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Consult a vegetable garden planting chart and your growing zone to find the varities of vegetables that grow best in your area.
Select a spot for your vegetable garden that receives at least six hours of full sun a day.
Do you have a small yard or garden space, but you really want to grow those yummy, fresh-from-the-garden veggies? Container vegetable gardening may be just the solution! Any sunny windowsill, balcony, patio or even your front or back doorstep can give you the space you need for a productive vegetable garden in containers. Growing vegetables in containers may also be the solution if you have poor soil or concerns about soil-borne diseases or insects. Let’s look at what you need.
First, choose the right varieties of vegetables; choose those that don’t take up too much space such as carrots, radishes and lettuce, or plants that produce fruit over a period of time, like tomatoes and peppers. Choosing these varieties will be the best use of space and containers for your garden. Although you can choose dwarf varieties or those that bear fruit early, nurseries and plant companies now offer many choices that are bred just for containers. How much sun your garden spot gets may also affect which crops are best grown; vegetables grown for their fruits need at least 6 hours of full, direct sunlight each day, and 8-10 hours is really optimum. Root crops like carrots and leaf crops like spinach and lettuce will do fine in partial shade.
Any type of container will work for vegetables; clay, wood, plastic and metal pots all will work. However, there are some additional requirements for your containers: they must be large enough to support your plants when they are mature; they must have adequate drainage and hold enough soil without spilling; and if you reuse containers, they must not have held materials or products that might be toxic to people. Some ideal containers include barrels, cut off milk jugs, window boxes, and even clothes baskets lined with plastic. If you want to build your own wooden containers, redwood and cedar are the most rot-resistant. Whatever types of containers you use, make sure they have adequate drainage; poke holes in the bottom so the water will drain. Finally, make sure your containers are at least 6 to 8 inches deep to allow adequate space for roots.
Fill your containers with a lightweight potting mix – never use soil from your yard or garden, as it contains too much clay which provides too little air for roots. Any packaged potting soil from your local garden center will be ideal.
Plant your container crops now, at the same time as you would plant them out in your garden, and sow your seeds or set transplants out as you would in your garden as well.
Be sure to label your crops, and thin your seedlings for proper spacing when your plants have two or three leaves. For crops like tomatoes and even peppers, make sure you provide stakes or cages when the plants are small to avoid root damage later.
You will need to water and fertilize your container crops more often than you would if they were planted in a regular garden; this is because there is less soil to retain water and nutrients, and when you water often, you also leach away some of the nutrients. Be sure to follow the instructions on the container for fertilizer application; Miracle Gro is a terrific option for container plants.
What are some common varieties of our favorite vegetables to grow in your containers?
For tomatoes, Bush Early Girl, Celebrity and Jetstar are all good varieties, or try Patio Hybrid or Little Sun Yellow for smaller tomatoes. For peppers, Bell Boy or Lady Bell are great, and if you want to grow a hot pepper, try Cajun Belle.
For cucumbers, try Patio Pickle or Pickle Bush, and for summer squash, try Pic-N-Pic or Zucchini Elite.
Don’t limit yourself though – try growing eggplant, radishes, spinach, green beans, and beets.
There is even a variety of ear corn call On Deck that was developed just for growing in pots; it is available from Burpee.
Try growing some veggies in pots; they will add interest to your deck or patio and provide you with a great alternative to planting a full-blown garden.
Source: normantranscript.com
