Container Gardening

[kashi]

I live a duplex, and there is a small yard, but nothing I want to dig up to create a garden. I'm sure the landlord wouldn't mind, but it's basically a hill with a giant tree, so I don't think it would work that great anyway.

Last year I tried to have tomato plants in containers in the backyard. The plants produced fruit, but none of it was good (it all had that rotted out part on the bottom), and anything that was remotely good was carried away by squirrels.

What grows well in containers? I have basil plants indoors, and I've tried other herbs but none of them lasted as long as the basil has. I'd love to have everything SeeAPenny is growing in her garden, but I doubt that is possible.

Ideas?

[SeeAPenny]

That's the thing about container gardening -- it's really important to water consistantly. Which usually means watering a LOT since things in containers dry out so much more quickly. What you described with your tomatoes sounds rather like 'blossom-end rot' , which can be caused by the soil conditions getting too dry and then too wet, and then getting alternately too dry/wet again (mulching can help)....

To be honest, I haven't had the greatest success with tomatoes in pots myself (maybe due to not big enough pots and not enough light?). Peppers have done a bit better for me, but not a lot. What we've really had real luck with here at home with our little container garden (besides basil) are blue lake green beans (wildly successful actually), chives (several varieties), regular old garden sage (our plant is huge now, and very happy), parsley, and mint. Cilantro too. These things we can always depend on to grow their little hearts our for us....

[DivaJen]

In addition to what SeeAPenny listed, I'll add peas, garlic and onions. My peas are in pots and are doing well. Just make sure you give vining plants a trellis or something to grow on. A friend of mine has terrific luck growing strawberries in containers.

[kashi]

green beans! peas! garlic! onion! strawberries! wow, I had no idea. I am excited now. I bought a package of oregano seeds today. Seeds haven't worked out well for me in the past (I get little scraggly thin sprouts and then they flop over and die) but I thought I'd try it out again! I need to go to a greenhouse, I think, and look for all those other things! yay!

[mjrube94]

Try this for even more great ideas: We get a seed catalog from a place called Johnnys Select Seed Company. http://www.johnnyseeds.com/ Go on their website and type in the word "container" in the search field, and it comes back with a hundred different types of herb/vegetable suitable for container gardening. Lots of unique stuff, as well as run of the mill stuff. Good luck!

[Tree0164]

At the checkout line, Better Home and Gardens had a separate issue on container gardening. They do have some resources on line for container gardening http://www.bhg.com/bhg/category.jhtm...data/c_442.xml

[kashi]

oh cool! thanks for the sites!

[markio26]

herb container gardening worked well for me.. lettuce grew well and some of the tomatoes... everything else, died or was eaten by squirrels... i did use organic soil and compost, watered well... did not pay off this time around...

[Broken Arrow]

Oh, this is embarrassing. All this time, and I didn't even realize there is a gardening forum.

I'd love to try my hand at container gardening. In fact, I really have no reason why I shouldn't. I guess I just don't know even the basics of it....

Anybody have any suggestions on what to start out with? Preferably some greenery that is nearly impossible to kill... but not a cactus?

[boefixepa]

My container garden is going the way of fall....I moved all of my herbs into pots and am taking them in for the winter...I've grown accustome to them.

As far as how to start...I'll tell you what I did.
I went to the nursery and asked for 12 of the two gallon starter pots they use. Not pretty but very functional and they already have the drain holes on the side. I screwed them into the top rail of the half fence, filled them with mircle grow gardening soil and stuck some plants in them. All of them did great and I didn't have any trouble transplanting my herbs a few weeks ago.

All I have left know are some strawberry and the peppers. It seems like the peppers are getting a second wind and assuming the first freeze stays at bay, it was close this week, I may get a few more peppers out of them.

[geojen]

Can you container garden inside, if you have enough light? We were thinking of starting the seedlings this spring in the fall in the house, under lights, and then moving them to bigger pots to put outside.

[boefixepa]

Yes, that is what I am doing with my herbs, just moving them inside. As long as they get the sunlight & water they need you'll do fine.

[budgetmom]

Oh, I so wish that I could do this! We only have 2 windows (one in each bedroom) and a sliding glass doorway for natural light in our apartment, so I would have to buy lamps to grow something inside...
I wouldn't be able to keep them outside on the patio, I can't keep anything out there. My upstairs neighbors dump their mop water out on their porch. It all leaks down onto mine. I found this out when I was growing some daisies in a container shortly after I moved in. Their kids sometimes throw their candy wrappers and pop bottles down, too.

[PetMom]

I always love the idea of gardens or container gardens. But with the heat in tx I gave up the veggie patch a while back and have better luck with some herbs that are pretty good: chives (I always have these year round in a little part of the garden - I will try one in a pot too) they are like weeds and self sow and I use them in place of green onions. Rosemary and sage and thyme are always back there. (this is sounding like a first line of a song! - but these are the best perrenial herbs to have year after year).
Parsley is an annual and finicky of when I can get it into the ground, if it wasn't I would have that first line of the song completed.

I take all of these (the new growth parts of the very tips of the stems for the freshest baby leaves) and make a chopped up homemade type of pesto of all these. You can just smell the potent fresh chlorophyll sp. in this and is good on sandwiches and pasta and my boca meats.

BUT: for indoor stuff year round regardless of water, temp. whatever the most efficient way to get one of the most potent health veggie is to mail order broccoli sprouts and use the old fashioned jar method.

I cannot stand taste of radish sprouts - too bitter, but these broccolli ones are very good. And I always have a batch going.

Now the next step is micro greens - where I 'plant' these broccoli seeds to get little greens on a tray in my kitchen. I am excited to try this as you can also do sunflower seeds and other greens to have very fresh greens. No indoor lights are supposedly not needed for this.

Remember - the lettuces in supermarkets have most often been trucked and sitting around and have lost a lot of nutrition.

Broccoli sprouts and my herbs for now are my source of homegrown stuff and I have yet to have a failed crop with this method this year!

Just google 'micro greens' if you want more info on this way of growing indoors greens.

I did try a lettuce packet of baby gourmet lettuce seeds in a big container and they just sort of sprouted and wilted.

[boefixepa]

Well, I tossed the rest of my peppers last night...no mo garden this year...it's over. I have suffecient in the freeze to get me to the end of my challenge!