Growing Vegetables in Containers
I’m looking for some advice so I can grow a little bit of my own food this summer.
I have never seriously gardened before. All I have is a sunny back deck and a very shady and chilly front garden plot with terrible soil. I’ve been doing some research and have found very little good info on the subject. Many gardening books will only have a page on containers. I finally found this one on self watering containers. and I plan to use a lot of the advice in here. But, I am still unclear on how to grow things from seed and am concerned that I don’t have enough light in my apartment to make things grow on my front window sill.
Hopefully someplace like Lowe’s or my local garden center will have the materials I need to make the self-watering containers and maybe even the type of plants that do best. Right now, I’m planning on doing little tomatoes, basil, cilantro, and other herbs, then a bunch of lettuce (type TBD) and possibly eggplant or squash.
If anyone has advice on container gardening specifically or basic gardening tips in general, I’d love to hear it.
Comments
Huh! I’ve never heard of this. I’d also love to hear any input anyone has.
my friend just sent me this link with DIY self-watering containers. Looks like an awesome project that would involve having to buy a saw or two, I think.
I’m still not sure how to plant stuff without killing it though…
Suzanne said:
I’m still not sure how to plant stuff without killing it though…
just remember to water them often. and i would think just getting big containers would do the trick for growth as well as supports for tomatoes like sticks or cages.
Check instructables.com. They have a lot of useful things in there. As for getting seedlings started, the guy at work made a 9-plant array with pvc, a rubbermaid tub thing, and some soda bottles.
The only reason it’s not completely self-sustaining is that it uses a water pump on a timer to get the water to the plants.
He did say, however, that for your water reservoir, which I’m assuming your self-watering setups would use, you should use dark-colored containers. Though it’s tempting to use clear for it’s obvious benefits, clear containers promote algae growth at a much more rapid pace than dark, opaque containers.
I think the best thing I’ve ever seen is the above-ground planters some guy made from a few pallets and chicken wire. Ugly as hell, but they really seemed to work out well for him. I believe that was on instructables, too. He made some really crazy compost/soil that promoted worms and stuff. It was cool.
I won’t link you to any of this, though. I’m hungry.
The pallet/chicken wire gardener sounds like Rod’s next door neighbor
Rod should tell his neighbor he’s white trash cool.