Starting a Mixed Vegetable Container Garden

What Veggies Grow Best in Containers?

Smaller vegetables, such as radishes, green beans and pepper plants work well in a container environment, as do lettuce varieties such as romaine, spinach, arugula and other leafy greens. Several smaller types of tomatoes, such as Roma, cherry or grape, will flourish in a container. Salad cucumbers, which are smaller in size, and all varieties of herbs can produce an abundant harvest when grown in a container.

What You Need for Container Gardening

While there are a wealth of specialized tools and products available for container gardening, here are the basic items you will need: Large container (the bigger the better), potting soil, compost, and water. If you don't have a lot of time to maintain your veggies, consider using water-absorbent crystals or an Olla (a porous clay vessel) to help with watering needs. A good quality fertilizer can also help improve the quality of the harvest.

Location

Location can mean the difference between an abundant, thriving container garden and a pot of sad-looking plants. Sunlight is essential to growth of any plant, so you want to pick a location, indoors or out, that provides at least 5 hours of sunlight per day. Choose a spot that offers sun in the morning and shade in the afternoon to prevent baking your vegetables to death.

Designing Your Mixed Vegetable Container Garden

When designing a container garden, you need to allow space for each vegetable to get the water and nutrients that it will need to survive and thrive. If you cram a heady assortment of plants in one container, the crowding will not allow any of the plants to grow to its full capacity and the fruits of your labor will be drastically limited.

Consider using several containers so that you can get the best of each vegetable while still conserving space. Plant herbs in one container, tomatoes and peppers in another. Place lettuces and radishes or carrots in another container, and green beans and salad cucumbers in their own pot.

Other Considerations

Plant what you like, and try one or two plants of new items just to test them out. Consider how much space you have for storage of harvested veggies. If you have a freezer, you'll be able to preserve some of the harvest for later use; however, if space is limited, just grow what you can use during the season.

Resources

• Container Vegetable Gardens