If you don’t have enough space for a big garden, don’t worry, you can still grow your favorite vegetables, fruits and flowers in containers. It may be a bit challenging to do, but you can use some tricks to get the best out of your container garden.
The most common way to start your container gardening might be to use purchased pots. These come in as many sizes, shapes and materials as you could imagine and are fantastic for growing things. Clay pots, plastic pots, half barrels and Styrofoam are all sturdy enough to grow flowers, vegetables or herbs. However, when you first start with container gardening you can always get creative in order to have a unique piece and save money.
Here are 5 tricks to help you get started:
1. Be creative with your container
You can use just about anything as a planter. If you like the way it looks and if it will hold soil and water, it is as good container as any. It will give your garden an interesting look and character.
You can grow salads in plastic tubs, have a gutter garden, grow herbs in a pot on the deck, and even grow potatoes in a laundry basket. you can use a 5-gallon bucket or even a straw bale.
2. Make sure you are using the right soil
It is possible to have a productive garden in appropriate size containers. You just need a big enough pot size to accommodate the root requirements of your plants and good potting soil to support the nutrients your plants will need.
“Containers require a potting soil that will provide enough support for plants as they grow, and one that will help retain moisture while in the container.”
the A-Frame Pallet Planter eBook
If the soil you need is too expensive, you can mix your own potting soil by using a few basic ingredients in place of peat moss, perlite and vermiculite.
- Start with your best garden soil, 1/3 volume
- Add cured compost or leaf mold, 1/3 volume
- Add rotted sawdust (from untreated wood) or sharp sand, 1/3 volume
In order to round out the nutrients you may want to add other organic ingredients like bone meal (adds phosphorus), blood meal (adds nitrogen), and ground limestone (calcium and magnesium).
3. Planting depth/ Planting width
The root systems are adaptive. They will use the space they are given to grow healthy plants. That means you have options when choosing your containers for your plants. Every plant has a certain soil depth as a minimum requirement. For example, for a tomato plant to grow large juicy fruits it needs some more space. Its root system is huge and the more room you give it to reach into the soil, the bigger your fruit will become.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t grow tomatoes in containers, only that the container has to have enough depth in order to grow roots successfully. People who want to grow tomatoes in containers use 5-gallon buckets or 32 gallon totes.
Other plants do not require much in the way of soil depth and can be grown in shallow containers (e.g. lettuce). As a general rule the shallower your container the wider it should be. Give the plants roots a chance to spread wide instead of growing deep.
4. Watering
The watering will vary depending on several factors:
- the time of the year,
- the location of the container,
- how long the container has been planted,
- the type of container, and
- the type of plant material.
Containers will always require extra watering during the hot part of your growing season. The limited soil area will dry out faster than a regular “in ground” garden.
Water daily during peak season and maybe try adding a drip system if you think you will forget to water. All lush, productive gardens get that way by having adequate water, sun, and nutrients. If you are planning on using your containers for food production, paying attention to the water requirements of your plants is perhaps the biggest thing you can do to be successful.
5. Nutrients
Your plants need 3 main nutrients to thrive:
- nitrogen (N) – promotes healthy foliage
- phosphorus (P) – helps the flowers and it is a necessity if you want to harvest any kind of fruit or vegetable
- potassium (K) – promotes strong roots and overall vigor
See also: Everything You Need To Know About Plant Nutrients
If any one of these nutrients is missing you will not have a good harvest. When you purchase fertilizer in the store the package always refers to the N-P-K ratio and it looks something like this: 10-20-10.
Container gardening allows you to be able to grow a variety of vegetables in a way that is possible even if you don’t have a large yard. You can have a productive garden by using these container gardening tricks as part of your overall garden plan.
Source: preparednessmama.com
