Homegrown in all sizes!

Last week I mentioned how we changed part of our garden into a vegetable garden, easy if you are just converting lawn to garden but what about those of you that don’t have enough space? Well not to worry there is plenty you can still do to lessen your impact on the planning rather than buying industrially produced food. You can grow food in containers! Whether you use existing containers, seek out containers on freecycle, craigslist etc or borrow from friends containers are useful gardening tools even if you already have an existing garden, more is always better!

Growing in containers is really easy as long as you remember a few simple rules. Plants in containers will need more watering than plants growing directly in the soil so bear that in mind in your placement of containers, if they are too far from the house or not within a short walking distance, will you want to water them? Plants in containers can dry out and die in a matter of days in hot climates! Make sure your container has drainage holes, too wet is worse that too dry! Choose your plants carefully, some plants thrive in containers, like peas, tomatoes etc. Others will not do so well being confined, do a little research first and see what kids of plant you can grow in your area, but then I am also all for experimenting! In our garden we have many containers and grow peas, beans, tomatoes, green onions, radish, eggplant and more in containers. Just a word of caution, if you are growing peas, beans, tomato or other climbing plant bear in mind you’ll need to provide something for it to climb up also!

Container food gardening is great for those with small gardens, patio’s or apartment dwellers! Any established or growing gardener will tell you that eking out more
planting space is part of the fun of gardening, and anything that increases crop
yield in the home garden is always welcome! For those new to gardening growing in containers is a great introduction to gardening, and especially gardening for food. Regardless of how much space you have, everyone can grow something in a container garden, mesclun and herbs can be grown in small containers on a sunny windowsill so why not try it today, you never know you may end up with green fingers!

dalgal | My Bio & Articles