What You Can do for a Garden (Plants and Their Pots)

Today was that day. You know that day where summer is over, and fall is here. That day where it is time to repot plants before winter. I have loved plants since I was very young mainly because of my mom’s influence. She worked in garden centers off and on and loved making and working in flower beds at our home. Her knowledge of plant varieties caused me to want to be a part of the plant world.

Although my garden is small these days, just a balcony space, the plants are flourishing. So much so that they have outgrown their pots in just 4 short months. There is a magic sauce of sorts to repotting well. The recipe includes good soil, bigger pots, fertilizer, a pair of gloves, and a little time. With this in mind, I am off to the local garden center, but before leaving I took photos of the plants to help me determine what pot they would grow into next.

Let me help you see what I saw today as I put on my gloves, rolled up my sleeves and got on my knees. First, for continued growth the plant must be repotted. If it stays in the same pot for too long, the top growth will start to yellow or die. Sometimes this can be sign of over watering or not watering enough. But if that is not the problem, then the plant is likely root bound, or bound by its roots in the pot for no room for growth. Time to bust out!

Then there is the extra rich soil that is added to the plant as you transplant into a bigger pot. Some new dirt goes into the bottom of the pot and some all around the sides at least an inch thick. Adding a bit of fertilizer enhances the growth of root and flower while taking great care of the root system as you transplant. This assures the plant is disturbed as little as possible during the repotting process.

Below is a website from Miracle Grow, a leading plant food, which details what to plant in different pot sizes. This article charts a variety of garden fruits, vegetables, and herbs and their pot size so as to produce the best growth.

If you want the plant to continue to grow when you repot it, you put it in a slightly bigger pot. Slightly. Not twice as big because if you do, it will grow root to fit the pot but there will be little to no top growth. Doing this of course means you are repotting at least every year, but the plant benefits and so do you with downward and upward growth of the plant.

In some ways we are the same. Have you ever felt like from year to year there is little or no growth in your life? I have. Maybe your situation has not changed, and the passion and fire has gone out in areas you were once passionate about. Passion displays growth and usually produces fruit that others see and admire.  

Well, I think the passion is the top part of the plant. Not only does passion produce growth and fruit, but it shows beauty. When our roots are bound the growth or passion begins to wane. The roots could be the center of our life; that part of our life that needs nourishment like water, sunlight, care, and God for growth. More about this in December’s newsletter titled, What A Garden Can do for You.