With container gardening, you don’t need to have a large area to add delicious home-grown foods to your table. Even limited spaces like balconies, courtyards, rooftop spaces, and small back yards can yield flavorful, nutritious crops.
Probably no crop packs more punch per inch than herbs. You can grow several varieties in one large pot, and they don’t need much care in terms of frequent fertilizing or pruning. Most herbs are small bushes or perennial plants and can be kept to size. Basically when you harvest them for use, you prune them and keep them growing well. You can use herbs in many different dishes, adding greatly to the quality of your cooking. Fresh basil, parsley, oregano and cilantro are kitchen basics.
Nothing beats the taste of home-grown tomatoes. Picked warm from the vine, deeply colored and fragrant, a perfectly ripe tomato is almost ambrosial. There are so many varieties–heirlooms, modern disease-resistant varieties, cherry tomatoes–that can be grown in containers. Your growing spot should have at least half a day’s direct sunlight, and you should provide support for your tomato plant to grow on. It is very easy to grow a selection of salad greens to eat with your tomatoes. Try some of the highly colored leaf lettuces and mesclun mixes.
For container gardening, it is difficult to grow crops that need a lot of room, like corn, tall garden peas and beans, and rambling vines like watermelons and squash. However, there are some dwarf forms of melons that can be container subjects, and bush forms of squash. Look through your favorite seed catalogs for plants bred to be grown in containers and you will be pleasantly surprised.
For vegetable container gardening, use large tubs or 5 to 10 or 15 gallon size containers. Larger sizes are suitable for larger-growing plants like tomatoes. Combine a couple plants of several types of lettuce in tubs. The larger containers prevent the soil from drying out as quickly, give more room for root growth, and keep the plants cooler. Consider putting the containers on cinder blocks, a sturdy overturned pot, or other support to elevate the plants so you don’t have to bend over as much to tend them.
Follow the recommendations on the back of the seed packets to guide you on placement of containers for light requirements. You can also use the Internet to get very detailed information on the particular plants you wish to grow. Most states have documents online from their cooperative extension services that are of great help to home gardeners. Seed companies also give good information. They want you to be successful with the seeds they provide.
Plant pests are mobile and have good senses of smell, so they can find their favorite host plants wherever they are growing, including your container plants. Aphids–also called plant lice–have winged adults that can travel long distances. Plant-feeding beetles fly, and winged moths land on plants, laying caterpillars that eat leaves. It is a good idea to inspect plants weekly so you can control potential insect infestations before they reach harmful numbers. Simply picking off the larger insects or washing off smaller ones with soapy water can avert population buildups.
If you have space for trees that can grow up to six feet tall and as wide, there are dwarfed fruit trees that do well in containers. Some fruit varieties are naturally slow-growing, and others are grafted onto dwarfing rootstock that doesn’t allow them to grow into large trees. You should further control their growth by annual pruning, following directions for the particular kind of fruit tree. You can try espaliering a dwarf fruit tree against a wall to further save on room. Look for specialty nurseries that provide dwarf fruit varieties.
You have to be more vigilant with container plants when it comes to watering. Root space is limited and plants can’t send their roots further out to look for more water as they would in open garden space. You also need to fertilize more frequently with smaller doses of fertilizer so you don’t burn the roots or foliage. Container gardens reward you with the pleasure of caring for plants that then give you the bonus of food harvested at exactly the best stage of growth and ripeness for your table.