Container gardening

I have written about container gardening before, and my use of containers in vegetable and flower gardening has only increased since.  The photo above is an example of one area, on my driveway, where I have containers (I likely have 50 outside right now).  Here is what I grow in containers:
1. Tropical plants, like bananas, that I want to overwinter and grow again next year.  These plants are either brought into unheated shelter, like my garage (for example, plants that grow from bulbs and die back) or live out the winter in my heated, but cool, attic under florescent lights (citrus, bananas, coffee, mangoes, hibiscus, Indian curry leaf tree).
2. Plants I have not yet planted that need a temporary home.
3. Plants that I will use in my botanical drawings (in the photo above I have white milkweed, mullein, and cotton plants for this purpose).
4. Peppers:  for some reason, bell and hot peppers do better for me in pots than in the ground.
5. Plants that look lovely in pretty pots: dwarf Japanese maples, voodoo lilies, and "Snow on the Mountain" dwarf pine.

Some containers I use are are more utilitarian (for annual veggies), other more ornamental (for permanent plantings).  A few tips with containers:
-Unglazed terracotta pots dry out fast, they wick away moisture.  Plus, they may crack if left outdoors over winter.
-Annual veggies, like tomatoes and peppers, need all the growing space they can get: do not fill the bottom of the pot with styrofoam peanuts, gravel or broken pottery.  If your soil is good, they don't need extra drainage.
-Saucers under pots can cause root rot.  One sign of over-watering is guttation:  this is when water drips from the leaves: it is the plant's attempt to get rid of excess water in the soil.
-Plants that winter outdoors in cold climates need protection, as do ceramic pots. Perennials need a generous-sized pot, lined with bubble wrap on the sides (not the bottom) to protect the roots from freezing. Draping or wrapping the pot with burlap also helps protect the pot and provides further insulation for the roots.
-When you bring pots in for the winter, check for bugs. I douse the soil with a BT solution (it's organic: a naturally-occurring bacteria that kills insects) to kill fungus gnats and I spray the plants with commercial insecticidal soap spray.
Search this blog for other postings on containers!
Happy gardening!

"Truck" Farm

Film makers Ian Cheney, Curt Ellis and Carla Fleisher are driving about Manhattan in a pickup truck that has been converted to a vegetable garden! They are having a contest for schools on growing food in the oddest places! Check out the photos at:

http://www.truck-farm.com/#/A%20Wicked%20Delicate%20Film%20and%20Food%20Project

Happy gardening!

Container Gardening

(My neighbors lovely containerized yellow hibiscus, flanked by cannas: note that the pot is partly buried to conserve moisture).
(My cukes in a pot, growing up the hardware cloth trellis on my front porch!)
(Potted peppers and herbs)

Container gardening

One easy way to break into gardening is through container gardening. While it has some drawbacks, you can control the conditions in the pot far better than conditions in a garden, plus you have far less area to care for. It is easy to weed a container and to provide water and fertilizer. Some plants might not be hardy in your zone, so you need to take them inside some shelter in the winter. The soil in an area might be poor or overrun with tree roots, but you can container garden on top. Sometimes, pots just look cool. Here are some thoughts:

Container: a common error is to buy a pot that is too small for the plant you have in mind. I am always on the lookout for sales on large pots, ceramic and otherwise, even if I don’t have an immediate need for one. Ceramic pots are by far the prettiest, but they are heavy, harder to move and prone to cracking and breaking. I still prefer them, and take my looses as they come. Plastic is inexpensive, versatile, easier to lift and lasts a long time. There are environmental costs to both kinds of pots. Some novel containers can be used, if they have drainage or are drilled: wash tubs, old wheelbarrows, rope-handled plastic tubs. Large containers are necessary for good root growth and for water retention (the smaller the pot, the more frequent the watering).

Soil: I use a mid-level quality potting soil, though some people prefer to mix their own of equal parts of soil, compost and peat. In general, soil from your yard and garden will not work well in a pot. For example, here in central VA, we have clay soil and containerized plants will not thrive in it. Some gardeners like to work water-absorbing crystals into the soil, but they are pricey and I would only use them for valuable plants.

Filling the pot: Move the pot to its destination before you fill it, esp. with the largest and heaviest pots. Moving a large ceramic pot filled with soil can be back breaking! Before you fill the pot, you can add rocks, broken pot pieces or broken chunks of Styrofoam (the last is lightest) for drainage, though I have gotten away without doing this, as long as the pot has 3 or 4 good drainage holes. Don’t fill it all the way, but fill it to the level of the plant you will put in it, then back fill with soil. Water in well, and add more soil as necessary. Mulch on the top of the soil to conserve water.

Water: pots need more frequent watering than plants in the ground, as they don’t have an extensive root structure to seek out moisture and water reservoir in the soil. When I go away during the growing season for 3 or more days, I hire a teenager to water the pots for me (I have about 50 plants in pots). Don’t let the plant wilt- this is a sign you waited too long to water and the plant can have a set back in growth. You have to let experience be your guide. Some potted veggies I grow (peppers and, this year, a cucumber) need more frequent watering than some herbaceous plants. Putting a saucer under the pot can help with longer-term watering.

Fertilizer: every couple of weeks (less for herbaceous perennials like bay laurel) I make a mixture of fish emulsion and kelp and mix it in the plant water. Some times I use worm water from my vermicomposter (great stuff!) and, though we rarely have it, leftover coffee as fertilizer.

Roots may snake out of the drainage hole in some plants. I had a potted mimosa that died, and the pot cracked right in half, but it became apparent the next year that it had sent down roots. I have a huge mimosa tree now, too close to the house, that will have to come down some day. To prevent this you can suspend the pot on little ceramic pot supports (also good to prevent your deck form being discolored by constant pot drainage) or bricks, so the roots will not survive out of the pot.

Overwintering: one reason to grow plants in pots is because they need overwintering, like my bananas that I keep in my attic from October to April. I overwinter some plants in my unheated garage, some covered in burlap. Over the winter I water them just enough to keep the soil from completely drying out.

Garden Update: Just a few things about the garden…made my first batch of pesto on Saturday- the cookbooks I read were right, it is better when the leaves are young and tender, this year I have several potted basils in various stages of maturity…just a couple of weeks to see if my potato bin, vole deterrence experiment worked…and I harvested 2/3 of my onions and the voles even ate some of those! I have always believed that they would not go for any of the alliums (onions, garlic, leeks) but I was wrong!!! Who’d a thunk it?

Happy gardening!