Do you have a book recommendation about Container Gardening for Vegetables?
I’m a novice gardener and I’m interested in starting a vegetable garden next year, but would need to do it in containers. Do you have any book recommendations for container gardening? I’m also looking for suggestions on how to get started and what would be easy to grow in containers. Thanks!
June 25th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Lowe’s sells a great book on container gardening published by Sunset and that is how I got started. Although now I live on about an acre, I started gardening in containers on an enclosed condo patio. I still have over 200 plants growing in containers in my yard, including herbs, citrus and veggies. Tomatoes, peppers and herbs are great to grow in containers. I grow 5 different varieties of tomatoes, 3 pepper varieties and a host of herbs like thyme, sage, chives, basil, 2 kinds of oregano, tarragon, dill, mint, chamomile…and some others I don’t remember right now. I found growing vine plants like cucumber, pumpkin and squash is a little tricky in containers, but they do show you how in the Sunset book. For free advice on gardening in containers in your zone, you can contact a master gardener or the county agricultural extension.
June 25th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
The BEST source for the knowledge you seek is from your County Agricultural Extension Office. They have tons of pamphlets that are FREE, and will also recommend any suitable books for your purpose. Container gardening is not that difficult, just be sure they are big enough for the plants you desire to grow. For instance, I always use empty 5 gal buckets for each tomato plant, pepper plant or anything in that size category. Be sure there are drainage holes in the bottom. You can also spend money and buy containers at a hardware store such as Home Depot or Lowes, or any nursery. Easy things to grow are tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, radishes, carrots, green beans. Once again, your Extension office will tell you what grows well in your Zone, when to plant etc.
June 25th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
f you’d like to try to grow your favorite root veggies like carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, etc. an easy way for a beginner is to use a container called a ROOTtub.
You can only appreciate the convenience this container provides if you’ve ever grown root veggies. Normally, you’d have to get on your knees, dig arount the roots, carefully pull them out and hope none of the roots break. It’s a lot of back breaking work, and on a hot, humid day, I can think of more fun things to do.
Click on the FAQ section of this link to see how it works:
http://www.roottub.exofire.net
Good luck and have fun gardening!
June 25th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
There are a ton of websites on this topic. It’s easy to do with the right soil and the right container. I am growing several types of tomatoes and squash in those buckets that you can buy to mix compound and I am growing green beans and peppers in 3 gallon grow bags. I use a mix of Coast of Maine gardening soil and a composted top soil.