Not everyone has a Back 40. Many urban gardeners are working with aggressive space constraints (“Patio 4?” anyone?) but still want the joy of planting, harvesting and cooking homegrown veg. For these gardeners, container growing is sometimes the best or only option.
Nearly every crop that can be grown in ground can also be grown in containers. I grow a container demo garden every year at the front of my house to show passers-by what can be done and have successfully harvested broccoli, kale, summer squash, beans, herbs, strawberries and greens of all kinds from a few pots at the front of the driveway.
In my cool-summer, maritime climate I find that real heat lovers like eggplant often do better – a lot better – in containers than in-ground, and so even though I have a large (by urban standards) garden, I still choose to grow some crops in containers.
The trick to container gardening is in knowing which varieties of each crop are going to thrive in that environment, and setting up your containers well. This means using appropriate size pots and potting mixes, and providing the right water and nutrition for your plants. Container growing also means taking responsibility for more of the plants needs as compared to in-ground growing – that little seedling is counting on you for food and water because it can’t seek out deeper, moisture-retentive soil.
With those considerations in mind, growing a whole garden worth of food from containers isn’t hard – it just requires a little know-how.
Giveaway!
High Mowing Organic Seeds (my favorite seed house and a sponsor of this blog) is offering one NW Edible reader the book The Bountiful Container plus the High Mowing Organic Seeds Container Garden Collection.
The Bountiful Container is a real classic in the How To category of garden books. It covers soil and potting mixes, sizes of pots needed for various edibles, best varieties, how to combine edibles in containers and talks about the full range of fruit and veg you can grow in a pot and a lot more. It’s an information rich book.
High Mowing’s Container Garden Collection combines ten of the best varieties of vegetables for container culture into one pack. It includes one packet each of:
- Nasturtium Mix
- Genovese Basil
- Santo Cilantro
- Matt’s Wild Cherry Tomato
- Ring-o-Fire Pepper
- Sugar Ann Snap Pea
- High Mowing Mesclun Mix
- Dinosaur Lacinato Kale
- H-19 Little Leaf Cucumber
- Yaya Carrot
And because these are High Mowing Seeds, everything is certified organic. These varieties make a nice collection for a warm-weather container garden, but several (the cilantro, peas, mesclun, kale and carrots) will continue to thrive deep into fall or even overwinter in mild climates like the Pacific Northwest.
Together, these two items have a retail value of $45 and will give you the knowledge and varieties you need to grow hundreds of dollars worth of organic vegetables in a small space. High Mowing will be giving both of them to one lucky container-gardening winner.
To enter to win, sign up for the monthly High Mowing Newsletter, The Seed Bin, then come back here and leave a comment below letting me know what fruit or veggies you grow in containers.
About the High Mowing Newsletter: this is not some schlocky spam email thing, guys, I promise. Every month High Mowing sends out one newsletter with great, truly useful garden information. I learn a ton from the newsletter.
In the past they’ve sent along tips for doing at-home seed germination tests, information and great stories on specific varieties of vegetables, how to care for garden tools, how to jump-start the potato growing season and even tips for container gardening. They also run periodic giveaways for stuff you’d actually want – like gardening books and gift certificates for organic seeds.
High Mowing follows best practices for emailing, so you don’t need to worry about them selling or trading your info, and of course you can unsubscribe at any time. But honestly, I don’t think you’ll want to. I look forward to the helpful tips in The Seed Bin every month and I bet you’ll feel the same.
This contest is sponsored by High Mowing Organic Seeds and is open to U.S. and Canadian residents only. Contest open until Wednesday, April 16th, 8 PM PST. Winner will be notified by email. If the winner fails to respond within 24 hours, a new winner shall be drawn. Good luck everyone!
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Hope this goes through this time. We have a dwarf nectarine in a greenhouse in a pot, and a traditional strawberry pot on the back patio. I’ll try the eggplants in pots this year. Thanks for the tip!
HighMowing newletter, check.
This will be my second year of growing veggies in galvanized steel horse troughs: tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots. Being up in Bellingham, the extra heat these hold onto made a huge difference in growth. Thanks for the post!
Signed up for the newsletter and looking forward to container gardening because it’s something I can do as a new retiree with limited mobility. First garden I worked was as a 6-year-old helping my aunts in North Carolina in the late 1940’s. As a city-slicker these past 60 years, I haven’t had much practice, so I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty this Spring.
I have grown everything from nasturtiums to corn salad to Early Girl tomatoes to chives, but currently I am fruitless and my green thumb is vegetating. 🙁
This year I am trying to grow Zucchini in containers because for the past two years I have had zero success in the grow. Root borers killed every one of them…
I subscribed. 🙂 This year I’m trying to grow bell peppers,cantaloupe,green onions,tomatoes,gourds,broccoli,peppers,green beans,carrots, and radishes in containers.
shivercarla@gmail.com
Thanks for the giveaway!
