The History of Container Gardening

The Original Container Gardens

• The original container gardens were "hanging gardens". The containers did not actually "hang" but were plants that when planted would hang over the edge of the terrace or platform in which they were planted. An inexact translation of the word "hanging"comes from the Greek word "kremastos" or the Latin word "pensilis," which mean not just "hanging", but "overhanging" as in the case of a terrace or balcony."

Traveling to Babylonia

• Taking a trip back in time, let's go to 604 BC. The place we are traveling to will be a bank on the Euphrates River 50-plus miles from Iraq, a city called Babylonia. Here you will find lush gardens overflowing with beautiful flowers and vegetation, seemingly just hanging off the stone columns above. Water streams down from the top of the structure watering all the plants from what seems like an unending and unknown water supply.

From China to England

• Pruning trees to become miniature versions of themselves while growing in a container was practiced as early as 200 A.D. in China. In1660 in England, pineapples were growing well in containers found in greenhouses.

Rooftop Gardening Through History

• As early as 375 A.D. in Greece, there is proof of people having rooftop gardens. These were yet another form of container gardens as such structures were usually placed in brick containers, allowed to grow and flourish where they might not grow elsewhere. The National Museum of Scotland was noted for its beautiful rooftop gardens in the early 1700s. In May 2009, a local newspaper noted a novice gardener in San Francisco used a rooftop garden to teach a gardening class.

Container gardens hitting the rooftops

• With more and more people live within city limits or in housing situations where they have little or no area to allow their green thumb to flourish, rooftop and container gardening provides an outlet for many people. Many people take pots of plants to roofs of housing structures to allow them to grow without the hindrance of four-footed pets or pests. Rooftops also give plants more access to sunlight than they could get in the ground of a crowded urban environment. Some urban gardeners grow their whole supply of their vegetables out of containers on their rooftops, within city limits. Now this is truly container gardening being taken full advantage of at its best.

A hydroponic mix in today's time

• Bringing hanging gardens to our day has also blended a method of growing, hydroponics, and hanging gardens, in a mixture that can satisfy even the worst green thumb. Putting plants with a medium (such as soil or even gravel) into a hanging basket and allowing the plant to grow over its sides can give you tyour own solitary hanging garden, in less space than you would normally use to plant otherwise.