Container Gardening

I've looked through both past issues of SFG page by page and cannot find any info related to container planting.
Nothing listed in the index either.
I'd like to set up a bunch of containers around the house, flowers & veggies..
Anyone have any info on this???

Jimmy.....I plant in containers each year, mostly in large plant pots. I grow all my determinate tomatoes this way, with a tomato cage around a bamboo pole, pepper plants do well one per pot as do eggplant. Herbs are great in pots. I have basils, cilantro, thyme, oregano in pots as well as among the flower bed. I always put some lettuces in a couple pots outside my kitchen door for a quick add to salads.
I've seen many container plantings on utube. You should check those out; container gardening. You'll find lots of information. If you can fit it in a square you can fit it in a container.
This year I've added some plants specifically bred for containers so they don't take up much space like cukes and zucchini.
Make sure you water those pots once a day and when its really hot, you'll need to water them both morning and night.
You can even use 5-gal buckets from the hardware store or those used kitty litter buckets with holes drilled in the bottoms.
The best thing, if its cold sensitive, you can lift those pots and bring them indoors on a frosty nite.

above: Eggplants transplanted to pots last year.

I've been doing containers for many years, along with the garden.
Just this year I am using MM for planting, working good in the garden so it should go well it pots also.
Plantoid, That 1/4" hole on the side is interesting although I always have enough holes on the bottom to drain any excess.
Quiltbea, last year I had 4 red bell pepper plants in one large pot, I've heard peppers like to be close to one another..
They were the nicest peppers I ever had till the deer ate them, even at that I did get some decnt peppers..This year I am planting a gorgeous pepper plant Cayanetta, see how they will do.
I was only wondering if there is much change using containers with MM.. I suppose a little common sense goes a long way.
Thanks

I only have 38 square feet suitable for SFG boxes due to sun restrictions. I have close to 30 pots that I have been moving as the sun moves to the north for summer. I used MM for both. Check out You Tube for "container gardening" and "vertical gardening." And have FUN!

Due to last year's drought and heat, my community garden shut down all our gardens, including my SFGs. The garden was on church property and the pastor thought it all looked too weedy so all of it was removed and an expansion to their parking lot is planned. I had to give away my boxes.

So this year, on the few feet of my driveway that gets 6 hours of sun, I am planting a container garden - mostly self-watering containers. I truly miss my beautiful SFGs, but I'm hopeful that I'll have at least some veggies this summer.

Squaredeal, it looks like you have broccoli in the back row, what's the black covering over it? Just curious since I've got some broccoli growing in my SFG and they seem to be doing well, but maybe could be doing better?

jimmy cee wrote:I've looked through both past issues of SFG page by page and cannot find any info related to container planting.
Nothing listed in the index either.
I'd like to set up a bunch of containers around the house, flowers & veggies..
Anyone have any info on this???

What kind of information are you looking for?


Barrels, cut in half length-wise, filled with MM, used for potatoes.

A wooden cradle was made to set them in allowing the barrels to set on any grade (slope). Ate potatoes from 4 barrels for most of the summer. Works well with determinant potatoes. Indeterminants (old-fashioned types that vine instead of bush like Red Lasoda and most russets) still give more potatoes using a tower system.This season I am also growing short vine, early season peas in a barrel.


Bever Lodge Plum Tomatoes in a $5 plastic window box filled with MM from a "we got everything" store.

I've spent a few years trying different things. Sometimes good container gardening comes down to what type of seed you plant. Beverlodge are very small plants that compete with turnips for early season ripeness. I did not realize they were so early until I got a green house.


These Strawberries have been in this container longer then the Toy Box is old.

This is the 6th season for these Rainer Strawberries. I have harvested strawberries and MANY daughters to start other strawberry beds. This looks to be a good crop. Last year I held my breath and cut back the foliage right after harvesting the last berry. Usually I cut back strawberry plants in September after they turn red and plan to replace the plants every 3 years. Never be afraid to try something new with your container garden.


Raspberries (yellow and red), Blueberries and Comfrey

Some containers only give me a taste, like the raspberries. I still get most of this fruit from farmers markets. The raspberries are in a container because for the last 4 years we have not known for sure that we could stay in our home (we still don't, but God is Good!). The idea was to make it easy to take them with us if we did have to move. We also have pear trees (one multi, one Orcas, both on dwarf root stock), cherry trees (one sweet multi, one pie cherry), an old thyme plant, a bay laurel (dicey to keep alive in PNW winters).

Other containers give and give. The comfrey comes back year after year and as long as I do the minimum, like pile fresh compost on top of the spring sprouts, it comes back lush. We keep mason bees to make sure we have plenty of tree fruit (one box of mason bees (10 bees) and a muddy spot to keep them happy; keeps EVERYTHING pollinated. No honey, but they spend the winter in the crisper drawer of my refrigerator, no need to feed them when they are not active.


Crowding is good.

I used to make flower baskets and herb containers. Something I learned is that they can grow a lot closer together in a container than in the ground. They need to be fed regularly (like once a week.... I keep a tank of goldfish that were supposed to be for aquaponics... and drain off water from the goldfish to water my containers. Lush!

Stick in some seeds, stick in some plants, collect containers, think outside of the box. YOU DO NOT NEED MIRICAL GROW!!! All of my containers are organic.

Debs..... who doesn't think this is a container forum but gets why you would think we talk about it.... sfg uses all kinds of container wisdom.

jimmy cee wrote:I was only wondering if there is much change using containers with MM.. I suppose a little common sense goes a long way.
Thanks

Each year I find myself using more and more containers because it gives me greater flexibility in my efforts to beat the weather.

