Do you love growing your favorite veggies but don’t have a garden space to do it? Short of space is not an excuse anymore, there is a tidy solution to bring your gardening dream to life.
Pursue your gardening interests by creating a neat and tidy mini vegetable garden, meet, Container vegetable gardening!
If you are new to gardening, vegetable container gardening is a pretty easy solution to get started for beginners.
We use containers to set up a mini garden. It is an awesome method for growing veggies, better than even in-ground gardening and the best thing about it is the minimum effort required. It is so easy to start and allows you to grow your veggies anywhere from rooftops and balconies to courtyards, sidewalks, window seals and even inside your house, as long as they receive enough sunlight.
Very little time and energy are also required since no tilling or weeding is required and watering is also very easy and fast.
While almost every vegetable can do well in a container garden, there are obviously some that do better than others.
Here are some container vegetable gardening ideas for beginners:
Container Vegetable Gardening Tomatoes
Of course! Everyone loves tomatoes! But, do you really have to spend so much money buying expensive tomatoes in grocery stores while you can easily grow them in your backyard? Tomatoes are one of the best vegetable crops that do extremely well in container gardens even with a very small space.
You need to use strong containers when growing tomatoes as they can grow so big and can cause the containers to fall. You can also add stands to the sides to support their stems or use the upside down method. Some of the best varieties to grow are; Big Boy Bush tomato, Bush champion, Bush Goliath tomato and Celebrity tomato.
Tomatoes are very easy to plant and tend to. All you need to do is supply them with the right fertilizers and water them more frequently to prevent the fruits from splitting.
Tips to start growing tomatoes indoors.
Radishes
Radishes are the best vegetable crops for beginners. They are very easy to plant and require very little attention. They also mature very fast and are ready for harvest within a month.
Once you plant them, ensure you water them more frequently and put them in a place that receives direct sunlight for more than 6 hours.
There are so many varieties of radishes to choose from such as Stella, Mirabeau, French Breakfast and Ilka. However, you can choose to mix some of these varieties to make your garden more attractive and also have a taste of each.
Container Gardening – Salad leaves
There is nothing sweeter than freshly cut salads straight from the plants! Salad leaves are one of the easiest veggies to grow and mature within a period of 21 days. They do very well indoors all season, even during winter.
Best of all, it is a cut and grows again kind of crop, meaning it will continue growing as long as you harvest some of the leaves at the bottom. It can’t get any easier!
You can decide to mix the different varieties to make your garden look prettier and also have a taste of each.
Chards in Container Gardening
It is a very attractive and nutritious veg that can either be cooked or eaten raw as a salad. You should plant chard seeds 2-3 weeks before the last spring frost date and continue planting at a 10-day interval for a month in order to get a continuous harvest.
When the plants are about 3-4 inches tall, thin them out to allow a 4-6 inch distance between each plant.
They don’t have a specific maturing period but you can start harvesting immediately they get to a height of 6-8 inches. The best varieties to plant are Lucullus, Ruby and Bright Lights.
Container Vegetable Gardening – Beetroots
Beetroots are very easy to grow and look very stunning for a container garden from their colorful stems. They usually do well during spring and autumn seasons.
When planting, make sure your seeds or seedlings are at least 5 to 10 cm apart and have an adequate water supply to allow maximum root development. You should also plant them at intervals in order to get a continuous harvest.
Container Gardening – Herbs
Definitely, herbs deserve a space in every container garden. They are the sweetest and easiest edibles you can ever think of growing.
When planting, sow tender varieties such as coriander, basil, and marjoram indoors during spring and take them out after all the frost is over.
There are so many varieties to choose from, just choose the one you love best and always remember to use them when cooking. Make sure to plant them in a large container to allow space for them to spread.
Container Vegetable Gardening – Spinach
It is a cut and comes again type of vegetable with a very high nutrition value. It does so well in containers as long as you feed it with the right nutrients.
You should plant them very early in spring as they only do well in a cool climate and take up to 6 weeks to mature. You can also plant them in fall and winter.
Mix the soil properly with manure a week before planting and sow your seeds ½ to 1 inch deep when planting. Also, ensure you put them in a place with light shade to prevent bolting.
New Zealand Spinach and Malabar Spinach are the best varieties for a summer harvest.
Chillies in Containers
If you are the kind of people who like their food hot and tasty, chillies are obviously the go for plants for your container garden. Be careful when choosing the variety to plant, don’t dare choose a variety that will make you regret ever planting.
Chillies usually do well in hot temperatures. For the best hottest chillies, plant as early as January in order to give them enough time to ripen. Make sure to add high potash tomato fertilizer once the fruits start coming out and remember to cut the tip of the first flowering shoots to allow development of more branches.
Here are some of the best vegetable combinations for container gardening according to Gardeners.com
Beans, Carrots, and Squash Eggplant and Beans Tomatoes, Basil, and Onions Lettuce and Herbs Spinach, Chard, and Onions
Beans, Onions, and Garlic Carrots with Dill or Fennel Tomatoes or Squash with Potatoes Onions with Beans and Peas
Final verdict
These are just but a few examples of the many vegetables that can be grown in a container garden. Some gardeners opt to plant a single veg per container while others like combining different crops. However, there are no set rules as to what you should do although it’s much more advisable to mix different crops.
You can read here about how to fertilize container gardens.
Seeds
If you are thinking of getting started and need some seeds delivered to your home, they are available from Amazon.
Related videos