Hi, this is Yolanda Vanveen and in this segment we're going to talk about how to design a container vegetable garden. So, you don't have to have large property or a big garden to have a vegetable garden. You can grow it indoors in a sunny window or with artificial light, or just in a container out on your patio or the deck or anywhere, where you have an area where you can grow 'em. So when you go to design a container garden with vegetables, I first decide what to grow. And go into your refrigerator, or go into the vegetable store and find out what is your favorite vegetables, what are the most expensive vegetables and which ones would you really want to grow yourself. And then do a little bit of research. So if you're growing in a container garden, plants like sweet corn which get three feet tall and three feet wide and they need a lot of room... it's kind of hard to grow corn in containers just 'cause they get so big, but you can use larger tubs and grow them in the container and then you can have smaller vegetables on the outside. And vegetables like peas, they don't need a lot of space. They only need to be three inches apart and so they just need something to grow up to... on to like a tee-pee or a string or a trollish. So when you're designing your garden, take all these things into consideration. Plants like spinach or vegetables are great because they don't take a lot of room and they can be only six inches apart from each other and you can harvest from them all year... or all summer long. And so when you're starting your vegetable garden, start from seed and if it's a cold climate plant, like corn or a pea, you can start them as soon as the last frost. So two weeks after the last frost, you can start the seeds, whether indoors or outdoors. If it's a plant like a watermelon, then you don't want to start that 'til it starts to warm up. So either start 'em indoors or start 'em outdoors a little bit later. So when you're designing your little container, make sure that all the plants are getting a full amount of sun. So put either the larger plants toward the back or the middle and have the smaller plants onto the outside with the shortest plants to the rim of the pot and that way you can get the most plants... the most vegetable plants in the smallest amount of area. Even plants like carrots that grow under the ground, make sure your container is large enough so that they can develop the vegetables under the ground. And you can harvest 'em through the summer into the fall and as soon as the leaves turn brown, just chop everything down and you can start again the next year, so designing a vegetable garden or a container is very simple, just take your time and realize what type of vegetables you want to use and make sure that you're not using too big of a plant that's going to take over the container and push all the other plants out. So small is better, and when you have a choice, select the smaller vegetables and fruits and you'll have a beautiful container vegetable garden.
More Photos
