Indulge Your Green Thumb Articles | Gardening

By: Darren Williger

Whether you live in an apartment or a house or even a condo, you can enjoy container gardening.  As long as you have some space and time you can create beautiful flower displays throughout the year.  The most difficult part of growing container flowers and plants is the work involved in filling and emptying the containers that are used.  This part does take some time and effort and the containers do have to be changed occasionally as the plants and flowers become larger and out grow the container they were originally in.  However, other than that container garden is very simple and fun, once set up there is not a lot to do but maintain and enjoy your plants.  Maintaining the plants is watering, fertilizing or feeding, and pruning them according to their instructions that come with all plants.

Again, there are some plants that work better than others depending on if you are planing them in the Spring or the Summer and the type of plant.  Here are some that work best.

Ledge plants that work best in the Spring time:

• Arabis Albida (multiple varieties) and you can recognize them by their stems that have grey, hairy leaves and they bloom spikes of double, white flowers.
• Aubrietia are a bit smaller and they bloom blue, pink, and purple flowers.  These are good to carpet your flower boxes or fill in spots around other flowers.
• Bellis Perennis Flore Pleno or also known as Double Dwarf Daisies.  These are small and work great in window boxes, they come in red, pink, and white flowers.
• Myosotis or there more common name if Forget-Me-Nots.  They usually come in shades of blue and can make a nice carpet box.  These can also be used by themselves too.
• Primula (Polyanthus) are great in the shade, they do not do as well in direct sunlight.  They come in many different colors.

Ledge plants for during the Summer:

• Ageratum Houstonianum or Mexicanum.  They have tight stems that have small blue, fluffy flowers and they come in many shades of blue.
• Lobularia Maritima or Alyssutn Maritimum.  Another name you might have heard them by is white or sweet alyssum.  You can use these for edging in your flower beds.

They only grow about 2-4 inches in height and they have a sweet scent.  Lilac Queen and Violet Queen are two they were just added.

• Begonia Semperflorens grow to be about 6 inches tall and bloom tons of flowers in shades of red and pink.

Whichever plants you choose for your Spring and Summer gardens, deciding between which ones to use will probably be more difficult.  Using a combination of these will actually create a a beautiful display.  Of course there are these and many more to choose from.  Picking interesting and unique containers and making ever changing displays will keep your flowers interesting and fun.  Also, remember to experiment with your arrangements and choices, try different combinations to see what works or looks best.