We first started using containers for vegetable gardening before we had space for a vegetable garden. However, even when we did finally have space we continued vegetable gardening in containers for some veggies like tomatoes and peppers.
While I was single and living in a small apartment I used the balcony to grow a small veggie garden. My first choice was tomatoes as they are about my favourite next to potatoes. Later, once I was married we rented homes but were never allowed to dig up a garden so containers were used instead.
Today we use containers so we can put them around our property and that way we are able to grow even more, saving us more money on the grocery bills.
Things You Should Know About Container Gardening
Through the years we had container gardens we learned a few things that will benefit those just starting out. No need for that trial and error, as we have already done that for you.
1. Make Certain Your Containers Will Contain Your Vegetables
A couple of times we thought we had purchased containers that were big enough only to find out our veggies were getting root bound and had to get pots a little bigger. Since then we have learned to always buy the next size larger as that always seems to be the case.
I am not talking about containers to start your veggies in. For that you can use regular pots and then just transplant them into the larger containers once they are big enough.
2. Your Container Garden Must Drain Properly
I have drowned more than one innocent vegetable plants because the containers I used didn’t drain well enough.
I will admit that most of the time it was me causing the drainage problems due to not putting enough stones in the bottom and eventually the holes in the bottom plugged.
3. Include Perlite As Part Of Your Potting Soil
Perlite is a volcanic mineral and is known as siliceous rock. This is pretty cool stuff and when heated to a high temperature it swells up and becomes very porous. It swells to as much as 12 or 13 times, just like popcorn. This stuff is so light you’ll look twice when picking up a bag of it.
Perlite particles are made up of these tiny pockets of air which make for a lot of pitted surface area that holds water extremely well making it available to your plant’s root system without the need to be continually watering.
4. Veggie Plants Are Going To Need Water
We can use mulches as ground cover in our gardens to help keep moisture from evaporating under that hot sun as well as keeping the breeze or wind blowing over our garden from doing the same thing.
Containers don’t work the same way as they have all their soil above ground in full contact with the wind and sun. Because the soil is actually above ground it tends to heat up much quicker which either cooks your roots or bakes them.
So give perlite a try in your containers and see how well it works for yourself. Also take a look at drip irrigation systems as a way to keep them watered while monitoring your water use.
Keeping your containers on the lawn will keep them cooler than leaving them in the driveway or on dirt. It’s a fact that the temperature at lawn level is several degrees cooler than the breeze moving across dirt or pavement.
5. Vegetable Container Gardens Can Be Relocated
I mentioned I started veggie gardening in containers on my balcony. Well there wasn’t much room to move things around to take advantage of sunlight but in your yard you can move them so they get more sunlight or if needed maybe a little less.
We have had a lot of fun with our container gardens and really they were pretty easy to maintain, although we had to learn a couple of things. Any mistakes we made were mostly fixable.
We first started tomatoes in a container garden, then we tried adding strawberries and green peppers
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Container Gardens
