Potted plants add focal points to your garden as well as enable you to garden in a small space. 

First, choose a large container with drainage holes. The larger the pot, the more room youll have for a variety of plant colors and textures. Large containers also need watering less frequently. Drainage holes allow excess water to drain away. Instead of covering the holes with gravel or pot shards, which can hinder drainage, place a small square of window screen over the holes instead.

Next, fill the pot to within a few inches of the top with a moist container soil mix.  To keep plants healthy and to ensure nonstop blooms, apply plant food at the recommended rate.

Long-blooming plants with interesting shapes, forms and textures offer the most design possibilities. Use plants of varying heights and include a few tall specimens as a focal point. For a contemporary design, try a mix of light and dark shades of one color. For a casual, country look select a palette of three or four colors and use unequal amounts of each. Dramatic foliage plants with unusual variegation, leaf shape or texture provide another dimension. Use lots of plants in each container. A 14-inch-diameter pot holds seven or eight plants from 4-inch pots.

To keep containers looking top-notch from spring to fall, check them regularly and water thoroughly when the top inch or two of soil is dry. Every couple of weeks during the growing season, pinch back spent flowers to keep plants blooming.

*Don't pinch back your flowers if you're collecting seeds, unless the pod is already gone.*

Finding a place for your container is easy. For extra color, site it by the front door, on the deck, in a bed of groundcover, by a pathway or at the base of a tree.

Also, staking vine crops like tomatoes and beans makes good use of vertical space. Supports also make harvesting much easier and help keep vegetables in good shape.  For best results, harvest vegetables just before you are going to eat them. If possible, pick ripe vegetables on a sunny, dry day. Avoid harvesting when plants are wet from dew or recent rain. Dampness makes the plant more vulnerable to infection.