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Container gardening is more work than growing in the ground, not less. All that watering, feeding, refreshing compost, repotting. If you genuinely love pots, brilliant. If you have a balcony or a paved courtyard and pots are your only option, also brilliant. But please don’t take up container gardening because someone told you it’s the easy way in. It isn’t.
I know this because I accidentally became a container gardener last year, and I am still paying for it.
Container gardening isn’t the easy option, it’s the high-maintenance one
A plant in a pot has whatever you give it that day, and nothing else. A plant in a border has access to a deep reservoir of soil, worms, fungi, and rainfall. Miss two hot afternoons with your pots and you’re back to crispy stems and apologies.
I can barely keep seedlings alive with my watering prowess, never mind a row of thirsty pots by the front door. That’s not false modesty, that’s just my actual relationship with a watering can.
Three questions. Two minutes. A flower list chosen for your actual garden, not some idealised one.
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So when I tell you I ended up with a whole array of pots outside my front door last year, you can imagine how that’s been going.
How I accidentally became a container gardener
I never set out to do container gardening. In fact, I’d been their done that and had consciously avoided them for years. But… I just ran late with my cutting patch beds.
I had plants in the wrong places, and I wanted to plant out different things in those beds. The sensible plan, on paper, was to lift the misplaced plants, drop them into pots as a holding pen, weed the main beds, then move everyone into their proper homes.
One year later, I still have the pots. They’re still a headache. The “temporary” holding pen has become a permanent installation of small, miscellaneous pots full of straggly survivors and weeds I’ve stopped bothering to name.
If you’re going to do container gardening, do it on purpose. Don’t let it happen to you the way it happened to me.
And here’s the thing I didn’t fully expect: some of those accidental pots have been genuinely lovely for cutting. Orlaya, sweet William, snapdragons, verbena bonariensis, all coming out of pots by my front door and going straight into vases. So I’m not saying containers and cut flowers don’t mix. They absolutely can. I’m just saying the ones that worked for me are the ones that happen to be more forgiving of a gardener who sometimes forgets to water. The dahlias and lupins did not fare as well. That’s not a reason to avoid them, it’s a reason to be more dedicated about watering and feeding than I was. (Which, for me, is not a high bar.)
When does container gardening actually make sense?
Pots earn their keep in three situations, and one of them is just “you love them.”
- You have no ground to plant into. Balcony, terrace, paved courtyard, rented flat with a windowsill. Container gardening here isn’t a choice, it’s the whole game, and absolutely worth the effort.
- You genuinely enjoy the fuss. Some gardeners find the daily watering round meditative. They like deadheading by the back door with a cup of tea. If that’s you, pots are joy not chore.
- You want a statement. A big pot in the right spot is a piece of furniture for the garden. It marks a doorway, anchors a corner, draws the eye. Pots do that better than a border can.
What pots are not is a shortcut. They will not make container gardening easier than growing the same plant in the ground. If “easier” is what you’re after, plant in the ground.
What I’m doing with my three statement pots this year
I’m getting rid of every small pot and focusing on the three big ones, including an old cast-iron bath.
These three are properly huge. The bath alone holds enough compost to do real work. They deserve a plan instead of whatever leftover plants I shoved in them when I was panicking last May.
Step one: empty them. Whatever’s currently in there is mostly weeds and straggly hangovers from previous seasons, none of which I’d choose on purpose. Out it all comes.
Step two: assess the compost. Because big pots take a lot of compost, it’s worth deciding whether you need a full refresh or whether you can get away with replacing just the top half.
Step three: add the nutrients. I half-filled my pots and bath with material that will slowly decompose – branches, twigs, grass clippings and the like. It’s a scaled-down version of hugelkultur, if you want to look it up. The idea is that this will add nutrients over time without needing a regular feeding regime. I may be overly hopeful here. A branch is not going to break down in a single season, I know that. But equally, the plants I’m putting in don’t need the full depth of fresh compost, so I’m splitting the difference and seeing what happens.
Step four: fresh compost on top. A proper restock of the upper half – the part where the roots will actually live. If I’m doing container gardening this year, the foundation needs to be right.
If you want plenty of flowers without turning gardening into a second job, The Flower Files might be just what you need.
Step five: pick plants. Ideally select plants that won’t make me their full-time carer, but this time, with an eye on the vase as well as the pot.
