Container Gardening

I like container gardening with vegetables because it makes me feel more productive than just growing flowers.  I’m not just spending time in the yard working with dirt, I’m building groceries!  It makes me feel virtuous to be able to put a dollar value on my effort.

Just because I’m growing something usable, however, doesn’t mean I can’t make it beautiful, too.  How do you go about making your container garden beautiful?  Here are five tips for growing a beautiful container garden.

1. Pick attractive plants

Chives In Bloom

It may seem obvious, but plant selection is the first step to getting an attractive container garden.  Look for pictures of your chosen plants to see what they’ll look like at various stages.  If the look of wire cages turns you off, choose tomatoes that don’t need cage growing.  If the jumble of vines from a bush bean plant doesn’t appeal to you, don’t grow them!

On the other side, feel free to choose some plants primarily for their ornamental value.  I grow more chives than I need because they’re pretty, with the vertical stalks and fun purple flowers.  Many herbs have variegated varieties, with pretty stripes of color in the leaves.  Summer squash plants have really pretty flowers in the morning, and cherry tomatoes are absolutely beautiful when they reach maturity, with clusters of little fruits.

2. Pick attractive containers

This step can be trickier, since containers almost always cost more than your plants, and if you are working on a budget, the bland pots may be the most practical.  If you can afford dozens of beautiful ceramic pots, go for it!  If not, try accenting the garden with one or two focal pieces.  Start with small pots, placed prominently.  Select plastic containers in neutral colors for the rest of your plants, and the decorative pots will jump out.  Every year, replace a few plastic pots with more decorative containers.

3. Use different sizes and shapes

A row of identical 5-gallon pots of tomato plants is bound to be a bit dull.  Instead, choose plants with different sizes of pots, stems, and leaves, and place them near each other.  A tall tomato plant might be complemented by a shallow bowl of herbs or a windowbox of lettuce.  This keeps the garden interesting

This works particularly well if the smaller plants have particularly interesting colors, such as red cabbages or variegated herbs.  Just make sure to place the larger plants as background and the smaller ones as foreground, or you will lose the little ones.

4. Use different heights

If you place everything on the ground, the little plants will be more or less lost in the sea of pots, and the pots themselves will be much more prominent.  Instead, try to arrange some tiers or levels on which you can place plants.

There are a few ways to do this.  My container garden is arranged near the door to my sunroom, so I use the steps that are already there, placing larger containers on the steps and a windowbox on the wide railing.  You can also build inexpensive shelves with cinderblocks and simple wooden boards.  A low table can be a platform for a pot or bowl.

Don’t be afraid to hang things!  Hanging baskets of cherry tomatoes or herbs can add height and fill in empty spaces in a container garden.

5. Plant multiple items in a single pot

There are two reasons for planting more than one item in a single pot.

One is that many plants take a long time to reach maturity.  If you know your tomato plant will be two months in reaching its full height and don’t want to waste that 5-gallon pot in the meantime, you can plant some plants with quick crops, like radishes or carrots, to fill out the container in the meantime.  Full pots are much more attractive than empty ones.

Multiple Herbs in a Planter

The other reason is that the assortment of different plants in a planter makes it more interesting to look at.  When a single pot contains four or five types of leaves or flowers, it holds the eye better.  Try planting a few kinds of lettuce or squash in one container, or grouping herbs for contrasts.  Plant chives with basil and thyme to create three levels of herbs in a single pot.

Just because your garden is functional doesn’t mean it can’t also be beautiful.  Good luck!

I know that there are people who swear by starting plants from seed.  For my part, however, I rarely have much luck with it.

This year, I spent around 20 on seeds, potting soil, and little peat pots to start the plants.  By planting time, I had two zucchini plants, 2 pumpkin plants, and a few bush beans.  A week after putting them in the ground, half of those were dead.

Ah, well.

I will certainly keep trying (one of these years, I will get the hang of it), but for this year,  I again need to think about buying and potting seedlings.

So, where do you look for seedlings?  How do you choose them?  In large part, it depends on what is important to you.  Do you want specific varieties of your chosen crops?  Are you interested in heirloom varieties?  Have you done research into which type of zucchini has the best flavor?  Depending on what you want and need, you can look in different price ranges.

The easiest (and cheapest) place to find vegetable seedlings is the garden center of your local superstore or home improvement store.  At my local K-Mart, I can buy flats of early vegetables for under $2 for a 6-pack.  That will produce a lot of tomatoes.  A Home Depot or Lowe’s will have prices in a similar range.

Obviously, at a superstore, your selections will be limited.  They may not have much information about the varieties they do have, and your chosen variety may not be there.

You also have to be very careful about quality.  Look for stems that are straight and not cracked.  Check for dead or dying leaves.  It’s usually a good idea, when buying 6-packs, to opt for smaller plants, rather than larger.  While the larger plants may be closer to bearing fruit, they get that size by remaining too long in their tiny pots, and often do not thrive when moved to a larger container.  If you are buying late in the season, opt for the larger plants in solo pots rather than the 6-pack flats.

If you choose to go up a step in quality, look for a well-reviewed local nursery.  Quality in nurseries can be hard to judge.  You want a place that knows a good deal about local growing conditions and can advise you on the best plants for your garden.  Whether or not you need their advice, their knowledge will affect the plants they care for.

Nurseries will be much more likely to carry a selection of plant varieties.  Instead of “strawberries”, they may have 4-5 types of strawberries to choose from, with different maturity times or plant sizes.  If you have pickier needs, shopping at a nursery can help you get just what you need.

Tip: if you are looking for a specific type of plant, it may be worth researching local farms to see if they offer any seedlings for sale.  There is a local farm near me, Verrill Farm, that allows people to pre-order heirloom and hybrid tomato seedlings in late winter for pickup in May.  This usually requires some pre-planning, but if you can find a provider, can give you an excellent start on your garden.

If you have specific needs that can’t be met locally, you can turn to online sources for your seedling order.  Be VERY CAUTIOUS when ordering online.  With most online orders, you can receive it and immediately know if something went wrong.  With plants, you may not know until a year or two later that the cherry tree you ordered was actually a mislabeled apple tree.  You also cannot select the healthiest-looking seedlings.

Before deciding to buy from an online nursery, look for reviews of them.  Dave’s Garden has a fantastic resource called the Garden Watchdog, which keeps reviews of nurseries and lets you know how many are positive and negative.  If you can, I strongly urge you to order from one of their Top 30 sites, all of which are very well reviewed.

If the sites that have your chosen variety all have neutral or slightly negative ratings from the Garden Watchdog, don’t worry too much about it.  One interesting fact about reviews is that people are much more likely to post about bad experiences than good, unless offered another incentive for reviewing.  A site with 30 good reviews and 30 bad still likely has 90% or more customer satisfaction.

One real downside to ordering online is shipping costs.  If you plan to buy online, plan your purchase carefully and buy everything you will need at once and from one site (if possible) to minimize your shipping costs.

Good luck, and good shopping!