How to top-dress your plants

Steve and Val Bradley show you how to bring new life to containers

- Steve and Val Bradley

AS the average garden decreases in size, more and more plants are being grown in containers rather than in the ground. This has advantages, particularly if you are renting, because you can take your plants with you when you move. You can also control the size of the plant by restricting the roots, and you can place the containers wherever you choose, bringing them forward when they look good and retiring them into the background as they fade off, or standing them by a door where there is no scope for planting into the ground.

Useful for specific soil needs

Even if you have a border to plant into, pots allow you to grow plants that need particular growing conditions that your garden may not provide, such as acid soil. For acid-loving plants such as camellias, rhododendrons and blueberries, containers may be the only viable option.

The downside

In other respects, gardening in containers is more challenging than soil. A plant in a container is totally dependent on you for water, food and protection, while plants in the garden soil can use their roots to forage for food and water, as well as gradually adjusting to their surroundings.

The answer