I eyeball plant spacing based on the square foot method; if in doubt, I opt to crowd rather than spread.

The other consideration is container depth. Some of them can hold a lot of MM that isn't put to good use ie. deeper than 6 inches. If I have growing medium to spare, I'll fill the container full with it, and the container then does double duty as a storage place. If your MM supply is limited, look around for various ideas to fill the bottom of the containers such that you only need to use 6 inches of MM. Various items like foam and empty plastic bottles will fill space without adding significant weight.

If you have facebook, search for "Container Gardening Alliance" they have alot of information for containers.

I up potted my tomatoes from hd into a larger container of MM and in I would say 2 weeks, they had grown new roots all the way to the bottom of the container. Ive had success with planting tomatoes, poblano peppers and eggplants in containers.

Before SFG, I never thought to plant for the season in a container, other than the Earth Boxes my mother uses. This year I tried potatoes in a 5 gal bucket but they never grew beyond an inch or so, then died.

Today I planted a Roma tomato and some Rainbow Chard into these 3 pots with MM:

We'll see how they do.

CC

Lavender Debs wrote:

jimmy cee wrote:I've looked through both past issues of SFG page by page and cannot find any info related to container planting.
Nothing listed in the index either.
I'd like to set up a bunch of containers around the house, flowers & veggies..
Anyone have any info on this???

What kind of information are you looking for?
Just general info pertaining to SFG in containers...I want to do about 10 10 - 15 gal containers scattered around the house, flowers & veggies
, even going to throw in 5 hanging baskets, one will have a cayanetta pepper plant in it..
lots of testing going on this season


Barrels, cut in half length-wise, filled with MM, used for potatoes.

A wooden cradle was made to set them in allowing the barrels to set on any grade (slope). Ate potatoes from 4 barrels for most of the summer. Works well with determinant potatoes. Indeterminants (old-fashioned types that vine instead of bush like Red Lasoda and most russets) still give more potatoes using a tower system.This season I am also growing short vine, early season peas in a barrel.


Bever Lodge Plum Tomatoes in a $5 plastic window box filled with MM from a "we got everything" store.

I've spent a few years trying different things. Sometimes good container gardening comes down to what type of seed you plant. Beverlodge are very small plants that compete with turnips for early season ripeness. I did not realize they were so early until I got a green house.


These Strawberries have been in this container longer then the Toy Box is old.

This is the 6th season for these Rainer Strawberries. I have harvested strawberries and MANY daughters to start other strawberry beds. This looks to be a good crop. Last year I held my breath and cut back the foliage right after harvesting the last berry. Usually I cut back strawberry plants in September after they turn red and plan to replace the plants every 3 years. Never be afraid to try something new with your container garden.


Raspberries (yellow and red), Blueberries and Comfrey

Some containers only give me a taste, like the raspberries. I still get most of this fruit from farmers markets. The raspberries are in a container because for the last 4 years we have not known for sure that we could stay in our home (we still don't, but God is Good!). The idea was to make it easy to take them with us if we did have to move. We also have pear trees (one multi, one Orcas, both on dwarf root stock), cherry trees (one sweet multi, one pie cherry), an old thyme plant, a bay laurel (dicey to keep alive in PNW winters).

Other containers give and give. The comfrey comes back year after year and as long as I do the minimum, like pile fresh compost on top of the spring sprouts, it comes back lush. We keep mason bees to make sure we have plenty of tree fruit (one box of mason bees (10 bees) and a muddy spot to keep them happy; keeps EVERYTHING pollinated. No honey, but they spend the winter in the crisper drawer of my refrigerator, no need to feed them when they are not active.


Crowding is good.

I used to make flower baskets and herb containers. Something I learned is that they can grow a lot closer together in a container than in the ground. They need to be fed regularly (like once a week.... I keep a tank of goldfish that were supposed to be for aquaponics... and drain off water from the goldfish to water my containers. Lush!

Stick in some seeds, stick in some plants, collect containers, think outside of the box. YOU DO NOT NEED MIRICAL GROW!!! All of my containers are organic.

Debs..... who doesn't think this is a container forum but gets why you would think we talk about it.... sfg uses all kinds of container wisdom.

[i]

You can also Google "container gardening and "vertical gardening."

Some of my 30-something containers:






Before the "madness" began!

Bump!

Container gardening is all well and good until someone with OCD decides to get in on it. The hard part is finding a very good container garden dog. Here in southern New England we call it Bucketeering.

I even craft wraps and knit cozies for some of mine. 

Dan, Now, that is a bucket brigade!!

I scrolled up and saw all the pots I used the first year (2013). This summer, I sold most of them as I have about 133 in sq ft beds, or equivalent of 200 sq ft in beds, an amended strip of dirt, and totes / containers.

sanderson, from bucketeering is how I came to Square Foot Gardening. I fell in love with Mel's concept of seed spacing when I needed the information on vegetables I had never grown before and the spacing worked quite nicely with the buckets. I no longer space my buckets out like in the picture because although it looks like there is plenty of room at transplant time, come August you can't tell the buckets are in rows and extremely hard to harvest. Now, buckets touch in a zig-zag patterned rows and with tomatoes, peppers and eggplant their cages are connected together with nylon ties with 5' between buckets. I get almost as many buckets planted out overall but change in spacing makes everything else easier.

Bump!

Can't get pics to load this morning. Grrrrr!

countrynaturals wrote: Bump!

Can't get pics to load this morning. Grrrrr!

Got 'em, finally.