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| Zuccinni, the first time I have planted this in a pot. I think there will be enough zuccinni for the whole building. We had a week of warmer than usual weather around May 24th so I started planting then although I usually wait till early to mid June. It got cold again after I planted but everything seems fine, thriving in fact. Also shown in the next picture, potatoes and tomatoes and carrots. |
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| Cucumbers and melons or squash. I didn't mark the pot and can't remember what I put in the one in front. These will need thinning as the season progresses. |
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| A mix of lettuce (mesculin) that did not come up well. I have now reseeded it and will see what happens. Behind the lettuce is a pot of swiss chard that seems to be thriving. Really, you can grow things just about anywhere in anything. |
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| Beans: a pot each of green, yellow and purple. I will add more seeds to the pots later to keep these producing later into the summer. |
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| A few pots of herbs in front of the beans. One of the advantages of container gardening is the ability to move pots around if they don't like the place they are currently living. |
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| A group shot. I am fortunate that my apartment building provides this nice pad area for container gardening. The hose is close by hung in a branch of a tree. I even have a few pots hanging from the branches when I ran out of room on the pad. |
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| Another group shot. You can see how well the potatoes on the right are doing. I planted them a little differently this year. I started by planting the seed potatoes in the bottom half of the pot, then added more earth as the tops grew. I have heard it increases the yield. We'll see in the fall, I guess. |
If you don't have a plot of ground, it is easy and fairly inexpensive to grow a few veggies in whatever containers you have lying around. The containers can be traditional flower pot types or basically anything that is clean and will hold soil while providing good drainage. You can use things like a piece of eavestroughing to grow lettuce, radishes, onions, swisschard, etc. Wooden or plastic boxes of various sizes can be used for tomatoes, potatoes, beans, zuccinnii, carrots and more. I have grown strawberries in small containers and hanging bags. Recycle shopping bags can be used. Poke a few holes for drainage, fill with soil and plant away.
There are many books and quite a lot of online articles available to give you ideas or planting information.
If you are on a tight budget, you can take seeds from produce you buy and start your own plants. If you are in most of Canada or the northern USA it might be getting a bit late for that depending on the end of your growing season.
Herbs can be started in pots and moved indoors before winter frosts arrive. But hey, let's not think of winter frosts just yet, ok?
I will be happy to share any growing tips I can think of, just contact me at this blog.
One important thing about container gardening is that it will probably require quite a lot of watering. My garden gets a lot of heat as it is right against a brick building with exposure from south and west and a bit from the north. It is hot! Beets don't really do well in that much heat or at least mine didn't last year.
This is a really great way to get a little bit of almost everything. I usually get enough for a few meals of each thing and sometimes enough to freeze or preserve.
I also watch the farmers markets and am happy to receive or trade for surplus veggies my neighbours may have.
Good luck and happy growing!
