The amount of sunlight that your container garden receives determines what crops can be grown. Generally, root crops and leaf crops can tolerate partial shade, but vegetables grown for their fruits generally need at least five hours of full, direct sunlight each day, and perform best with 8-10 hours. Container gardening lends itself to attractive plantscaping. A dull patio area can be brightened by the addition of baskets of cascading tomatoes or a colorful herb mix. Planter boxes with trellises can be used to create a cool, shady place on an apartment balcony.
Container gardening presents opportunities for many innovative ideas.
Containers The many possible containers may be made of clay, wood, plastic, metal, or other materials. Consider using barrels, flower pots, cut-off milk and bleach jugs, recycled styrofoam coolers, window boxes, baskets lined with plastic with drainage holes punched in it, even pieces of drainage pipes or cinder blocks. If you are building a planting box out of wood, you will find redwood and cedar to be the most rot-resistant. If you have to use a wood preservative to keep wood from rotting, use a copper napthenate product, or ask for salt-treated lumber. Gardeners have built vertical planters out of wood lattice work lined with black plastic and filled with a lightweight soil mix, or out of welded wire shaped into cylinders lined with sphagnum moss.