Container vegetable gardens

Even if you have a good sized garden, growing a container vegetable garden can be an attractive way to spruce up a deck, patio or balcony while making the space productive. And growing vegetables and herbs close to the house will make it convenient to nip out and snip off goodies to bring into the kitchen.

Although there are a few vegetables and herbs that will flourish in shade, most edibles will require at least 6 hours of full sun to grow well. So choose your location where there is plenty of sunlight.

Next you will probably want to protect the floor surface where you are growing your vegetables. If you are growing them on a deck or balcony, make provisions for a tray or other moisture-catching basin that will protect flooring beneath and will conduct water run-off to a place where it can drain conveniently -- and where it won't be likely to cause trouble to anyone or anything below.

Once your area is chosen and prepared, you will want to select what kind of container(s) you want to use. You can build your own vegetable garden designing it to fit into the space you have. If you build your own you can by a raised garden kit, recycle old wood (making sure it has no paint, stain or other potential toxic materials), or adapt tubs you already have on hand. For all larger containers it is important to include a bottom layer of drainage using crocking, gravel, or other drainage material to keep the tips of plant roots from rotting.

You can create an artistic picture with your vegetable container garden. Long troughs can line edges, colorful pots can be grouped to create designs of their own, or you can re-use and recycle interesting containers like old wheel-barrows, old sinks or wash tubs, half wine casks, bowls from fountains or any other non-toxic object. Always make sure you drill drainage holes in the bottom so water will not build up in the bottom suffocating roots.

Use a quality potting mix with a little compost mixed in. For leafy crops like lettuce, spinach or Swiss chard, it helps to add a pinch of lime.  Fruits like strawberries that prefer a more acid soil will prefer no lime.

Look into companion planting if you want to find some really good combinations of plants that help each other thrive. For example, tomatoes and basil help each other grow well, whereas beans and onions are antipathetic. You can grow your vegetables from seed or buy vegetable plants already started.

You can also make your container plantings more interesting by designing for shape and color. An example might be to find a decorative trellis and allow peas or pole beans to wriggle their way up. Mix up a vegetable garden with different pots of similar colors or themes. Or grow a handsome shrub of colorful peppers in a large pot with a clump of grass-like garlic chives to add a vertical element. Then pop in a decorative asparagus pea plant or a trailing rosemary to spill down the edge of the pot. There are some plants being sold in new biodegradable pots so you can plant the container making container planting even easier.

Container vegetable gardens can be as artistic as flower gardens. Edibles often offer showy flowers as well as colorful fruits. Some even have decorative leaves. And if you arrange them right with interesting containers -- or creative covers for your containers -- you can grow your own delicious edibles in a garden that is as ornamental as a painting when you view it from your window. You might even want to try hanging tomatoes or growing tomatoes topsy turvy for a conversation piece.

Also see:

Vegetable seed catalogs

Tips on building vegetable gardens

Design a container garden

How to grow a container garden