Potted Vegetable Garden

Welcome to the Potted Vegetable Garden!

Container vegetable gardening is really starting to come into its own, as more people in with small space gardens coming on board wanting to grow their very own fruits, vegetable and herbs.

"If you are one of those people? Then good on you for making the first step towards creating a successful container garden that produces an abundance of healthy nutritious food."

You have come to the right place!

Creating a productive container food garden need not be back breaking work. When done correctly is simple, productive and darn right fun.

My four year old daughter loves it. (View photo below)

Yes, it can be for all the family who want to get involved and what better way to start than a Potted Vegetable Garden

The fantastic news is that most fruits, veggies and herbs can be grown in pots and containers; some can even be grown indoors or on a windowsill.

You can even grow varieties of fruit trees such as (miniature citrus trees)

In fact for vigorous growers such as Mints it’s practically a necessity to grow them in pots or containers.

Popular Veggies to Grow In Containers

• Tomatoes

• Lettuce

• Capsicum

• Green onions

• Egg plant

Popular Herbs

• Parsley

• Rosemary

• Basil

• Thyme

• Mint

Of course there are many more, but the list would go on forever.

You could also consider other plants in your potted vegetable garden such as Cucumber and Pumpkins but you would need to support them on a trellis or something similar.

As a rule of thumb, use plants that tolerate transplanting, especially those that you will be buying from nurseries or your local market. If the plants you want to grow do not transplant well, then direct seeding is your preferred method.

The type of soil for a potting mix is not soil at all.  Soil is too dense for containers and does not provide the correct drainage or aeration.

Growing mediums are generally organic mediums that can hold roots, retain moisture nutrients and drain well.  In general the mix contains no nutritional value in itself, but is added.

Top rated growing mediums contain a mixture of sawdust, wood chips, peat-moss and vermiculite. 

I would stay away from peat-moss as this is a non renewable recourse

You can make your very own organic potting mix using the materials as above, or if finding this material hard to come by, you can use a mixture of Vermiculite and well rotted compost.

Top it up with one third sand for drainage and one third composted bark and mix in well.

If you are making your own potting mix for your Potted Vegetable Garden then you may want to add water crystals for water storage.  Avoid the crystals with added nutrients as these are generally not organic.

Anything that doesn’t rot and can have a few holes poked in the bottom will do fine for a container.  One great thing about a Potted Vegetable Garden is that you can get very creative with your choice of containers.

One of my favorites many years ago was old boot with Strawberries spilling out of it.  Eventually it just rotted away, but it served its purpose for many years and looked great.

I also use milk containers, ice cream containers, plastic bottles, plastic and metal buckets and even old wash tubs.  The variety definitely has added a lot of character over the times.

Terracotta Tubs or Plastic for a Potted Garden

Terracotta is best used for plants that require excellent drainage and prefer dry conditions.  Plastic, metal and other non perishable are great for plants that need to keep moist and hate drying out.

Always keep the bottoms of your pots raised so they can receive good airflow to the roots.  Remove water that becomes stagnant as this will not only attract mozzies, but also create disease and suffocate the roots.  Most self watering containers are okay; just remove old water if it sits too long.

I hope you enjoyed this article the Potted Vegetable Garden then please share this amongst friends via Twitter or Facebook so your friends can benefit too!

If you want to learn more about productive food container growing please visit the authors website/blog at the Potted Vegetable Garden

You can also find us at http://twitter.com/homesandgarden

Happy Gardening

Marty