The portability, variety and versatility of containers makes them a very useful tool in the designing and planning of a garden.

They can be used to brighten up dull corners, allow plants to be grown in areas where there is no soil like on patios and their contents can be changed readily. Containers and tubs themselves can be a major feature as the colors of the materials used can themselves be used in design.

Many items other than plant pots can be put into use as a plant container. Wheelbarrows, bottles, paint-pots, chamber pots, casserole dishes, barrels and even old wellingtons have been used with great effect.

How you combine sizes, colors and materials for your containers is only limited by your imagination. But they should either create a definite separate 'room' for areas such as the patio, or they should blend in with the rest of the garden. Using small containers dotted around a large plot will not be as effective as creating a container garden within the plot.

Containers also have another use, that of limiting the spread of vigorous plants that you do not wish to take over the garden (such as certain herbs, ground cover plants or pond plants). These often look very effective in a container but you will not have to spend time digging them out where they are not wanted.

Most gardeners get immense satisfaction from producing something tangible from the garden but for most space is limited. Flowers for cutting and drying can be produced by including the varieties suited in designs for beds and borders. A herb garden can usually be accommodated even in limited space. More of a challenge in small spaces is the production of fruit.

Most people with small gardens give up the idea of producing anything other than perhaps a few tomatoes grown in a grow-bag, but this need not be so. Fruit trees as such do require space but apples, pears, plums, redcurrants, gooseberries and other fruit can be grown in small gardens in containers.

Dwarf forms of most fruit such as apples are available for container gardening and provide heavy crops in most cases. In southern area vines can be very productive, given the right combination of sunshine and rainfall. Fruit such as tomatoes can be grown with relative ease in containers thanks to the breeding of several high-yield , good flavor varieties.

Climbing fruit is a natural space-saver and many berries such as black berries, boysenberries, loganberries and sineberries will grow happily in containers and produce good crops of sweet fruit.

Some fruits such as currants have bush varieties and will grow well in the right site in a container. They have pretty flowers in the spring too.

Many vegetables can be grown in containers including dwarf beans, tom thumb lettuce, some cucumbers, beetroot, carrots and Foremost potatoes.

For fruit or vegetables the container must suit the needs of the plant in terms of space and depth to develop, food and water, anchorage and support if necessary, avoidance of extremes of temperature and freedom from pests

If growing fruit or vegetables in containers, consider their appearance, too, as the plants will be conspicuous.

Strawberry barrels provide a novel way produce good crops of fruit in a small garden and the containers make talking points themselves. They not only provide a means of obtaining fruit where space is limited, but also allow less active gardeners the pleasure of growing plants with the minimum of attention. The barrel needs to be hard-wood and not creosoted. It can be painted any color and used as a feature itself.

Learn more about this author, Sammy Stein.
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