• High altitude gardens
• Keep your plants healthy
• Longevity of Mediterranean plants
• Pests on Mediterranean Plants
• Plants in pots
• Stabilizing gardens on slopes

Plants in pots

Recently Pafos TV had very kindly asked me to make some small features about gardening and landscaping in Cyprus and the Mediterranean. Last week one of the questions that were asked by the interviewer, BeeJay was, “how do you plant in pots if you only have a small patio or balcony?” This was to me an unusual question because as a person with knowledge of plants I assumed that most people know how to plant in pots, but thinking about it, it is not so strange and planting in small patios or balconies is probably more difficult than creating a large landscaping project for a brand new garden. The reason for this is that there are many problems which it may not be possible to overcome, such as, watering. Plants hate erratic watering, they hate being dry for maybe one week or so and then all of a sudden they get drowned with overwatering, this is a sure way to kill plants or give them a shorter lifespan. If it is at all possible, run a small irrigation pipe along the wall and take offsets to your pots up from the bottom of the pot. Second, plants also hate having restricted root growth. The most common mistake that most people make is that they put a plant that grows to a good mature size in a pot half its size. In other words, remember if a plant has 2 foot of growing height above the ground it will have 2 foot of roots below the ground. This is not the case with most dwarf palms, however, so dwarf palm plants such as Pheonix Robolini and Cycas are perfect plants for pots. The final problem is the type of soil you are planting in. when planting any plants try to place a good base of gravel in the bottom of the pot to allow for adequate drainage. Then, if you are planting permanent plants you need to find a good red soil to mix with compost, say 70% soil to 30% compost, the best compost to buy for permanent plants (i.e. best nutrient value) is in a blue and white bag found at Annivia Garden Centre, which is a local paphos garden centre. If you are planting more annual type plants consider using 30% soil and 70% compost. Most plants will tolerate this soil type, nevertheless there are exceptions to this, for example, any acid loving plants such as Hydrangeas, Camellias and Rhododendrons need to be potted into ericaceous compost, found at London Road Supermarket, but these plants are the only exception to this rule. Again, try to remember, regular watering, a small amount every day, and try to water at the same time every day, and plant any permanent plants in the largest pot you can possibly find. Watch out for the next gardening feature on Pafos TV where I will be discussing this subject in more detail.