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Trying My Hand at Container Gardening: Experiment Year 1
When I first started reading up on container gardening for fruits and veggies last year, it was waaaaaaay too late to give it a go.
This year, I figured, I'd give it a try.
Why container gardening?
Well, the first (and most important) is that I live in an apartment complex, which means I can't exactly go digging up the ground around my apartment without getting some stern frowns from the landlord. Only relatives of the landlord can do that (prime example: my neighbors), but even then their garden is tiny and confined to a postage-stamp sized area right next to their back door.
The second (and almost equally important) reason is that I live in an urban area. The odds of the soil being polluted with heavy metals is fairly high.
At least with container gardening, I know the soil's clean, right?
Anyway, today I made a go of it.
My initial plan was to plant strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, and red bell peppers.
Then I realized the cost of buying all the containers for all those plants.
"Self," I said (yes, I do talk to myself before trying something stupid). "Self, why don't we find out if you'll actually be able to pull off container gardening. Start small."
So, I settled on 4 plantings of the Eversweet variety of strawberries and two containers to hold two plants each. Then I bought some yummy compost soil from Maine (and yes, it is yummy. It feels so incredibly rich and loam-y).
I settled on the strawberries because, apparently, they're very forgiving plants...which I need since my thumb isn't so much green as it is a wilted green. Also, they're perennials. If I play my cards right, I'll be able to keep them in their containers and get yummy strawberries for up to 5 years before I have to replace the plants.
Bonus, they can winter (strawberries apparently go dormant in the winter...how cool is that?) in my basement with no ill effects for up to -26 degrees F (-32 degrees C). Since the odds of getting that cold in my area during the winter time without a windchill factor involved is practically nil (something which my basement won't have since it's sheltered and out of the wind), I'm totally good.
Best of all, once the plants start producing berries (sometime at the end of June, beginning of July), they'll continue producing berries all the way up until they go dormant.
If this works, I'm gonna have delicious homegrown berries that are MINE ALL MINE aaaaaaalllll, summer long.
*fingers crossed*
If this works, I'm going to go for a growpole and try those upside down cherry tomatoes next year.
This year, I figured, I'd give it a try.
Why container gardening?
Well, the first (and most important) is that I live in an apartment complex, which means I can't exactly go digging up the ground around my apartment without getting some stern frowns from the landlord. Only relatives of the landlord can do that (prime example: my neighbors), but even then their garden is tiny and confined to a postage-stamp sized area right next to their back door.
The second (and almost equally important) reason is that I live in an urban area. The odds of the soil being polluted with heavy metals is fairly high.
At least with container gardening, I know the soil's clean, right?
Anyway, today I made a go of it.
My initial plan was to plant strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, and red bell peppers.
Then I realized the cost of buying all the containers for all those plants.
"Self," I said (yes, I do talk to myself before trying something stupid). "Self, why don't we find out if you'll actually be able to pull off container gardening. Start small."
So, I settled on 4 plantings of the Eversweet variety of strawberries and two containers to hold two plants each. Then I bought some yummy compost soil from Maine (and yes, it is yummy. It feels so incredibly rich and loam-y).
I settled on the strawberries because, apparently, they're very forgiving plants...which I need since my thumb isn't so much green as it is a wilted green. Also, they're perennials. If I play my cards right, I'll be able to keep them in their containers and get yummy strawberries for up to 5 years before I have to replace the plants.
Bonus, they can winter (strawberries apparently go dormant in the winter...how cool is that?) in my basement with no ill effects for up to -26 degrees F (-32 degrees C). Since the odds of getting that cold in my area during the winter time without a windchill factor involved is practically nil (something which my basement won't have since it's sheltered and out of the wind), I'm totally good.
Best of all, once the plants start producing berries (sometime at the end of June, beginning of July), they'll continue producing berries all the way up until they go dormant.
If this works, I'm gonna have delicious homegrown berries that are MINE ALL MINE aaaaaaalllll, summer long.
*fingers crossed*
If this works, I'm going to go for a growpole and try those upside down cherry tomatoes next year.
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You know, given that I just got my tax return back, I may be following your example. I've been tinkering with the idea of small-scale gardening for now, moving up to larger scale if and when I buy a house, but you've kinda inspired me. Any recommended links?
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I have some raspberry canes as well..in a big container; I get a few handfuls from them every summer. I'm going to transplant them to my garden at the farm eventually.
You can grow salad greens in a container very easily, too.
Happy growing!
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For containers--go to a nursery and ask if they have any of those ugly black nursery containers available. Sometimes they'll just give them to you!
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Also... have you tried soil-bag gardening? My sister did it several years ago, while househunting. You just get a big bag of potting soil (or you can get ambitious, get 2 bags, cut out the middles and put one hole-up and the other hole-down to make a double "pot," .. poke some drain-holes along the bottom edges, and cut out smaller holes for your plants. You can do a row of lettuces that way, or one tomato plant. (You kind of need to stack 2 bags--tomatoes do better if they can send their roots down a bit.
Those empty 5-gallon buckets that cat litter comes in can support a tomato, too...
Sorry ... we can't put much of ANYTHING out until the end of May here in Ontario, and I'm itching to get the tomatoes in.
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Sorry for jumping in, it's hard to turn the Master Gardener off once I let her loose. :)
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A cigar box has enough root-room for lettuce? Wow!
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Yep! Fill just to the top and make your rows - chard in the back (it's taller) romaine in the middle, spinach in the front, and if you have a southern facing window in your kitchen, you can grow it year long in your windowsill.
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You might also try parsley and chives in pots. I know chives seem to be able to survive anything in the ground, so they should be growable in pots (and the ones that survived the winter here are already ready to harvest.
How about recycling pots? I've been flipping through Organic Crops in Pots (http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Crops-Pots-Vegetables-Fruits/dp/1906525560/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1241321050&sr=8-1) and it has a number of neat suggestions.
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Instead of buying that fancy (and expensive) grow pole for tomatoes, you could recycle a milk jug (just poke holes in it) and plant a cherry tomato in it, and hang it up. Boom. You might also look into a philosophy called "Square Gardening" which is essentially: how can I plant as many things in as small a space as possible? You can grow enough fruits and veggies for your summer's consumption in one square foot if you do it right.
Good luck! (And I can hook you up with some extension numnbers should you need any.)
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