If you are new to growing vegetables in containers or have had limited success, here are a few tips to help you succeed.
Selecting a Container
As a general rule, select as large a container as possible. Small containers dry out more quickly and may need daily watering. Self-watering planters designed for urban balconies and patios extend the time between waterings. You’ll want to think about weight — once the pot is filled with wet soil and plant material it’s going to be very heavy. And you may want to think about appearance. What look “goes” with your house and other pots? Even fabric pots are good for growing vegetables.
With colorful Grow Bags, you can add some whimsy to your vegetable garden.
Most importantly, you’ll need to think about the depth of the container you’ll be growing in. Plants with deep root systems will be stunted and unhealthy if they don’t have adequate space.
Remember that the deeper the pot, the larger the reservoir of moist soil, and the less often you’ll need to water. The exception is a self-watering planter. In this case, the depth of the planting area can be kept to a minimum because moisture is provided by a water reservoir below the planting area.
How to Choose Soil or Potting Mix for Your Planters
Do not fill your containers with soil from your garden or bagged topsoil. You should fill the containers with a “soilless” potting mix that will retain moisture and resist compaction. I usually mix in a liberal amount of granular organic fertilizer and a shovelful or so of compost.
Onions
Onions are a great addition to the garden, growing equally well in the ground or in containers. The key factor is water for these easy vegetables to grow in pots. They need loose, well-drained soil so the bulbs don’t rot. But with short roots, a consistent source of moisture is important for plump bulbs to develop. Grow your choice of white, yellow, or red onions.
Kale
This nutritious superstar has quickly jumped from the garnish tray to the dinner table. Although some varieties of kale can get awfully big, there are smaller varieties like ribbon kale and curly kale that grow just 1 to 2 feet tall and are better suited to containers. Kale prefers the cool temperatures of spring and fall but can be coaxed to continue bearing in summer in northern gardens if given some shade in the afternoon. When harvesting these veggies, snip the outside leaves so the interior of the plant can keep developing new leaves.
Chives
Chives are a perennial, so you only have to buy them once. In fact, after three or four years, they will need dividing, so you’ll end up with extra plants. These are very popular plants for mixing in the ornamental garden, due to the rosy-purple flowers. Both the flowers and the stems have a mild onion taste and are used to flavor many different dishes. They’re fairly easy vegetables to grow in pots.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes are pretty easy to take care of and fit perfectly in an average pot!
Your tomato plant will need plenty of sunlight – at least 5 hours each day. Plant your tomatoes in good, nutrient-rich soil, and you’ll soon have a plentiful harvest.
Peppers
Peppers grow well in pots. In fact, having them in movable containers can give you more control over their final taste than if they were growing in one spot in the garden. This is because both sweet and hot peppers develop their flavor based on how much sun exposure they get.
For sweet peppers, the more sun they get, the sweeter they taste. For hot peppers, more sun = more spice. Move your peppers around to get more or less sun exposure as they grow, depending on how you want them to taste when they are mature.
Cucumbers
Pick a small bush cucumber variety meant for pickling, as it will grow a large yield of small cucumbers, which is exactly what you want in a container garden; lots of veggies in a small footprint. Personally, I love Burpee’s “Fresh Pickle” cucumbers to grow in pots.
Cucumber plants will need some sort of support structure to grow on, such as a metal or wire trellis. Use twine to tie the young cucumber stems onto the support structure to train them to grow up it.