aquaponic organic

Organic container gardening add interest, color and creativity to a garden. Container gardening gives gardeners great flexibility since containers and planters can be moved as you change your mind or your mood.

Organic potting soil is now available from most retailers so the next step for the organic gardener is to determine what you want to achieve with your container gardening. Do you want to let the kids grow a small herb garden? Do you want the container to hang off your arbor or do you want to add additional color to a section of your landscape?

Container soil dries out quickly so they will generally need more watering than you might think. You might not have a lot of extra time, so dead heading plants or doing a lot of pruning is also something you want to avoid. The good news is that there are plenty of low maintenance plants you can try in your container garden.

These are some easy to care for container plants that I love growing in my organic container garden in areas that receive 3 - 6 hours of sun:

- Bolivian Jew Plant: a/k/a Turtle Vine. This is a trailing dark green plant with purple highlights that can handle heat, sun, part shade, and is drought tolerant. Want more of this plant in your garden? No problem - just break off a piece and put it in the ground and it will grow. Don't want any outside of your container? Don't worry - it pulls easily out of the ground. Very easy to care for, I love this plant for it's interesting texture, color and low maintenance. (Hardy to zones 10 & 11 - annual for everyone else).

- Asparagus Fern: This is one of the few ferns that can handle full sun to partial shade. The asparagus fern has an interesting lace like lime green foliage that adds great color and texture anywhere in your container garden. It also can handle it hot and dry. The asparagus fern can be brought inside and live nicely as a houseplant during the winter as well. (Hardy to zones 9 & 11 - annual for everyone else).

- Catnip: Catnip is an full sun/dappled shade herb that's hardy from zones 3 to 9 and is perfect for a container since this allows for quick relocation if your cats start throwing parties in your backyard. Seriously, cats love this when they find it, but they have to walk right past it so cat pool parties are not an issue. Catnip has grey / green leaves with light purple flowers that grow tall and bushy. Cats go crazy for it of course. Break off a couple of twigs of catnip for your feline and it's "Woodstock for Kitties" - dilated eyes and everything.

- Pentas: I love using this plant for a more upright planting scheme. Another annual in all but the hottest climates, Pentas can give you a true red color in your garden either in a container or the ground. They can handle part sun and here in Texas'really hot sun, I try to locate them to ensure afternoon shade.

Organic container gardening is easy to maintain if you select the right plants for your lifestyle and area. Let us know about favorite plants of your own.