Container Gardening Cheat

Laundry Basket Container
Photo © Kerry Michaels

Container garden confession. I cheat. One of my favorite things to do is get a beautiful hanging plant from the nursery, chop off the hanger and stick the whole thing - pot and all, into a container. Talk about your instant gratification.

You can get very different looks depending on the container you choose. The size, shape and color of your container will affect the look and feel of your plant. To show this, I took a beautiful calibrachoa, and put it in ten different containers. From a white, modern, trashcan, to a stainless steel, restaurant size colander. You can really use anything, even if it doesn't have drainage holes.

There are also some great tricks for cheating successfully.