Garden in Planters: How to make a garden in a small space

Not having too much space or a garden will not prevent you from growing your own vegetables or aromatics for cooking: you can cultivate a small garden in planters or pots. This is one more modality of the many types of urban gardens that exist. Today we will see: Where can I install it, Containers and substrate for a garden in window boxes, Care of plants in pots and Other important aspects for the garden in window boxes.

Where to place the pots and planters of the garden?

We have seen that many of you are increasingly interested in cultivating this type of urban garden, so I have decided to publish this post as a summary with the most important things when installing a garden in flower boxes.

Planters on the windowsill, hanging pots on the porch, pots on the ground in the interior patio of your house, on the roof, on the terrace or garden…

There are a lot of options since the good thing about container gardens is that you can place them wherever you want or move them around. It is enough that the place has light or clarity and some direct sun during some time of the day.

This also depends on the plants you have chosen, since some need more sun than others, or the time of year (in summer it is not convenient for them to be exposed to the sun during the hottest hours).

Flowerpot: Step-by-step tutorial

I leave you with this video by Álvaro that introduces us to the topic of flower pot gardens and tells us about the first step: locating the best place to put the garden in planters:

Substrate for planters and other growing containers

You can use the typical elongated planters, clay, plastic or stone pots or, if you have more space, cultivation tables (which are like large planters with legs that, being higher, will make your work easier and you will not have to bend down). Something a little more innovative are geotextile containers or containers.

In the post « Cultivation containers for the urban garden « you can see some of the main planters or containers for an urban garden and the conditions that must be met (such as the appropriate size of the container or the holes in the bottom of the planters or pots).

As for the substrate… This is one of the most important aspects of the garden, because thanks to the substrate or soil, the plants can hold on and also absorb water and nutrients. I recently started a potted herb garden and uploaded a couple of posts on how to grow it step by step. In the article Plants in pots: growing from scratch you can see the most important things about the chosen substrate and how to fill the containers or planters properly.

How to care for potted plants

To prevent and eliminate pests and diseases without too much damage, it is necessary to be attentive to possible symptoms (yellow leaves, wilting, spots on the leaves…) or signs such as spider webs, white fluff from fungi or honeydew from aphids. Here you have the main garden pests and the most common diseases. If you want an organic garden you can make these natural remedies yourself or buy insecticides or organic preparations.

Another important aspect of the garden in window boxes is the trellising of the plants (holding them up so that they do not fall) that some species such as tomato or bean need, and also pruning, a typical cultivation task in Solanaceae and cucurbits such as tomato, pepper or watermelon.

I leave you another of Álvaro’s videos, this time he tells us some of his tricks to put stakes on potted plants:

Irrigation and fertilization in planters

There are other aspects that you will have to think about when growing a garden in containers such as irrigation and fertilization. For small flower beds, people usually use manual watering with a watering can, a hose or a bottle. You can also make it a little more sophisticated and save time with scheduled irrigation such as drip irrigation. You have more on this topic and an example for watering a garden in flower boxes in the post « Garden in a patio: how to do it easily «.

Well, I hope these tips have been helpful for you to grow your garden in planters and to more easily find the information from Agrohuerto related to this type of urban garden. Greetings!