I live in an apartment with a small balcony. I grow every vegetable in my containers. Even squash.
We experiment with different things every year. So far our best success stories have been carrots,
Potatoes, beets, herbs, tomatoes and greens, including kale. Oh, strawberries too.
I like to grow herbs (basil, thyme, oregano, chives) in a large pot on my deck just outside my dining room door. I also like hanging pots of cherry tomatoes on either side of the front door. (Subscribed.)
I like to grow figs in containers. We are very borderline for them outside in northern TN, but in containers i can bring them into the garage in winter and have a spring crop. Love them!
I grow cherry tomatoes, basil, carrots, salad greens. I’d like to try those little ball-shaped zucchini and something I just read about, “Mexican Sour Gherkin Cucumber” in containers. Thanks!
I like to grow herbs mixed with pretty flower mixes in 18 inch hanging baskets. I grow peppers ,potatoes, and tomatoes in 5 gallon pots.
herbs are best for us, easy to get to:) thank you
We are lucky to have a “back 40” but my son lives in LA County with a postage stamp yard. This book would be invaluable for them. They would be able to learn all the tricks, and growing their own would help supplement his teacher’s salary, which covers a family of four. (Don’t get me started on teachers’ salaries. Our country is really upside down when those who influence the leaders of tomorrow make pennies and someone like Justin Bieber makes millions.)
I grow tomatoes, peppers, squash, eggplant, mesclun, strawberries, in pots even with over anacre of space to plant in. Warm season crops are just more productive when living in the convergence zone if you make them ‘ mobile’ to follow the hear, sun, and rig upassistance to help them ripen. Looking forwardto the newsletter!
I just signed up, and the timing couldn’t be better! I’ll be getting married in August, and I’ve been talking with my boyfriend about container gardening at his home (where we’ll be living). I cannot wait! I’m also so excited that these are organic seeds, since we eat organic, exclusively. I’ve had many containers in the past that have done wonderfully, but for the past 2 years, I’ve lived in an apartment, so I have only been able to grow herbs. We both have experience with tomatoes (my favorite), but now we’ll also be branching out with jalapenos, cilantro, green onions, tomatillos (to complete the “salsa garden”), and then we want to grow green beans, cucumbers, lettuces, and of course, no container garden is complete without a few large pots of zucchini! I once had a friend who met her neighbors that way – she’d grow way too many zucchinis, and then she’d go door to door, giving out produce. Next thing you know, all the neighbors were getting to know each other, and exchanging recipes for zucchini bread, zucchini soup, etc.
My container gardening started when a rogue pepper seed somehow jumped from my cutting board to a houseplant pot in the kitchen window and it started growing! I encouraged that little seedling, moved it to a sunnier spot, and it eventually gre to a very nice pepper plant that produced a couple really nice yellow bell peppers! Crazy… Especially here in the pnw! I am going to try for more peppers on the deck this year. …signed up for the newsletter, you don’t have to twist my arm for more garden reading 🙂
WOW! What a great source for my garden. Thanks 🙂
Here in southern Vermont, I grow a abundance of herbs, lettuces, chard, kale, scallions, carrots , with intermingled flowers in three 4×8 elevated garden beds. They’re a foot deep, filled with organic compost. With the blight problems we’ve had in this region, I grow tomatoes in big, spacious pots and wooden boxes. Works well for squash and cucumbers, as well. In the elevated beds, I practice intensive succession planting, so there’s always a bunch of babies ready to transplant.
I live in Colorado – super hot, hot, hot, hot and dry, dry, dry. I intermingle flowers, herbs, and vegetables. I have a few raised beds which are fenced in to keep the deer, rabbits and the other locals out. I’d love to try container planting and wonder if it would allow me a bit more opportunity to grow more greens. I work a lot, have a family, and have a lot of yard work — so it’s a challenge to find time to fit it all in.
On another note, I love your blog. I really look forward to your posts — thank you for sharing your knowledge, enthusiasm, and passion.
I’ve got several blueberry varieties in pots on my porch and am about to plant a container with some Mediterranean herbs. Later on, I’ll have cherry tomatoes, bell peppers and Thai chiles out there too!
I’ve done all sorts of lovely tomatoes in pots, along with herbs, peppers, and even lemon cucumbers one year, which were a lot of fun.
Thanks for the wonderful things you publish here. All signed up at High Mowing.
I grow all sorts of decorative stuff in containers, taking “grow” loosely. And some edibles: mint and other herbs…This year I’m going to try blueberries just to see. And potatoes!
I have had strong success growing basil and tomatoes, with marginal success growing carrots, beets, and beans. Our best sunlight is on our driveway, so everything I attempt to grow is in pots.
I have a tiny house on wheels parked on 35 acres on San Juan Island. It is paradise living: rustic, simple and with a very small footprint. I was able to put a garden on the property constructed with all salvage materials from the island community resources, including the 7 foot deer fencing. There are tons of deer on this island.
