Vegetable Container Gardening

Pots aren't just for flowers - vegetable container gardening is also popular with those gardeners who may be a little cramped for space.

Artichoke and Tomato

There is nothing like the fresh taste of home grown vegetables or the satisfaction you get from growing them yourself. Many people who live in apartments or condos give up on the idea of having a vegetable garden.

Others decide that it would take up too much time. Growing your own produce doesn't have to take up a lot of space or time if you use containers or pots.

The containers fit easily on a deck, balcony or patio and due to the smaller size and easy accessibility these vegetable gardens don't take a large amount of time to take care of either.

Just about any vegetable that will grow well in a traditional garden pot will do just fine. If you feel more confident using a seed designed specifically for containers, many seed companies offer that option.

Look for words like bush, space saver, dwarf, or compact. These smaller versions are designed especially to grow well in containers.

As far as which vegetables to grow, you are only limited by personal tastes. Salad lovers may want to grow a variety of lettuces. Buttercrunch and Bibb lettuces do well in vegetable container gardening.

Cucumbers are also a popular choice. Varieties you may want to try are Bush Pickle and Spacemaster.

Toy Boy, Small Fry, and Pixie are tomato plants that grow very well in containers. They make an excellent addition to a salad themed container garden too.

Don't forget about the vegetables that are great cooked as well. Eggplant grows well using the Bambino and Slim Jim varieties. Your Eggplant Parmesan will be the freshest ever using home grown eggplant.

Squashes are an excellent choice as well. They also work so well in fall dishes. Vegetable container gardening can add a lot of choice and variety to your dinner table.

When choosing a container to use for your vegetable garden, there are some factors to keep in mind. You could use the plastic pots for sale everywhere or buckets, washtubs, and bushel baskets have been used with a lot of success.

As long as you can put drainage holes in the bottom, any container will work well. You may want to avoid dark colored containers as they attract more heat and may make it too hot for your plants' roots.

Tomatoes and eggplant will grow better in larger pots, like a five gallon bucket. Most of the other vegetables will do fine in smaller containers averaging 2-3 gallon size.

Vegetable container gardening is a fun, productive hobby. You have control over what you grow and have the peace of mind of knowing your vegetables are clean and disease free.

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