Veggie-Gardening without the Garden
April 29th, 2014
No land? No tiller? Bad back? No time to weed? Too pooped?
A vegetable “garden” in pots.
None of those are excuses that rule out vegetable-gardening if you’re not locked into the notion that you have to dig up a big rectangle of lawn to do it.
It turns out that most veggies grow very well in pots – and without nearly the work of in-ground gardens.
Some of the best home-grown veggies – namely, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and eggplants – grow readily and sometimes better in containers.
Almost all small crops, such as lettuce, beets, carrots, onions and radishes, also perform well as potted crops.
About the only exceptions are space hogs, such as corn, rhubarb and squash, and that’s mainly because of the pot sizes and support needed – not because they “don’t work” in pots.
In fact, it makes most sense to lean toward compact varieties of any crop for pot culture.
You’ll find more choices than ever before because breeders have been focusing on compact varieties since a trend toward edibles-in-pots began picking up steam several years ago.
An ideal pot variety is one with short “internodes” (the space between branches), a tight growth habit and a heavy yield over a long period of time.
Look for those traits when you pick your varieties, or look for labels that highlight varieties that have bred specifically for pot growth.
Beyond that, here are five “secrets” that’ll maximize your pot-growing success:
1.) Go with a big container. The bigger the better. Don’t go under 14 inches for peppers, eggplants and cucumbers. Tomatoes appreciate at least a 20-inch-diameter pot.
Bigger pots are more forgiving of missed waterings, plus they’re less likely to tip over in wind.
Tomatoes happily growing in a fiber grow bag.
You’ll find all sorts of options, including grow bags and similar fiber pots as well as self-watering EarthBoxes and relatives.
All of the ones I’ve tested have worked just fine, but so have ordinary clay pots and half whiskey barrels for less money.
It’s also possible to garden out of straw bales. Check out how to do that in an article I wrote on Joel Karsten’s Straw Bale Gardening method.
2.) The pots should drain well. Whatever you use to hold the soil, it has to have adequate drainage to allow water to escape out the bottom.
You don’t want water backing up in the soil. If your pot only has a single small hole, drill another one or two or three.
I’ve found it also helps drainage to sit pots on “pot feet” or other pedestals that raise the pot off the ground an inch or two .
3.) Buy good quality potting mix. Forget the bargain bags. Spend the extra money on a good, soilless mix that’s light-weight and free of clay, sticks, stones, etc.
Mixes with at least 25 percent coir (coconut fiber) or composted bark drain nicely, discourage root-rot and don’t compact as fast as peat-based mixes.
4.) Fertilize a lot. It’s almost impossible to overfeed because nutrients are constantly washing out from all the watering.
Start the season with a scattering of a pelleted, organic fertilizer or a timed-release fertilizer such as Osmocote. Then add one or two more doses every 6 to 8 weeks in season.
Also fertilize weekly with a product that’s mixed into water. Plants should get a balanced fertilizer early on (equal parts nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, such as 10-10-10) and then a breakdown closer to one part nitrogen to two parts phosphorus and three parts potassium (i.e. 10-20-30) once the plants start flowering.
5.) Water daily. That’s usually needed when rain doesn’t happen. Twice-a-day watering may be needed in really hot, dry weather.
Especially if you have lots of pots, consider going automatic by hooking up a drip-irrigation system with a timer.
A sunny spot is best for most vegetables. That’s true whether you’re growing in pots or in the ground.
You’ll get at least some production in part shade. One benefit of growing in pots is that you can move the pots around during the season to take fullest advantage of the sunlight.
Add a few flowers, and your pots will look as good as they taste.
Your potted vegetables won’t be immune from the bugs and diseases that attack in-ground plants, although I’ve found them to be less prone to both.
They’ll be slightly more vulnerable to heat stress, but a tradeoff is that they’re less vulnerable to rabbits, groundhogs, voles and energetic pets. So until groundhogs learn to fly (not out of the question when there’s a bean nearby), animal trouble is one less worry.