Gardeners without gardens.

As pressure on land resources continues to grow and buildings take priority over open spaces, an ever-increasing quantity of the populace will not, and never will have, access to a fully fledged garden. What we often do have, however, are window ledges and front steps, balconies and basements, rooftops and backyards. What we lose in lawns and flower beds we are able to gain by embracing a new challenge; to become gardeners without gardens. Far from being the poor relation of conventional horticulture, growing plants in containers is one of the most satisfying - and creative - ways to garden. Even people who do have a garden often also have a paved area, patio or terrace on which to place pots and tubs of plants, and together this new wave of container gardeners is taking the horticultural world by storm. Commercial growers are being persuaded to produce sensibly compact plants and easy-to-handle composts, while garden centres seek to encourage us with 'patio collections’ of self-watering planters and swish pottery.rnEvery style of gardening that can be expressed in the full-sized garden may be simulated in the container garden, be it a romantic, flower-filled courtyard, a veranda crammed with edible produce or a low-maintenance window box. One of the beauties of container gardening is that it can be adapted to suit all tastes and pockets. It is possible to purchase large, mature plants ready-planted in containers to create an instant effect, for a price. But for most of us, it is more reasonable to build up a collection of containers and permanent plants progressively, creating a few splashes of instant colour with seasonal annuals. Containers of lilies, pelargoniums and nicotiana make a beautiful show with seasonal annuals. A planter garden is mobile, malleable and eminently suitable to changing lifestyles. Young people seldom, if ever, have a permanent fixed residence, so pots can move with them. Adults, too, are realising the good sense of bringing the garden closer to hand: why go halfway down your garden to enjoy the fragrance of summer lilies or to collect a few herbs and tomatoes for that evening meal, when you can have them on your doorstep. Perhaps the best thing of all about a contained garden is that it gives you control: over weeds, over the scale of your plants, and over colour combinations - a definite benefit if you're just starting out in gardening, or if you just want to be less of a slave to your garden hoe and pruning shear.rnWith a few exceptions, it is possible to grow just about anything in a pot which can be grown in a bed; fruit, vegetables, herbs, roses, bulbs, annual and perennial flowers, climbers, shrubs and trees. As with any garden, the main considerations are the growing medium (in this instance, potting compost) and the amount of sun, shade and shelter the plants will receive. The advent of container grown plants (those raised entirely in containers) means that planting can, in theory, be carried out at any time. In practice, though, it is never a good idea to plant in chilly, wet or frosty weather; neither is it sensible to plant during a hot spell in summer, when the plants must work extra hard to adjust to their new environment. (If you do buy plants in the summer time, leave them in a shady corner, for a day or two after re-potting and only gradually introduce them to full sun.) Container gardeners are inclined to neglect autumn as a planting time, putting all their labours into spring and summer but the cooler weather conditions and rains of autumn are extremely beneficial to freshly potted plants, giving the roots an excellent chance to get established before the hard weather arrives. If there could possibly be only two golden rules of planter gardening, they'd be buy the largest planter you can afford. The commonest mistake is to buy planters that are too small, so that the plants grow bare, leggy and starved. To the plant the planter is its whole world. It must provide water, air and nutrients as well as provide room for the roots to develop. This doesn’t mean that small plants should be put into huge planters though you'll need a good range of planters so that plants can be regularly potted on. The second rule would be to buy more compost than you think you need. Plants in pots should never be placed in garden soil which can be devoid of nutrition and filled with pests. Potting compost is sterile, pleasant to use and includes all the nutrients a plant needs for its first few months.