> Next: Kitchen Gardens
Growing Vegetables
in Pots and Containers
In this page, you’ll find good ideas and many options for growing vegetables in pots, planters, and containers, including:
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- Starting small to grow vegetables in containers.
- What to expect from container vegetable gardens.
- How fast do container vegetables grow?
- Choosing containers for vegetable plants and matching plants to containers.
- Good spots for growing vegetables in containers.
- Innovative ideas for growing vegetables in containers.
- Growing a kitchen garden in containers.
Containers and Vegetable Plants
Container vegetable gardens bring homegrown tasty produce within the grasp of city dwellers. They’re real for gardeners with limited space. Container vegetable gardens are a smart choice for everyone seeking healthier alternatives to supermarket vegetables.
How better to try your hand at vegetable gardening than by growing pots of old-time favorites such as strawberries, tomatoes, or herbs on a sunny balcony, deck, or path?
You’ll receive a big payoff when you garden in containers. You’ll also conserve your time and resources. The amount of space you needed for success is small. Suitable pots are economical. Planting soil can be obtained by the bag at your local garden center or nursery.
With nursery starts, many vegetables mature in as little as 6–10 weeks from planting; you’ll have your first crop of leafy greens or crunchy radishes in a month.
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Container Vegetable Gardening Tips
To achieve these great outcomes, take a moment to consider the containers you’ll use to grow your vegetables.
Pots used to grow vegetables should be deep and tall rather than shallow and wide.
If a container is large it will also be heavy when filled with soil. Plan ahead, and set them in their final location before you fill them. Raise them up using so-called pot feet or other risers so they’ll drain properly.
Location and exposure are more important choices. Pick a position for your plants that is protected from wind.
Choose spots for your container vegetables that receive full sun for at least 6 hours per day. (Remember that even shady locations are suitable for some vegetables, including cabbage and spinach.)
Beginner? Try starting your container vegetable garden with a strawberry pot or a mixed herb garden.
Strawberry pots have numerous openings in their sides. Each holds a strawberry plant that will produce two or three berries at a time. When they’re picked, the plant will bloom again and set new berries. It will repeat producing fruit for several months, as long as warm weather continues. A small pot with 12 plants will yield a cereal bowl full of ripe strawberries several times a week throughout late spring and summer.
For a kitchen-seasoning garden, plant herbs such as cilantro, chives, mint, oregano, parsley, sage, tarragon, and thyme in small containers, or mix them in larger ones. Allow at least 6–8 sq. in. (39–52 sq. cm.) for each plant. Harvest by picking mature leaves when the plants become well established, usually after 6–8 weeks.
Fresh herbs are more flavorful than those that have been dried, so add a bit to your culinary creations, take a taste, then pick and add more if needed. If cooler weather threatens, bring them indoors into your kitchen and enjoy fresh herbs all year long.
Gardeners also can experiment with salad greens — amaranth, celtuce and Malabar spinach — or root vegetables, including leeks, radishes, shallots, and salsify.
Try planting Yukon gold or fingerling potatoes in half-barrel containers or so-called potato “grow sacks,” or grow tasty and strikingly colored heritage tomatoes.
You’ll experience unsurpassed taste and pride as you pick produce directly from your containers.
Container Vegetable Gardens
There’s every reason to make your container plantings of vegetables, fruit, leafy greens, and herbs beautiful as well as functional.
These planters are frequently part of leisure and entertainment areas, or located near a kitchen doorway. Dress up your vegetables in decorative pots, varying their heights and colors and adding plant supports as needed to use vertical space [See: Supporting Plants].