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Beginner container gardener
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Posted by clumsygrdner 6 Central Kentucky (My Page) on Fri, Feb 5, 10 at 10:02
| Due to some life changes, I'm going to have to switch from in-ground to container gardening. I liked in-ground gardening just because most of my supplies was free, but I'm intimidated a bit by containerizing my veggies.
I'm not sure what kind of containers to buy or how big they need to be. I'm not sure about what kind of soil I need. I've lurked a while and read about Al's Mixes, but I have no idea where to buy things like "bark fines" or where to get them myself. I'd rather just buy a bag of X potting mix...
I'm not sure also about when to plant or what to plant. I always just went by the soil temp and a handy calendar I had made myself for the area I lived in. I'm not sure how much that will change. So if someone could help me I'd appreciate it.
Here's what I'd like to plant: For spring, I'd like to plant, lettuce, spinach, radishes, carrots and peas. What varieties should I get? Are peas even possible in a container? When should I start to plant? Can I plant from seed?
For summer: I'd like tomatoes, peppers (hot and sweet), basil, watermelon, zucchini, yellow squash and cucumbers. Which varieties do you recommend? How big are the pots I need? Do watermelons need special care in a pot?
Is there anything to protect containers from squirrel or raccoon attack?
I have so many questions and I really super-appreciate the time you take out to answer them.
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Beginner container gardener
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| I highly recommend that you purchase "Bountiful Container" by Rose McGee & Maggie Stuckey. It does a wonderful job of breaking down container gardening in a useful way, by plant variety. They give you a lot of great ideas for the containers themselves, and recommend specific cultivars that in their experience do best in containers. It's about $12 on Amazon, or I'm sure your local book seller has or could get a copy of it for you. Maybe even your library. The book really helped me to get a good basic understanding, and to focus my growing goals a bit better. |
RE: Beginner container gardener
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| To protect my containers from squirrels, I collected and use the old grids from grills. Heavy enough to handle the squirrels weight and difficult for them to move. On others, I use that black bird netting - seems they don't like to touch it. After my plants are well established I remove the cover. |
RE: Beginner container gardener
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| I used hardware cloth over the containers, and I also placed large flat rocks in the containers on top of the soil (overnight). However, I found that the raccoons would yank over entire plants/containers. So I got a live-trap, and I trapped 8 raccoons over the course of a month or so. Josh |
RE: Beginner container gardener
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| Thank you very much for the book recommendation. :) I shall purchase and study. I've also read up more on the SWCs and Earthtainers. Great Ideas! And after an afternoon of phone calling, I found some pine bark fines! I'm hoping to have some pictures of my new container garden soon! |
RE: Beginner container gardener
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| I bought all my containers at lowes and used regular potting soil from lowes. Here are some pictures of my container garden. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Click here to see my pictures.
RE: Beginner container gardener
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| clumsy: For an easy start, put the veggies in MG Moisture Control mix with some dolomite lime (HD, Lowe's) in the mix. You'll do fine. Tomatoes grow ok in 5 gallon pots, but prefer closer to 10 (some Cherry varieties can be an exception to this). The pepper plants will be fine in 3-5 gallon containers. The watermelon, yellow squash, cucumbers & maybe the zucchini will need a lot of flat area to grow out on...not sure how well they'd do in a container. Maybe an extremely large one on a deck where the vines could have room to grow out onto the deck. They all spread easily. The other choices of yours should be easier though. =) - Steve |
RE: Beginner container gardener
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| I have been growing peppers in containers for years. I use a 3 gallon black nursery container. My favorite variety is "Gypsy" ( a sweet pepper) ; 1 plant/container with a 33" tomato cage in each pot for support. Be prepared to water daily during hot days in july, august and september when the plants get pot bound. I have also had great luck with indeterminate cherry tomatoes in the same container with a 52" cage. Favorite varieties are: "Sweet Million" and "Sunsugar". These containers/cages need to be supported by a stake driven into the adjacent ground to keep them from blowing over in bad weather. I have also grown smaller tomatoes in these containers as well, try "Window-Box Roma". I have not had any success growing larger variety tomatoes in containers due to end rot. I use good garden soil that is enriched with compost. Good Luck ! |
RE: Beginner container gardener
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| PVick lives in a highrise in either Chicago or NYC and you should check her container gardens out. They are beautiful and she really gives meaning to rooftop gardening..all of hers are in containers. Flowers, vines, vegetables. Just amazing! Check out her collage of her flowers. When you rub the mouse over the picture, it tells you the name of the flower or vegetable. |
RE: Beginner container gardener
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| I just started last year, and I turned buckets and plastic tubs into containers that have a 3" water resevoir by following a do it yourself instructions from a guy on line. This link is for tubs, but I also found instructions for 5 gallon buckets on line last year also. I grew tomatoes (I recommend the Cherry Large and the VF100 personally-Cherry large if you can only have one kind), peppers, squash 4 different kinds), Brocolli, pole beans, and bush beans in them...worked good as long as I filled up the water level on them every day. One thing- many recommend putting plastic over top of the containers as a mulch...but I recommend shredded newspaper...it worked better for me. (I would wet the newspaper everyonce in a while to keep it from blowing away if the winds picked up. I'm growing seedlings again this year right now to put in the boxes in about 3 weeks. http://www.scribd.com/doc/13939141/Earth-Box
http://www.josho.com/gardening.htm |
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