Growing Vegetables in Containers

Growing Vegetables in Containers

Tom Ingram: Ask a Master Gardener

Sunday, March 15, 2020

Q: I would love to have a vegetable garden, but we rent our home. Any suggestions? KT

A: This is a dilemma faced by a number of people whether you rent a home or an apartment. Fortunately, there are a number of options that will enable you to grow your own vegetables.

The best solution for your dilemma is container gardening. Almost any kind of container can be used to grow vegetables. The simplest would be a 5-gallon plastic bucket.

Just get a bucket, drill some holes in the bottom to allow for drainage, fill it with garden soil, and you are ready to go.

Buckets are great for tomatoes. There are even some smaller “patio” varieties of tomatoes that can produce all summer without trying to grow 6 feet tall.

You can also grow peppers, bush beans and any number of herbs, such as basil. You could even grow potatoes.

Fabric pots are another container option. These pots are typically made of a felt-like material and come in a variety of sizes. They even have handles on top to ease in moving them around. Many of us grow potatoes in these pots as we can start the potatoes in shallow soil and add soil as they grow. This helps increase your harvest.

Another great thing about containers is that they can be mobile. If you live in an apartment, you can move the container into the sun in the morning and then maybe place them in shade for that late-afternoon sun. Also, spring weather can sometimes be challenging for vegetable gardeners because we are likely to get a hail storm or two.

In case there is news of a hailstorm, you can just move your containers to a protected area. This is a luxury those of us with raised-bed gardens don’t have. These are not the only options, but at least these will get you started.

Garden tips

• Remove flowers from spring-blooming bulbs after blooming is completed. This will allow the plant to direct its energy into its bulb for next year's blooms, rather than producing seeds.
• Allow foliage of these bulb plants to die and turn brown naturally before removal. If the leaves are green, they are storing energy for the following year.
• These bulb's root systems become inactive after blooming and cannot absorb fertilizer. It is best to fertilize them at the time of planting, in the fall or in the spring when their leaves first emerge
• The Master Gardener Online Plant Sale continues through April 1.