How To Container Garden: Herb and Vegetable Container Gardening Tips

The first consideration is the space you can place your containers and the available sunlight.
To grow a successful container garden the plants will need a minimum of six hours of full sunlight per day for the vegetables or fruit to mature and ripen. Popular spaces for container gardens are decks, patios, porches, outdoor steps, roofs and windowsills. Southern exposed areas that aren't obscured by other buildings or large trees usually are the best choice to place your container garden. Now that you've found a place with adequate sunlight you'll need to determine what size and shape containers you'd like to use. If you're going to go with a large container that will be too heavy to move its best to make sure that it's in the location where it won't need to be moved after it's full of dirt. The larger the container the more plants you'll be able to grow in it. If your space and budget is limited you could go with plastic containers of the three, five or 7 gallon size to start with. Holes in the bottom of the containers are necessary for a drainage and a drain pan underneath if the surface needs to be protected from water staining. Hanging baskets are also a possibility for growing vegetables or herbs. Ceramic pots for your container gardens always look nice. Now that you have chosen a suitable place and a few containers to start with we'll will move on to the soil.

Vegetables, herbs and fruits will need a good soil that retains water, drains well and doesn't dry out too quickly. I've always had good success with my own mix of processed steer manure, compost and topsoil. This can be mixed in a corner of your yard or just use the large container. I don't recommend a generic vermiculite type potting soil that the garden stores sell because it doesn't have enough organic matter and compost in it and dries out too quickly. The steer manure contains a good amount of natural fertilizer for the first growing season. If you can get up a big bucket full of topsoil from a friend's yard or garden and add the steer manure and compost to it that would be a good start. The important thing is to just get your soil mixed and in the containers in the early spring and your plant started, don't delay as waiting too long to start plants and they may not mature in time for harvest. Now that you have your containers filled with suitable soil we can move on to choosing our plants to plant.

When choosing the plants for your container garden there are many delicious edible plants to choose from including vegetables, herbs, roots, fruits and even edible flowers it may be tough to choose if your number of containers is limited. Once you have a few vegetables growing in your new container garden and are proud of your accomplishment it's very tempting to make room for more containers. If you have room for a large rectangular container you could grow a row each of lettuce, carrots and radishes for example. A tomato would need to go in its own 5 gallon or larger container. Climbing vegetables like peas and cucumbers would need to have some support to climb on. There are many tasty vegetables to choose from for your container garden like spinach, beans, carrots, beats, lettuce, onions, peas and even potatoes if you have a large enough container. Also there are many fine herbs to choose from to grow in your container gardens such as Sage, lavender, basil, cilantro, dill, oregano, or mint and chives are especially easy to grow. Fruits can even be grown in containers such as strawberries and blueberries. Some people are even known to grow apples, citrus, currents, figs, grapes and even peaches in their containers. Another variety of edible plants to grow in your containers are flowers such as Nashturiums, roses, sunflowers, tulips and lilies just to name a few. If it's early spring you can start your plants from seeds in small containers and when they get big enough to divide them in put them into the larger and final containers. Or if it's late spring you can purchase already started plants from your local garden shop or a nursery and then divide them into your larger container at home. So what are you going to choose for your first container garden? If you're having difficulty deciding I would suggest to start with the cherry 100 tomato, some lettuce, peas, spinach, rosemary, and strawberries.

Now you have all the basic information you need to go start your first container garden. If you have adequate sunlight and a good space to place your containers you just need to obtain your soil mix and buy your seeds or plant starts and put them all together and you'll soon be able to enjoy your own home-grown vegetables, herbs, fruits and edible flowers. What are you waiting for? Go start your own fruit or vegetable container garden today. And please remember to water them regularly so they don't dry out.