Vegetable Container Garden

Carol Dee

Garden Master
Joined
Apr 28, 2011
Messages
13,161
Reaction score
21,324
Points
437
Location
Long Grove, IA
John, :welcome As you already know this is a great place for all kinds of helpful and friendly folks. :frow
 

digitS'

Garden Master
Joined
Dec 13, 2007
Messages
26,727
Reaction score
32,517
Points
457
Location
border, ID/WA(!)
Yes, but we do have our quirky natures, John. The very best we can do is relate our experiences, in our locations.

You have a gardener there in the LA area who made a major commitment to growing lettuce in rain gutters in 2011. I encouraged her because of my experience with potted plants in a greenhouse. The gutters, mounted on an interior wall of a greenhouse, were attached so that watering was real easy for us - just a matter of allowing water to flow in at the top and after it began to flow out the bottom, we shut it off.

The gardener was enthusiastic and committed. After she had remodeled an exterior wall of her home with these gutters - we never heard from her again . . . :/. And, this was after she had promised pictures "when it is green and growing." This left one to wonder if the set-up ever made it to that stage.

Keeping the plants watered is the real challenge for container growing.

Steve
 

Stubbornhillfarm

Attractive To Bees
Joined
May 23, 2011
Messages
924
Reaction score
8
Points
74
Location
Shapleigh, Maine
:welcome John! You have been given some great advice here. In my opinion, much of gardening is "on the job trainning" and "trial and error". You will take a lot of pride in what you are able to grow. If something doesn't work out; really try to figure out why it did not and if you can make changes, try it again when the time comes. If you can't make the neccessary changes, then just move on. There are so many different things a person can grow and gain satisfaction from them!
 

desertlady

Attractive To Bees
Joined
Jan 16, 2012
Messages
933
Reaction score
91
Points
64
Location
Safford, Arizona zone 8
SuperChemicalGirl said:
I actually do pretty well with cat litter buckets (and anything else I can get my hands on) for tomatoes and pepper plants, and my container ones look better than the ones in the ground. Doesn't look pretty, but I don't really care once I start harvesting!

I have to soak them daily when it gets hot here ("hot" in Maine... 80ish). They also do really well in the barrel planters, and I've gotten some plastic cow-lick buckets, too, for squash or melons that also do okay.

I've also used window planters for bulbing onions, they tend to do well in there.



http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/uploads/6992_barrel_tomatoes.jpg

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/uploads/6992_onions.jpg

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/uploads/6992_ghetto_bucket_garden.jpg
How do you keep your chickens away from your plants?? My chickens will eat them to the ground !!!
 

SuperChemicalGirl

Attractive To Bees
Joined
Jun 15, 2010
Messages
324
Reaction score
0
Points
74
Location
Vacationland, Maine
desertlady said:
How do you keep your chickens away from your plants?? My chickens will eat them to the ground !!!
No idea... they just don't pay any attention to them unless they have veggies on them, and then I'm in trouble. My tomatoes and pumpkins really suffered at the beaks last year. I have a fence around some of my garden this year so that helps. But for some reason my herd of chickens (somewhere around 70 birds) won't bother my plants unless the actual veggies are within easy reach.


6992_315042_226581400729762_100001337108712_594656_545024509_n.jpg
 

desertlady

Attractive To Bees
Joined
Jan 16, 2012
Messages
933
Reaction score
91
Points
64
Location
Safford, Arizona zone 8
SuperChemicalGirl said:
desertlady said:
How do you keep your chickens away from your plants?? My chickens will eat them to the ground !!!
No idea... they just don't pay any attention to them unless they have veggies on them, and then I'm in trouble. My tomatoes and pumpkins really suffered at the beaks last year. I have a fence around some of my garden this year so that helps. But for some reason my herd of chickens (somewhere around 70 birds) won't bother my plants unless the actual veggies are within easy reach.


http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/...729762_100001337108712_594656_545024509_n.jpg
Mine will EAT up the plants !!:somad
 

bluelacedredhead

Chillin' In The Garden
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Messages
61
Reaction score
0
Points
33
Location
Z6a WesterlyEnd Lake Ontario
I'm having a terrible year with predators in the garden. The slugs, snails, pillbugs, wild birds and squirrels have destroyed several pepper plants, probably 6 tomato seedlings, 2 plantings of pumpkins (total 12 plants), all of my lettuce and spinach and eaten most of my strawberries.

The only plants that have survived major onslaught are those I planted in containers and have placed for the most part on our back deck. Although this morning, something (a furry something I am sure) had dug right to the bottom of a 2 gallon container of Dark Opal Basi. Although they didn't kill all of the basil, they buried a lot of it so I had to carefully sift through the potting soil to upright the plants again. :(

Even on the farm, I grew eggplants in containers because in a short season climate that was the only was to ensure that the fruit matured. Sometimes I grew tomatoes and peppers in containers for ease of isolation distance to save seeds.

I water the ones in full sun every day unless we've had a good rain within a 24 hour period. But you have to make sure that the container has good drainage or you can overwater and drown the roots.

I love the pics!! There are some creative gardeners on this forum. Thanks for sharing.
 
Top