Step six: mulch. Use whatever material that you have to hand, not only will it retain water (which is the whole point for containers) it will also make it look attractive. I am using wood chips, again, going for the adding value to the compost approach, but anything that will protect the compost layer will do.
What plants work for lazy container gardening (including cut flowers)?
The non-negotiable is: no divas. I’m not watering twice a day. I’m not feeding weekly. I want plants that look brilliant for a long season and tolerate the gardener they’ve been assigned, which is me.
The shortlist criteria:
- Drought tolerant once established, so a missed watering isn’t a crisis
- Long flowering or strong foliage, so the pot earns its keep for months not weeks
- Big enough in scale for a statement pot, because a tiny plant in a huge pot looks daft
- Happy in the same compost for a full season without a complicated feeding regime
For cut flowers specifically, the ones that have actually worked in my pots: orlaya (beautiful, airy, and a perfect plant size so it doesn’t take over), sweet William (sturdy, fragrant, flowers for weeks, if not months), snapdragons (reliable and long-stemmed if you keep cutting), and verbena bonariensis (tall, wispy, pollinators go mad for it). All of these are reasonably forgiving of an imperfect watering schedule. I’m also trying nasturtiums, cosmos, calendula and valerian.
Dahlias and lupins can work in containers, but they need consistent watering and feeding to perform well. If that’s you, brilliant. If it’s not quite you, go for the more laid-back options first.
I’m going to try a couple of dahlias in the cast-iron bath because that bath is asking for drama and should be big enough to be forgiving. I may add or remove plants as the season unfolds, we’ll see how it goes.
How do you do container gardening the lazy way?
If you’re committed to pots, a few things make container gardening less of a chore:
- Go big. A large pot dries out far slower than a small one. Three large pots beat fifteen small ones, every time.
- Use a decent compost with water-retaining qualities, or mix in some loam. Multi-purpose compost in a small pot in full sun is a recipe for daily watering.
- Mulch the top of the pot. Gravel, bark, even more compost. It cuts evaporation and looks tidier.
- Group pots together. They shade each other’s sides and create a little microclimate.
- Choose plants for the spot, not the spot for the plants. Sunny front door equals tough sun-lovers. Shady corner equals ferns and hostas. You can skip the daily juggle if the match is right from day one.
- Use a seasonal task app if remembering to water and feed is genuinely your weak spot. The Flower Grower Companion gives you prompts for exactly this – when to start watering and feeding, when to ease off in autumn. It won’t water the pots for you, but it will stop you forgetting until the damage is done.
None of this makes pots as easy as a border. It makes them survivable.
Frequently asked questions
Is container gardening cheaper than planting in the ground? Usually no. You’re buying compost every year or two, possibly the pot itself, and often more plants because pots need refreshing. The upside is flexibility and the ability to garden where you couldn’t otherwise. Cheap is not the reason to choose pots.
How often do you really need to water pots? In hot weather, daily, sometimes twice. In cool damp weather, much less. Bigger pots and water-retentive compost stretch that window, but the honest answer is more often than you’d like.
Can you do container gardening if you’re not great at watering? You can, if you go big, choose drought-tolerant plants, and group pots so they help each other. But if watering genuinely isn’t your strength, growing in the ground will be a kinder choice for the plants.
What’s the best plant for a really large statement pot? One bold plant rather than a fussy mix. Pelargoniums, salvias, dahlias, ornamental grasses, or a small shrub like a hebe all earn their keep over a long season without constant fuss. For cutting, snapdragons, sweet William and verbena bonariensis are worth considering too.
Should I empty and restock my pots every year? Large pots usually need a full compost refresh every two to three years, with a top-up of fresh compost in between. If the plants are looking tired and the compost is exhausted, it’s worth starting again properly.
Can you grow cut flowers in pots? Yes, with realistic expectations. The ones that tend to do well are those that aren’t too thirsty — orlaya, sweet William, snapdragons, verbena bonariensis are all good candidates. Dahlias and lupins can work but need more consistent attention. If you want a personalised shortlist of cut flowers that suit your specific growing conditions (including pots), the free flower planner quiz on the website is a good starting point.
A quick aside: I built a little app for flower growers who want gentle reminders about what to do and when - without it turning into another thing to feel guilty about. It's called the Flower Grower Companion. You tell it your location and your flowers, it tells you what actually needs doing this week (and just as importantly, when there's nothing to do at all)
Have a look
