Let’s spend some time talking about growing vegetables, specifically container vegetable gardens.  You can have a vegetable garden anywhere in containers, on a roof, a deck, and even inside.  Here are a few tips.

Each plant needs a big pot -14 inches or wider.  The bigger the pot, the less often you need to water.  Also, in my experience, soil stays moist longer in a plastic pot as opposed to a clay pot.  I have heard good things about a kit you can get from Home Depot called the City Pickers Garden Kit that includes a self-contained watering system, which could make all the difference.  Make sure to use a good soil or potting mix and feed with vegetable fertilizer.

Choose the right plant.  Cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes are all good choices for containers because their size can be controlled.  Zucchini, and gourds in general, not the best choice for containers or when space is limited, as they are aggressive travelers.

Choose determinant or indeterminant varieties.  Indeterminant plants will grow to an indeterminant size, meaning they will keep growing in length indefinitely.  For example, tomatoes, around which you put a cage and may even need to support for several feet.   The determinant varieties only grow to a certain size.  These are the plants you choose if you don’t want to support vines or if space is limited.  You can control the size of any plant by snipping the tip of new growth, and gently pruning stems that are not productive.

The next post will offer a variety of photos of different vegetable gardens and some suggestions on how to best support the growth of different kinds of vegetables.

If you have questions or want more details let me know!

GG

btw-Thanks to Karen for her question about vegetables in containers and to Sandy for the great info on determinant vs. indeterminant varieties.