I fill containers with edible flowers, cilantro, salad greens, medicinal herbs and tomatoes around the front door of the tiny house under bird netting, as the deer like to nibble on the plants when I am off island for work.
I also planted strawberries, edible flowers, horseradish and salad greens in small beds near my chicken’s pen. It seems like they do a good job keeping the slugs at bay.
I appreciate all your blog posts and am grateful for this opportunity to participate in the contest.
oh! I forgot, I have potatoes coming up nicely in containers, too.
I have grown lettuce and parsley in containers (for my rabbit to munch on!).
I grow basil in pots to protect it from the hot winds here in eastern Washington.
I have herbs, flowers, and some small evergreens in containers now. Always looking to expand though.
I grow my best cherry tomatoes in containers on my deck since it’s the only truly sunny spot in my yard.
I currently grow cherry tomatoes and herbs in containers but in the past I only had a container garden and had luck with peppers, peas, pole beans, greens, lettuce, and cucumbers.
I grow mint in a container so it won’t invade everybody else’s space (:
Last year I grew pole beans in pots up a chain link very successfully. I’ll be doing the same thing this year again.
This year I am going to try growing cherry tomatoes, eggplant and some herbs in containers! Right now I have my rosemary in a container!
I grow cherry tomatoes, carrots, scallions and leeks, blueberries, herbs, and baby bok choy in containers!
I have grown herbs, flowers, carrots, beets, squash & lettuce in containers. I have a small yard. On one side is flowers and on the other side is my garden. I grow tomatoes-roma & cherry, bell peppers, beets and squash. This year I have put potatoes in black garbage bags to see if this works. I have grown potatoes in my garden and in other containers. I use my kitchen scraps (potatoe peels, onions skins etc.) in my garden as compost and the last few years I have had potatoes grow from the peels! Even had a sweet potatoe grow too!
this year I’m growing only strawberries. blueberries, raspberries and a variety of herbs. all other containers are all plants to benefit bees , butterflies, and hummingbirds. I’m very lucky to have many organic fruit and vegetable farms in my area to purchase my fruits and vegetables from. Always support your local organic farmer.
So far only herbs, flowers and a pine tree once in containers…more to come!
Tomatoes, herbs and lettuce!
We’ve grown basil and some flowers, but I’m trying to learn more about container gardening so that I can grow veggies as well.
Strawberries, borage, oregano, thyme, chives cherry tomatoes-just to name a few! Thanks for the contest, I am happy to know about this newsletter. I love learning about gardening so the more information the better.
I have tried a few garden plants in containers. So far I have had luck with tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuces, green pole beans, and cabbage. My carrots, beets, onions, and potatoes have not produced.
Jalapenos, cilantro, and tomatoes are in my planters. All the fixings for homemade, patio grown salsa!
We mostly grow tomatoes in pots, but have also tried herbs, peppers, eggplants and probably other things that I can’t remember!
Since we live in a beach duplex without much sun in a small backyard (highrise condos next door!) I grow several thing successfully in containers. Tomato, blueberries, peppers, all kinds of herbs, beans, peas, carrots, taters. I am not worried if something doesn’t work in a container. It cost me very little for seeds and the chances of harvesting my own food is awesome! Excited to receive my newsletter
Here in the Seattle area in containers:
I’ve had good luck with lettuce, carrots, spinach, beets for greens all overwintered. Herbs potted year round are parsley, thyme (almost weedy in spreading) and mint. I also have some beautiful looking garlic and sweet onions that overwintered this year for the first time that I have yet to harvest.
So, so luck with a variety of cherry tomatoes, basil, lavender and peas. (All big store transplants. Going to try from seed this year. )
Poor luck with zuchinni (fruit got molded just after forming), kohlirabi (cabbage maggots, going to try that one in a fall sowing next time) and ginger (not sure, got to try again). Also have tried avocados (indoors) and blueberries with less then stellar results.
We grow strawberries and potatoes in our containers.
I love container gardening. I grow salad greens in twenty baskets hanging from two, parallel, horizontal copper pipes that are attached by closet rod supports to my south-facing courtyard wall. Here in western Oregon, where the weather changes every few minutes, this courtyard setup promotes a reliably consistent, mild environment for protecting tender creatures. (I’ve seen nasturtiums bloom in my courtyard when the rest of my yard is blanketed by snow.) And my courtyard keeps the deer, turkeys, etc. on the other side of the fence, where they can munch on all sorts of goodies without stealing my lunch. This is a good setup, so I’d love to learn more about growing eve more container crops in this small space.
My daughter does a container garden project each year in 4-H, and she loves mixing flowers and vegetables (kale and dahlias, ornamental grasses and peppers, etc). I have some cherry tomatoes on the deck in pots, but otherwise most of MY pots are flowers!
I plant patio tomatoes in containers.