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
©2006-2010

Balcony Gardening

Yesterday I introduced the topic of urban gardening. Urban gardening presents several issues because in most cases it falls into small space gardening. In some of these cases no actual ground is available for traditional row gardening and while raised beds may be an option for some those living in apartments and row housing may not be able to use raised beds due to restrictions of the tenancy. Even if the unit is owned restrictions may prevent raised beds or traditional row gardening due to home owner's association restrictions. With this in mind there are still plenty of ways that urban residents can still produce some of their own food.

One area to look for growing fruits and vegetables is the balcony. A balcony may be about 8' x 12' or 96 square feet. If half of this was used for growing space it would be just slightly larger than one of my 4' x 10' raised beds (40 square feet). So that is a good sized growing space. But consider on balconies you can add planter boxes on the railing and hanging baskets to help increase the growing space. You can also add shelving to increase growing space. When used effectively a small balcony can produce a surprising amount of food.

Balcony gardening is the same as any other gardening in that you need to take into consideration sunlight and watering. There are a few things you do need to consider:

• lightweight yet stable containers
• fertilizing the containers
• additional watering demands
• shading
  
• wind effects*
  

*Surprisingly wind effects can be quite problematic. Wind effects especially in higher located balconies have a profound effect on balcony gardens. Not only are the winds extremely drying increasing the watering needs, winds at higher located balconies can cause leaf burn on plants as well as stem breakage.. Tomorrow's post will address how to deal with the damaging effects of the wind especially for those with balconies on the third floor or higher.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010