more blooms.

Hint: Want even less work? You can always opt for plants that do the deadheading on their own, like Million Bells.

liquid fertilizer, potting soil, container gardening

2. Feed. Feed established containers with our Bloom! liquid fertilizer to promote & prolong flowering or sprinkle granular plant food, like Plant-tone, on the soil surface and gently work in and water thoroughly.

 

3. Water. Containers need to be drenched – generally every day – and make sure to get the roots. Water the container until it pours from the drainage holes. Be sure to empty saucers to keep roots from getting waterlogged.

 

4. Replace. If all else fails, simply replace the leggy or tired plants in your container garden with late-season bloomers, like ornamental cabbage, coneflowers or sedum.

Now that your containers are taken care of, sit back and enjoy the extra color that will surround you while enjoying the beauty and warmth of summer!

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Spruce Up Your Garden Before Memorial Day Weekend

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As the official kickoff to summer, Memorial Day weekend is the perfect excuse to tidy up the garden. So before you bring out your red, white and blue and get ready for the summer season, spend a little time cleaning up around the yard.

And yes, Memorial Day may be the start of summer fun, let’s not forget the real reason behind the holiday and thank our veterans.

This federal holiday, observed the last Monday of May, honors those who’ve died serving in our country’s armed forces. Formerly known as Decoration Day, the holiday originated after the Civil War to commemorate both Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the war.

Take some time and  follow these simple, inexpensive and necessary gardening tips to get your yard in tiptop shape.

liquid fertilizer, potting soil, container gardening

Five Ways to Spruce Up:

CLEAN.

It’s not the prettiest task but it is one that can have the most impact. First, give lawns a nice clean cut and trim. Next, rake leaves out of garden beds and borders. Shred or leave them whole and place in a compost pile. Finally, remove tools, debris and the uncoiled hose that may be sitting on the patio.

liquid fertilizer, potting soil, container gardening

WEED.

Another task that’s low on the fun list, but necessary for a clean yard is weeding. Pull any weeds and discard. Do not compost weed seeds.

MULCH.

Adding fresh mulch to the garden makes everything look clean. Mulch with shredded bark, compost or other biodegradable mulch.

FEED.

Now is a good time to apply the second application of your annual feeding program for your lawn. It’s also a good time to give your plants a boost with liquid fertilizer Bloom! to ensure they’re looking their prettiest and peppiest for the party.

liquid fertilizer, potting soil, container gardening

DECORATE.

Colorful flowers do a world of wonder for a garden. Buy annuals and plant them along borders. Choose heat-loving flowers that will bloom all summer. Decorate with colorful containers and place by front door and at focal points. Putting a few plants out around the patio will really set the mood.

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend! If you used any of our tips, let us know! Share your pictures with us on our Facebook page!

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