Growing things in containers
You can be a gardener if you have space for one pot. Not everyone has a place to start a garden plot, but a surprising variety of vegetable and herb varieties will produce well in containers.
How much you can grow depends on your containers, so size matters and the quality of the soil matters even more. If your small deck or front stoop or flag stone by the sidewalk can accommodate a five-gallon pot, the wonders of gardening await you.
Tiny Tim and Dwarf Red Pot are heirloom tomato varieties that yield well in even three-gallon pots or smaller. That means fresh quality tomatoes for salads from a sunny window in a three-room apartment, for example. Because we can, seed developers have created yellow, green, purple and multi-colored cherry tomato varieties, so the pot on your deck could be the coolest in the condo.
However, soil in a container needs extra attention. The container might be clay, ceramic, wooden, plastic or a basket. You could use a cardboard box successfully until it begins to decompose, but the soil in all containers will 1) dry out faster than you expect and 2) compact as it is watered.
Garden soil would seem to be appropriate for growing vegetables in a container, but its texture might clump up and compact in a confined space. That means a container gardener must provide soil that will remain friable but full of nutrients. You have choices.
There are store-bought seed starter mixes that have a comfortable texture for roots to scramble around in, but where’s the potassium, where are the vitamins a healthy vegetable or herb plant needs? There are plenty liquid fertilizer products to choose from (I prefer seaweed emulsions because they come from a mysterious world and mystery is good) that supply nutrients and that’s a good thing, but what about a scientifically-measured mixture of seed starter soil, a smidgen of grass clippings, some garden soil for goodness sake, two handsful of dried oregano because you have jars and jars of it, crumbled sassafras leaves for color, the right amount of old leaf mulch, and a liquid fertilizer of your choice drizzled over everything? A container plant’s delight.
You get to compose your soil and keep the occupants watered enough. It helps if the soil contains organic matter for aeration and absorbing moisture. Your pots might not hold moisture well, so set your wristwatch to alert you every day to check on the pots.
Some plants alert us right away if they are dehydrated, but others hide their dehydration to their own detriment, but the soil is just sitting there with a story to tell, so take care of the soil and the soil will do its part to take care of plants.
Soil in pots gets depleted. Just for fun, water your container plants with nettle or oregano tea to add minerals and establish a regular fertilizing schedule (set your watch) depending on what you are growing.
Speaking of which, what’s growing in your container? There are varieties of most typical vegetables suitable for growing in containers. Other varieties simply need space and won’t perform well in a cramped space. I’m like that.
If a person had only a single container, a practical use would be to grow culinary herbs. Depending on the size of your container, you could grow parsley, chives, cilantro or basil individually or maybe in combinations. Or maybe lettuce and arugula together.
I put three sweet pepper plants in a fairly large container last spring, and they produced small, sweet peppers till the end of the season. I brought the pot inside for the winter, and the plants dropped the old leaves but started growing new ones in February. Because they’re in a big blue pot that I can bring inside, I get to see how many winters they will last. A gardener with containers stays busy year-round.