Container Gardening

I have always had a garden, or at the very least a tomato plant in the landscaping strip outside my apartment in college.  The garden at the hobby farm was the best garden though!  I was huge and fertile and produce plenty of food for our family.

When we chose to move off the farm (for multiple reasons including the state a repairs needed on the farm house), we moved into a small suburban house on a small suburban.  To complicate it further, we chose a house next to a protected wetland.  Perfect for some semblance of privacy in a neighborhood.  But I'm certain my yard is actually still part of the wetland.  The soils are sloppy wet in the winter.  If left to it's own devises, I'm sure sedges would return.  There really isn't a way to remove the grass and make a garden without spending a crazy amount on drainage and soil amendments. Therefore, containers.

The yard is also very small and has three large trees, so sunlight is limited to two areas against the house.  Therefore, small containers.

I've never done much container gardening other than flowers.  Certainly never things like pumpkins.  But I was determined to still garden.  Here is what I learned.

First, choose plants that will climb up a trellis.  But choose small versions.  For example, sugar pumpkins will work but jack-o-lanterns will not.  Along with sugar pumpkins, I chose butternut squash, cucumbers, sugar peas and green beans. 

Second, plants growing up a trellis will create a shaded space under where you can grow leaf lettuce, spinach or kale.  Just make sure to give each trellis plant plenty of space for their roots.

Third, other plants that do well in containers are tomatoes, peppers (but keep tomato plants and pepper plants far away from each other - they are not friends), small-variety carrots, green onions, beets, basil and chives.  I did all of these.

Forth, you need to prune and thin aggressively but reasonably.  Make sure everything has enough room to grow.  For the climbing plants, as soon as they start to put on fruit, trim the vines that want to keep growing up and out.

Finally, water.  These small containers have a lot sides that heat up and they can't get more water from surrounding soil.  You have to water daily.  But you also need good drainage on the bottom of the containers so the roots never have to sit in pooled water.  I hand watered every day in the mornings before it got hot.  But you could use a drip irrigation system on a timer to water at 4am (the best time to water gardens).

My containers did good the first year. I will add some new soil and compost for next season.

These are the containers freshly planted.  You can see the open containers between each trellis.  These were for the leafy greens that would prefer some shade created by the over hanging plants.  On the far right, I decided to remove the trellis and do carrots instead.

Right to left - sugar peas, cherry tomatoes and two roma tomatoes. This spot against the house got lots of sun and heat and the tomatoes did great!!!!

This is my favorite carrot of the season - two lovers.  I did a very small variety carrot and got a bumper crop.  We ate them raw, so sweet.

We got four sugar pumpkins and three butternut squash.  I baked the pumpkins and froze the pulp for pies.  In the back ground is a delicata squash and applies - no from my containers.