A Few Containers in my Container Garden

A Few Containers in my Container Garden

June 10, 2010

My main gardening method is square foot gardening in raised beds using companion planting.  This is a high density growing method.  Currently my raised beds give me 80 square feet of growing space.  Two new beds going in will increase the growing space to 112 square feet.  In addition to that I have several large containers that tend to be used more some years than others.  My largest round containers are 16" diameter and 11" deep, 5 gallon containers.  They have plugs in the bottom so I have used a couple of them in the past for small water features.  I also have a couple 5 gallon square containers, several 24" window boxes and of course all other miscellaneous containers home gardeners tend to accumulate.

Container gardening is another high density growing method.  This year is a year of heavier container use for no particular reason other than increasing growing space.  So I started planting containers as well.  Pictured are four of the planted containers.  Starting at the top and moving clockwise are: Veestar strawberry, Boston pickling cucumbers, zucchini and Tiny Tim tomato.  If you look close you can see the baby zucchini on the plant.  Zucchini grow so fast that they will be ready for picking shortly.  Currently in containers:

• edibles - Bonston pickling cucumbers (4), spearmint, brandywine (2), zucchini, Veestar strawberry, herbs (thyme, rosemary, summer savory, sage, sweet basil, purple ruffles basil, Siam Queen basil, boxwood basil)
• non-edibles - Pinnacle salmon geraniums (10), pink wave petunias (6), Ultra Blue petunia (8), 

I'm still planting though so within the next few days panseys, onions, Jalapeno pepper, Habanero pepper, and more will be joining the raised beds as well as containers.  I plant the large containers and window boxes to the same density as square foot gardening.  Growing in containers present both feeding and watering problems especially during periods of hot, dry weather.  I use a potting soil mix with 0.07-0.01-0.03 (N-P-K) slow release fertilizer that will feed the plants for upto 3 months as well as supplement with epsom salts and additional organic fertilizer as required.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
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