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The types of containers you can use are vast and mostly limited by your imagination and experimentation. They can be made of wood, ceramic, terracotta, plastic, metal, or garden cloth over metal frames. Some common containers are: flower boxes, hanging baskets, large flower pots, half barrels, wooden tubs, and 5 gallon buckets. Many people build wooden containers to suit their space.

Container Essentials

The essential things your containers will need are:
* Adequate drainage
* Adequate size (Enough surface area and enough capacity)

Container Drainage

Drainage is determined by:
* Container set up
* Soil quality

Container Set Up
For your containers to drain properly they must have drainage holes in the bottom. In order to prevent soil loss and help drainage it is useful to place a layer of sand, small rocks, or gravel at the bottom of your pot as you fill it. Also, containers will not drain well if placed on a flat surface such as concrete, wood deck, or blacktop. In this case containers should be placed up on bricks or wood blocks.

Soil Quality
The soil in your container garden needs to be balanced between moisture retention and adequate drainage. Plant roots should be kept uniformly moist, but not sitting in water. The soil in pots needs to be a little lighter than the soil you find in your yard garden, unless you have very well draining sandy loam or silt loam soil. Normal garden soil will not drain well in pots. Clay soil, in particular, will hold too much moisture or become too hard for root growth in pots. You can mix sand and a light organic matter such as peat moss into your regular garden soil to make a suitable potting mix. Be careful, however, one common mistake is mixing sand with clay type soil. This will make cement in pots. A better alternative is to make your own mixture of approximately one part peat moss, one part loam potting soil and one part perlite or vemiculite with added compost, manure, or fertilizer. Be careful not to over fertilize, as this may cause fertilizer burn and kill your plants.

Container size
The types and amounts of vegetables, flowers, and herbs you would like to grow will help you determine the size of containers you will need. Shallow rooted plants require less room, and can be grown in a container as small as 6” across and 8” deep. Deep rooted plants require more room and depth so are best planted in your larger containers. See chart below for some container size recommendations.