Container Gardening

Pot Collection

It's fun experimenting with plants in pots and assorted containers. As the seasons change you can be one step ahead, shifting them in and out of garden dead spots.

Watering the pots can become an enjoyable summertime experience - though in the hot dry winds they may need it twice a day!

Lazy gardeners can keep tender plants in pots and shift them out of the winter frost without having to think too hard. Often they can be deliberately swapped from indoors to outdoors as the seasons allow.

Pots make great gifts to friends, too, especially of they're already filled with potting mix and some exciting new plantings.

I often start favourite plants off in pots or containers, then transplant them into a new garden space. Many of my flaxes and cordylines now established in real dirt started life in pots on the house decking.

Red Phormium in Green Pot...
Mon 21st Sep 2009

I bought this glazed green pot already planted with a New Zealand Phormium hybrid. The colour combination just appealed to me - such a change from my compulsory boring old blue pots...

New Patio Pots...
Sat 21st Mar 2009

Finally, after years of neglect, I have some new patio pots - and just because the Garden Club ladies are visiting the Moosey Garden! I've gone for last decade's 'daring' (my new pots are angular and blue) with pretty flowers and strong foliage.

Concrete Pots...
Sat 30th Sep 2006

The purchasing and placing of Garden Art requires an imaginative mind and eye - I'm not sure that I have either! But I do have the wallet, the trailer, and a large enough country garden.

Foliage Pots by the Gum Tree...
Sat 19th Feb 2005

I dislike my big gum tree in February - it sheds leaves and bark all over the house lawn. But I love the collection of foliage plants in pots which form a ring around its base.

Variegated Cordyline...
Sat 17th Apr 2004

It had to happen - I finally succumbed - I bit the bullet - I bought a replacement Cordyline Albertii (the super stylish variegated Cabbage Tree, usually spied in pairs of hugely expensive pots on townhouse patios).

Bargains in Pots...
Fri 16th Apr 2004

I love the Easter sales. I love peeping at the Bargain Table, picking out plants I like, trying out new varieties. As a compulsive recycler, my favourite plan is to use the new plants in groups of containers - then plant them out the following year.

Aeonium...
Wed 17th Mar 2004

The gorgeous dark coloured Aeonium is one of my latest container treasures - I proudly purchased it from a mail order nursery late last year. I've just broken the original plant into pieces and replanted the bits into a new blue pot.

Miniature Roses...
Fri 5th Dec 2003

Miniature roses are perfect to show off in a pot. This one was a present from one of my non-gardening friends. I think of her every day in summer as I'm watering it.

Nasturtiums in a Pot...
Thu 20th Nov 2003

Nasturtiums are the cheapest and easiest plants to grow. They won't last for ever in a pot, but I save their seed for next time.

Succulents...
Fri 30th Jun 2000

One winter I decided to become acquainted with succulents. I thought I would grow succulents in pots close to the house, so they could be out of the reach of frost. Out came a mail order succulent catalog, and in went my order for a collection of sedums.

Garden Pots...
Wed 26th Apr 2000

On each of the house patios I have clusters of pots. Their contents over the years have symbolised my different gardening phases. Originally the look for the decking pots was pretty - then my spikey foliage phase started...

Early Container Gardening...
Fri 10th Mar 2000

My favourite container planting started off as a gift from a friend who was leaving New Zealand. She had planted a native Lemonwood (Pittosporum Eugenoides) in a half oak barrel. It was sack-barrowed and dragged onto the trailer...