What Is Deck Gardening?

Deck gardening is a great way of growing your vegetables, herbs, and flowers, especially when you don’t have a big backyard. Keep reading to learn more about this type of gardening and the best crops for a deck garden. 

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What Is Deck Gardening? 

Growing crops is one of the greatest pleasures for many gardeners. But many of them don’t have enough space for a full outdoor garden. Deck gardens provide a solution to the space challenge.

Deck gardening involves growing plants on a patio or deck. You can grow many plants on a garden deck, and having the garden near the house makes it easier to manage. You can grow different vegetables and herbs in the deck garden and get constant fresh supplies for your meals. 

There are many garden decking ideas, including:

Suspending Your Gardening Deck

This involves using a deck rail planter to suspend plants. It is an ideal way of transforming even the smallest patio or deck into a vertical deck garden. 

Vertical Box Garden

You can create a vertical garden by carefully stacking deck planter boxes and fitting them to a wall. The deck garden needs a small footprint and is ideal for space-challenged patios and decks.

Pocket Planter

Pocket planters on decks are an attractive way of growing various veggies, herbs, and flowers. Furthermore, you can use different colors and hang them in different ways, creating a unique gardening deck.

Tiered Pots Deck Garden

Tiered pots fit nicely into the corner of any patio or deck. They are suitable for keeping your deck garden neat and organized.

Why Have A Deck Garden?

The most obvious reason for having a deck garden is to solve the space challenge. You can grow your favorite plants even when you don’t have enough space for a backyard garden. All you need is to equip your patio or deck with planters, and you are ready to start gardening.

Deck gardening helps overcome common gardening problems such as poor draining soil, pests, nematodes, and fusarium. A nematode infestation occurs when microscopic worms move into your soil and attack plants, leaving them stunted. Fusarium is a soil-based fungus that affects many plants that contact the contaminated soil.

Another benefit of a gardening deck is that soil in a container warms quickly in spring. This enables you to plant crops ahead of time. You can easily move plants around, allowing you to control the amount of sunlight they receive.

More Reasons Why

People with limited mobility can tend to crops on a garden deck more easily without kneeling or squatting. Planters on decks with flowers, vegetables, or herbs can add great visual interest. 

However, like everything else, deck gardening has its disadvantages, the biggest concern being damaging your deck. You will need to water your plants regularly, which can stain and rot a wood deck.

Unlike outdoor gardening, you will need planters, containers, and potting soil, which could be expensive. Deck gardens also need more fertilizer than ground gardening, where Mother Nature provides most nutrients. 

Ways To Use Deck Gardening 

There are various ways of using a deck garden, which allows gardeners to be creative. 

You may need to incorporate various accessories and designs to decorate your deck. While doing so, adding a few plants is a sure way of adding nature to your deck. The plant may be flowers on containers with different types, designs, shapes, and colors. You can also rearrange the plants and containers on your decorative deck garden always to have a unique look.

Deck gardens are suitable places to grow your favorite vegetables, herbs, and fruits. This will ensure that you always have fresh supplies for your meals whenever you need them. You can also grow a wide variety of these plants and use different containers to add to the aesthetics of your garden deck.

Creating a stunning landscape around your patio or deck is pleasing to the eye. Deck gardening is also a nice way of landscaping your space. You can plant a variety of colorful and fragrant flowers on your deck. A deck rail planter is a great accessory when landscaping your deck. 

Best Plants For Deck Gardening 

Most vegetables and herbs that can grow in a backyard garden can also grow in a deck garden. You do not need to grow dwarf varieties, though they are fun garden ideas with decking. Some plants will do better than others, depending on the climate. 

You can grow many plant varieties with the right staking or caging. Some plants do well in hanging pocket planters, while others are great with benches gardening. Hanging plants are a great way to attract helpful bees for pollination and birds for pest control.

Companion planting is one of the best garden ideas with decking. It involves combining herbs with vegetables, which is useful in space-saving and deters pests. 

The best plants for deck gardening include lavender, berries, cherry tomatoes, oregano, sage, chives, thyme, lettuce, and peppers.

Tips For Deck Gardening

1. Use a well-draining potting mix. Ensure the containers have drainage holes.
2. Choose deep deck planter boxes sometimes called raised beds, and large containers that ensure proper space for root growth.
3. Water your plants regularly and use composite materials that retain water. Drip irrigation with an automatic timer is a great thing. 
4. Mix your potting mix with the right fertilizer. Reapply organic fertilizer as per the instructions or apply fish emulsion fertilizer every two to three weeks.
5. Watch out for pests. Use a horticultural oil or insecticidal soap to combat insects.
6. Ensure that the location of your deck garden is appropriate with adequate sunlight for your plants’ growth. 

Deck gardening is an ideal way of growing crops in limited space. Follow these tips and wait to reap the benefits of a deck garden.

FAQs – Deck Gardening