GARDEN LIFE
In portable pots
Kiran Narain

IF you yearn for a garden always in bloom, or live in a pent house, or just have a balcony where you love to have your morning cup of tea, portable gardening is the answer to your prayers. Almost any kind of plant flourishes in a container. You can grow lush greenery or beautiful flowers. If it is colour that you are after, you will be most satisfied with annuals, floribunda roses, geraniums and perennials like impatience and kalanchoe, which flower for long. Bulbous plants like amaryllis, begonias and caladiums do well too. For greenery, herbs or foliage plants of various shapes and hues may be chosen or both types can be placed side by side for contrast.

Water-lilies and greens (left); and a row of potted chrysanthemums

Containers can range from the traditional clay, plastic and cement pots, wooden tubs, hanging baskets and tree stumps to fancy wrought-iron wheelbarrows and train engines made out of empty tar coal drums.

Clay pots are the traditional and most commonly used containers due to their suitability for balanced plant growth. They come in sizes "thimbles" to 18" diameter or more. There are also half-pots and pans in similar diameters chiefly used for seed-raising and growing dwarf plants.

Plastic pots are increasingly getting popular. Available in different colours, these are extremely light in weight, as compared to cement and
clay pots, are unbreakable in normal use and have a neat look. These are also resistant to contamination, easily cleaned and non-porous which reduces the watering needs due to longer moisture-retention.

Cement pots are made in a variety of sizes and shapes and are long-lasting but, being too heavy, are not easily portable.

Clay pots to wooden tubs, any sort of containers will do, the only requirement being good drainage and weight within limits to make it portable. They should also be large enough to give the roots space to expand.

Wooden tubs as well as planters should be treated with non-toxic preservatives to save them from termites and wood rot. Window boxes filled with soil and plants weigh heavy, say about one foot length of window box with plants will weigh nearly 30 kg or so. It is, therefore, important to avoid long window boxes that could need excessively strong supports.

I saw an advertisement about the sale of peat and fibre pots. These, abroad, are usually impregnated with plant nutrients and are excellent for transplanting (along with the pot). The roots grow naturally through the organic walls, encouraging unchecked growth. It is a good idea to fill up window boxes with several such individual pots.

Since plants in containers cannot reach out into the surrounding garden for food, give them top-dressings of manure or a dose of water soluble house plant food once a month—unless the plants are dormant. Use porous soil, high in organic matter. You can also move the containers from very sunny corners to partial shade with changing weather and adjust watering routine according to requirements. Even more than plants that grow in beds, plants in containers attract more attention, so care should be taken to trim dead blossoms, pale leaves and straggly branches.

HOME