Growing plants in pots is a great workaround if you don’t have much space but they do need careful maintenance
Vita Molyneux Travel reporter
11:45, 11 Feb 2026
Potted plants are a great space saver(Image: Kathrin Ziegler via Getty Images)
If you desire the advantages of a stunning garden but lack sufficient space, there’s no need to worry. You can still relish all the splendour of a garden without requiring extensive stretches of grass to cultivate.
Pots offer an excellent solution for those with balconies or courtyards and they can appear equally magnificent as a rural garden. Jo McGarry, director and horticultural specialist at Caragh Nurseries, has revealed her essential maintenance advice for cultivating a garden in containers when the earth is inaccessible.
She explained: “Gardening in containers follows the same principles as planting in the ground, but everything is compressed into a much smaller space.
“That limitation is what makes pots so useful, as they allow people to garden on balconies, patios and roofs where soil simply does not exist, while still gaining shade, cooling and visual interest from plants.”
Containers are a great way to garden with less space(Image: Getty)
Cultivating in pots is also considerably more adaptable than planting directly into the earth.
You can relocate plants to capture the optimal seasonal sunlight, and utilise them to create ornamental edges wherever you prefer, reports the Express.
Jo noted: “For beginners, containers reduce the scale of the task without reducing the learning.
Looking after a handful of pots is easier to understand than managing an entire garden, and problems are quicker to spot because the plants rely entirely on what you give them.”
Potted plants need careful care(Image: Getty)
Nevertheless, this means you must meticulously inspect your containers regularly.
Jo continued: “Plants in pots are completely dependent on the gardener for water, food and placement. Unlike plants in the ground, their roots cannot search for moisture or escape poor conditions, so regular checking is needed, especially as dry compost and waterlogged compost can look very similar from above.”
Containers are a great way to save space(Image: Getty)
This becomes particularly crucial during extreme weather conditions.
Jo explained: “In exposed pots, roots can overheat in summer or suffer in winter if conditions are wrong, even for plants labelled as hardy, which is why drainage, pot position and protection matter so much.”
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