Container Gardening

You can still grow quite a bit in containers!

Learn how easy it is to grow plants – yes, even food – in containers in this fourth post in the Kitchen Garden series.

When we first got into container gardening it was after we had already lived in New York City for a few years. As with many urban environments, there are opportunities to participate in community gardens, but for people who are full-time pedestrians it can be inconvenient if there is not one that is close to public transportation or their home. The people who have a deck or porch, or who have access to garden on their building roof, are very lucky. It means that they can get into container gardening.

Of course, container gardening isn’t reserved solely for those who live in apartments. Suburbanites can take advantage of both container gardening and a regular garden. What container gardening really provides for everyone is additional flexibility in how and where you grow your food. Here are a few benefits:

• You can use just about any type of container to grow plants. We’ve used galvanized buckets (they were left over from our wedding – we used them as picnic baskets), plastic buckets and pails, wood containers, and clay pots. Tip: If you use a container that has not been developed for growing plants, you will need to drill holes in the bottom of the container so that the water has a way to drain out.
• By using a container, it means your soil will not become compacted. If you have a regular garden, it’s easy to accidentally (or otherwise) walk on and compress your soil. This makes it harder for your plant roots to push their way through the soil. With a container, your soil is loose and allows for your plants to grow more quickly and with fewer problems.
• You can grow plants where you wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. You can place your plants on hard surfaces where there is no access to soil (concrete, wood deck, etc.), and you can arrange your plants in any configuration you please just by moving your pots around. Tip: Try to avoid placing your pots on reflective surfaces, or surfaces that are meant to attract the sun (like a roof top). We have done this and it probably affected our plants ability to grow as well.

The main tip that I would share is that you will want to choose a container that is deep. The plants that have done the best for us have been the ones that have had the deepest soil. We have used shallow containers in the past, and those plants just didn’t do as well, although they did still try to grow. If you can only use shallow containers, then try to grow plants that will not need as much space or that you will harvest after a few weeks (i.e. radishes or lettuce).

Strawberry pots are great for their ability to grow many plants

A few months ago when it was still winter, we were browsing the garden section of our local grocery store and noticed that they had strawberry pots on sale. I had never tried a strawberry pot before, but it makes such huge sense to use on a regular basis in container gardening. These are the pots that have holes all around jutting out like a cup. It’s obviously perfect for growing strawberries, but it’s also great for growing a wide variety of plants in a single pot making it look really nice and lush. I’m completely hooked and plan on buying more this fall and winter when they are on sale again (depending on where you would buy them now they can be really expensive).

These next steps are going to show you how to prepare your container using the strawberry pot as an example, but these steps can be followed with regular pots and containers as well. Again, just keep in mind that if you are using a container that does not already have a drainage hole on the bottom, you will need to use a drill to add holes (we typically add multiple holes since most drill bits are fairly skinny). Also, you’ll need to be extra careful when drilling through plastic because it’s easy to crack the entire bottom.

What you’ll need:

• Large container or pot
• Fabric or wire mesh (optional only if you have larger rocks)
• Gravel or rocks
• Potting soil
• Seeds and/or plants
• Hand trowel

Place your pot where you'll want it to sit

First, while you can move your pots around after you have filled it with soil, it’s a good idea to place it where you will want it sit from the outset as it will become very heavy. Also, make sure that it’s in a location where it will get at least a few hours of sun each day.

Getting the pot ready

The other thing to consider is the location of the drainage hole in relation to the surface you’re going to have your pot sitting on. Since the pots are sitting on a wooden deck, I made sure that the drainage hole was located above one of the spaces between the planks of wood. This allows the water to fall through the crack.

No matter what container you use, you’ll want to place gravel or rocks in the bottom of your container. This also allows for good drainage. Here, because I am using smaller pieces of gravel, I am covering up the hole with a small square piece of mesh.

Adding gravel to the bottom of the pot

As you can see I didn’t use a huge amount of gravel, but I did use enough to cover the bottom of my container.

Adding soil to container

If you are using a strawberry pot, make sure that as you are adding the soil that it doesn’t overflow out of each hole along the side of the pot. If you are using a regular pot, you’ll just want to fill up the container to about 1/2 inch to one inch from the top with soil.

Planting strawberries

I’m sorry I don’t have pictures that show me actually planting these strawberries, but I’ll try to explain as best as possible what I did.

Before you plant your plants, move some of the soil out of the way with a hand trowel or with your hand. You want to make sure that the plant’s roots can sit deep in the soil from the start.

No matter what plant you have, you will want to be extra careful removing it from its original pot. If this is a plastic pot, then squeeze the sides to loosen the plant from the pot. Turn the pot over so that the plant can then slide out of the pot with only gentle pulling on your own. If you can help it, try not to pull up on the plant – you may wind up breaking the leaves and/or stems.

Place your plant in the hole you have created, then add soil around the plant so that the roots are fully covered. Press down a little bit, but not too firmly (remember, you don’t want very compressed soil).

You can also direct sow seeds – just plant the seeds a little bit below the surface of the soil, cover them, and be sure to label what you’ve planted.

Water your seeds and plants

Once you have everything planted, water the soil well. In this container I have planted regular strawberry plants (given to us by some gardening friends), and from seed I’ve planted spinach, borage, garlic chives (a couple were seedlings) and thyme. These are all plants that grow well together, so I am hopeful that everything will thrive.

Today!

The pictures that show the process of planting the strawberry pot were taken about five or six weeks ago. I took this picture this morning – my strawberry plants are taking off and the borage loves growing in this pot. They’re doing so well that I am probably going to thin them out and replant some of them in other pots and our community garden. The only thing that has not come up yet are the garlic chives, but I imagine I might see them pop up once the weather is warmer (it’s still in the 50s and low 60s here in Washington state) and the rain isn’t quite as much.

See – it’s easy to grow in containers! We have grown so many different plants in pots – tomatoes, peas, turnips, radishes, cucumbers, luffa, basil, collards, peppers, spinach, tat soi, etc. – that we’re confident that just about anything can be grown in them.

For those of you that already do container gardening, what are you growing? Are you trying anything new this year? And did I leave anything out?

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