How to Plant Your First Container Garden

How To Plant Your First Container Garden: ARRANGING YOUR PLANTS IN THE CONTAINER

After all that preamble, now you can purchase your plants and supplies, and arrange your plants in the container.

Let’s review our supplies.

You’ll need a water hose ready to wet things down. Probably a trowel, maybe a little fork/rake type thing, and some kind of cup or dish to dip your potting soil from the bag. I also keep a pair of scissors handy to open bags, cut landscape fabric, etc.. I purchased a small lightweight garden cart this year and it made a huge difference in being able to move things around easily. If you have a small chair or stool, or a rolling garden seat, you’ll be way more comfortable. You’ll be surprised at how much time you spend crouched over this project you’re doing!

(I’ll show you all these things in a few minutes.)

You’ll need some good potting soil.

Use Miracle Grow potting soil, or trust the recommendation of a professional at a garden center. I’ll warn you that some brands do not have very tight quality control, and you may be disappointed in what you find in the bag. It’s easy to make that “less-expensive” choice when you see the price tags, but I think it’s worth it to go with a trusted brand.

If this decision is difficult, it may help to realize that the soil is your plant’s food. If it is already depleted when you purchase it, there will be little nutrition for your plants to use for their health. I’ve strayed from the name brand, and I returned.

If your container is large, you can use a filler in the bottom.

This helps with several things. It keeps the container light in weight, it helps with drainage, and it uses less of that expensive top-quality potting soil you just bought. 

Picture the roots of your plants, and giving them plenty of soil to live in. You definitely want it plentiful, but you don’t have to use an excessive amount.

(Things like this can be a little confusing — “So how much dirt?” is your question, right? Try this: look at every plant you are placing in the container. You want to at least double the size of the dirt it’s already planted in. That helped me. You’ll be safe to do that and even better to triple it. So scientific, right?)

What do you use to fill the lower part of the container? Packing peanuts, empty water bottles, broken pieces of old clay pots, things like that. (You know what’s funny? Beginner gardeners don’t have broken pieces of old clay pots. Perhaps we should make that a part of our goal setting.)

I used fillers in the bottom of my whiskey barrel, but none of the other containers were large enough that I needed filler. 

I also like to use landscape fabric to line the bottom of the container.

Landscape fabric comes on a roll, like wrapping paper. It is a very handy product –a woven semi-sheer mesh fabric that blocks weeds and allows water to pass through. In a container, it contains the soil but lets water run through. This is helpful if your containers are on a porch, sidewalk, or driveway. You don’t want soil running out with the water from the drain holes.

You know what? If you don’t have landscape fabric, it’s okay. There’s another household item that works: coffee filters. There should be a whole post on uses for these things. They are sturdy enough to layer in the bottom of your container to protect the soil from leaking out the drain holes. And just like landscape fabric, water will drain right through! 

IT’S TIME TO GET IT DONE!

Go ahead and place your container where it will be. Or at least close. It’s so much easier to move it around before it’s full. Also, it’s best to do your planting at a shady time, if your container will be in the sun. Have all the supplies we mentioned close around you.

Line the lower part of the inside of the container with landscape fabric. It doesn’t have to be perfect. But you’re trying to cover the drainage holes. That’s all. 

Add your filler if needed.

Pour in the soil, but don’t fill the pot just yet. Go up to about 6″ below the top surface. (That’s a rough suggestion. You’ll be adding in plants and more soil a little at a time in a few minutes.)

Now, water all that soil. Stir it up, get it all wet. Why? Well, you want it thoroughly wet, and it’s easier to maneuver it without your plants in it. Use your trowel or gardening fork to really move it around to accept all the water. Wetting it will compact it slightly. 

If this is an unexpected instruction, just give it a try. I was very surprised at how much dry soil remained after I had watered a lot. All that stirring around really does help the water reach all the soil. Skip it, and you have dry areas that may be dry the next time you water also.  I can’t explain it, I just am happy someone showed me this.

Finally — Your Plants in the Container!

👉🏻 Pay attention to that top level of the soil on your plants you purchased. You don’t put any dirt above that — you’ll be planting each one to the same depth as they were in the nursery container. All the new extra dirt is at the roots, not above the surface.

👉🏻 The general action here is to eliminate any air pockets, to thoroughly wet all the soil, and to have your plants securely placed without packing them in too hard. They need a little room to grow and spread their roots.

👉🏻 As far as how to space them, you have some leeway. My impatiens really grew quickly in the container — I could have planted less, but the fullness is fine with me. Some people really place their plants right together, and some like to give some space in between. This wouldn’t be something to stress about.  You can always remove something if it’s way too crowded, or add something if a spot doesn’t fill in the way you expected. 

👉🏻  It may be helpful to follow a couple of the links in this topic to see examples of how others placed their plants.

👉🏻 You’ll be working your way around  the entire container putting your plants in one at a time. It’s easiest to start at the back and work your way forward.

👉🏻 The final soil level will need to be about two inches below the rim of your container. This is to keep dirt from spilling out over the edge later when the plants are being watered.

The first plant:

Take your tallest plant, the thriller, from its nursery container. Just tip it upside down, gently grasp the base of the stem above the soil, and give the container a squeeze and a wiggle with your other hand. Just ease the plant out slowly, take your time, trying to disturb it as little as possible. Now loosen the roots gently. Don’t be nervous about this. Sometimes the roots are packed and restricted, and just loosening them up tells them they can now spread out and grow.

Dig a little hole in your moist soil, and place your plant into its position toward the back, and pile in a little more soil  right around it. Wiggle it in place, and try to end up with top of the soil about 2 inches below the container rim. 

The second plant:

Next, add your spreading plant, the filler. You may have several small plants to place evenly around. Remove them from their nursery containers, loosen the roots gently, and place them, then lightly pack your potting soil to secure them in place.

The third plant:

Last, add your spiller around the edge, and fill in the remaining areas with dirt.

Now, another gentle watering to moisten all that soil you’ve added around your plants. 

Now, stand back and admire your work!  In about two weeks, there will be a significant amount of growth. Things will be fuller, closer together, and brighter.