Put it in a pot
Bobbie Jean lives in a townhouse. In a sunny corner of her carport, she grew bell peppers and tomatoes in a few pots on plant stands. She bragged she had her best pepper crop ever this year, and one of her tomatoes was bigger than a baseball.
Living in a townhouse, Bobbie Jean did not have access to soil from her yard, and being a senior citizen, she did not carry in large bags of soil. She did the best gardening she could in her pots, and the plants responded.
The deck of Margy Lynn’s house extends over the tules bordering a river. On her deck are several five-gallon containers and other pots plus three or four ancient wooden boxes in which vegetables have grown for decades. Growing in the pots and boxes were onions, garlic, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, strawberries and probably a brassica or two. In a half wine barrel by the front door is a three-year old bell pepper plant still producing. In a big pot just off the deck is a nine-year old beet that looked like the most weathered old sailor you ever saw.
Margy Lynn tops off the soil when necessary and feeds the plants when she can, but these containers are established growing sites just like well-tended garden beds. Regular watering and harvesting is all she needs to remember during the season… and maybe a little weeding.
J.J. has a deck behind his house which gets sun until mid-afternoon. His yard is a steep hillside, so he gathered tubs, pots and five-gallon containers and started a garden on his deck. He rigged up a drip system to account for watering and even installed a trellis for his beans to climb on. The hard work was in the set-up, but that being done, J.J. is able to grow a variety of vegetables in the comfort of his back deck.
And then there is Sir Lafsalot who lives in an apartment just off the Gulf Coast. He had not done much gardening in his past, but he tried a couple of vegetables in pots a few years ago and was so turbocharged by his success, he’s probably up to 30 containers now. He’s harvested okra, cucumbers, squash and plenty more from pots on his thoroughly crowded but productive deck.
So the point is a motivated person can grow plenty of edibles in a mishmash of containers. If you have space, containers and commitment, you’re ready to go.
Choose containers to fit your space. Plants in containers will need sunshine just like similar plants in the ground, so it matters where you stage your containers. Plus, the soil dries out quickly in containers, so somebody will need to pay attention to watering. Containers can’t get waterlogged either, so you must account for drainage.
Bigger pots allow plant roots more space, and that is a good thing. I’ve grown dwarf citrus trees in big pots. Big pots hold moisture longer, but they might become too heavy to move. On my deck, I have several lettuces growing in a pot too heavy to move inside, so it will need protection from the winter temperatures coming soon.
Soil consistency matters in containers because good drainage is necessary, and plants prefer soil that is not compacted. I use dark, friable soil from my mulch pile mixed with organic potting mix to keep the mixture in containers fluffy enough and then supplement with liquid fertilizer.
There are dozens of varieties in seed catalogs which do well in pots and boxes, but some vegetable varieties suffer if their roots are crowded, so it matters what you try to grow. However, your container might be a two-by-three ft. box two feet deep, so the whole catalog is a go for you.
A motivated person can grow lettuce in an orange juice carton or beets in a 12-pack beer box. It’s all good. It’s just gardening.