Important Features of Different Types of Planters

Having a planter at home and office is considered essential to have green surroundings and fresh air. Planters also add a touch of beauty to the place. However, planters should not be bought solely for their aesthetic features. You should know how to look after the plants as well. And to do that, you need to know about the different types of planters and their features. Let us look at some of the common planters and their features:

1.     Wood Planters

Wood planters are available in a wide variety. And because they are available in various designs, you can use them to accentuate the furniture at your home and office and other fixtures. They complement the beauty of where they are placed. The key advantage of buying wood planters is that they do not let the soil heat too much. This makes them perfect to grow edible plants. However, an important point to note here is that if you want to grow edible plants in the wood planters, you should not buy the wood planters that are treated chromated copper arsenate. The chemical seeps into the soil and affects the plant roots.

2.     Metal Planters

Metal planters are also available in a wide range of variety. You can choose from aluminium planters to galvanized steel. Each type of metal planter has its own features.  The good thing about metal planters is that they are durable and last for a long time. This is one of the reasons why people prefer to buy metal planter boxes for their homes and offices. An important thing you have to look after is to make sure the planter does not corrode or rust. This can affect, and even damage the roots.

3.     Clay Planters

Clay planters are the most common type of planters preferred by people. Their key advantage is of clay planters is that they are porous, which allow the air to pass through its pores. Their porosity also helps wick moisture away from the plant, preventing it from drowning. This is a useful feature because some people tend to overwater their plant.

Now that you know 3 of the most popular types of planters and to properly use them, you will choose the right planter for your office and home.

Top 4 Container Gardening Tips for Beginners

The system of container gardening has become increasingly popular over the years as it provides a great opportunity to the homeowners to add a touch of green to their indoor space, and even otherwise inaccessible places like backyard, patio or a kitchen windowsill.

While container gardening is ideal for novice gardeners and does not involve the amount of time, energy and expert skills required in outdoor gardening, given below are certain tips they can use as a guideline to grow healthy and beautiful plants through this method.

• Drainage is important: 

While purchasing large planter boxes or small window containers, it is imperative to purchase planters that have enough drainage holes. In case there are not adequate holes in the planters to get the water out, the soil inside it would become too wet and subsequently cause the roots of the plants to rot. While people can increase the drainage level of the planters by drilling or carving bigger holes, it would be much easier to simply purchase the ones providing adequate drainage facilities in the first go.  

• Evaluate the light: 

Inexperienced gardeners often tend to overestimate the amount of sunlight their plants get. To measure the accurate amount of direct light that a plant container gets, people can essentially place the planter at their desired spot and then time how long the sunlight stays there. Not all plants require the same amount of sunlight. Hence, to ensure their healthy growth people should place a plant as per the amount of sunlight required by it.

• Feed the plants: 

Many potting soils do not contain important accessible nutrients required by the plants, and hence gardeners must take the due precautions to add those. For their plants to thrive and grow in a healthy manner, people should ideally add fertilizers to the soil.

• Plant good neighbors: 

While planting several types of plants in a single large planter box, people should make sure that all of them play well together. This basically implies that all of them should ideally require a similar amount of light and moisture. In case the plants have distinguished needs, some of them might not grow in a healthy manner in the long run.

The first step of starting off with container gardening is essentially to purchase sturdy and durable planters. People can easily visit renowned websites offering these items to avail premium quality of planting containers.