Top 5 Vegetable Container Gardening Tips

This year, I've grown all of my vegetables in containers...with the exception of some tomatoes and potatoes. It's not that I don't have enough land, it's that I am lazy. Seriously. I just decided I didn't want to deal with the weeds and work of a full on vegetable garden.

Though I started way back in April, my plants have taken an achingly long time to take off. We've had an unusually cold and rainy spring and summer here in Portland. Not that our spring and summer aren't usually cold and rainy...they always are to some degree...which is why I thought I would outsmart Mother Nature and place my containers on my cement patio. I was banking on the reflective heat of the warmed cement to force my veggies to produce.

Containers warm up more quickly that in ground plantings, something to keep in mind regardless of your climate. This can be a boon when you want to get your spring plantings off to a quick start. But the heat of summer can quickly dehydrate said containers, causing daily and sometimes twice daily, waterings. If our weather holds, I see no danger of the twice daily waterings in my neck of the woods.

Though I have yet to reach a real summer climate, I have learned a few things so far...

Vegetable Container Gardening Tips

1. Don't overcrowd...it's so tempting to stuff containers full of produce. If you overplant, they will be engaged in a constant battle for water and nutrients, which leads to weak and struggling plants that don't produce well. 
2. If you are growing cole crops (kale, broccoli, cauliflower, etc) in small containers, be prepared for them to bolt quickly...particularly if they are on a cement patio. Even though it's been cool and rainy here, we had a 5 day stretch of sunny and 80's. The kale and Peacock broccoli that I had in smaller containers promptly bolted. It was a sad day.
3. Don't water just because you can. After I first planted the containers, I felt like I needed to do something. This was, no doubt, based on the past decade and a half of gardening in ground. Containers take much less effort (forget weeding) and do not appreciate too much care. Yes, you can love a container to death.
4. Mix flowers in with edibles. I did this right from the start and am so happy I did! I love the combination of colors, textures and fragrances.
5. If something isn't working, change it. Using containers to grow vegetables makes it super easy to make changes as the season goes on. I over seeded a few of my pots because I wasn't sure the seeds were viable. When I had too many seedlings, I just transplanted. And when seedlings grew in to massive plants, I transplanted again.
6. Keep planting all summer. Usually I tend to try and get all of my planting done in the spring, because I know I am going to spend the summer battling weeds. With containers, I have the luxury of ongoing plantings. In fact, I just purchased some annuals to create containers that will bloom long into fall. By mixing these in with the established edibles, I can extend the growing season.

Yes, I know I've listed 6...I couldn't resist adding the last one. Other than a dearth of weeding, the ability to add new plants at any time is my favorite part of gardening in containers.

I hope this has been helpful...I'd love to know about your container gardening experiences.

 

Comments

[wwwwordsfromwillow.blogspot.com]

Love this! This is my first year trying container gardening. I have to schlepp the pots into and out of the garage every night to keep the deer and squirrels out of them. I'm new to it so I don't know what "bolting" means. I'm also not sure how to know how or how much to thin things.

A friend suggested high/low planting...planting leafy things that don't require depth in with rooty things (beets, carrots etc) that will grow down vs up. Makes intuitive sense anyway.

All my stuff is still really small. I had to replant once because of hard ran that smashed the seedlings. And I'm in NorthEAST Oregon where it has been flooding all spring, and is still a bit cold (68 at nearly 9 a.m. this morning).

[Jean Ann Van Krevelen]

We have been having a lot of rain and cool weather west of the Cascades, too. My tomatoes are pathetic. :(

[Hardtobeet]

Interesting stuff! I've been growing all my potatoes in buckets and containers and have had reasonable success (I lost all my potato crop last year when a sudden frost got the lot!). I live in the UK and we've been having plenty of sun and rain so everything is growing really well at the moment. Long may it continue!