The Basics: Why Container Gardening?

Why Container Gardening?
• I thought there might be some advantage to being able to move plants around to find their optimum sun placement. [And this has been useful given the sun/shade patterns in my yard.]
• Easier to control soil quality. [Nematodes are a big problem here—and I have even gotten them in some of the containers. I just rotate in a plant they’re not interested in, like onions, herbs, leafy greens, root vegetables.]
• They’re pretty! And it gave Stephen a reason to go to thrift shops and garage sales [one of his favorite leisure activities].
• They let you work with limited spaces. You can tuck a container here, two there, etc.
• Great for instant gratification as there is no soil prep to be done [so me].

I didn’t realize I would soon go insane with it. I read Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed and got interested in figuring out what could be grown here under what conditions. An Inconvenient Truth
got me really interested in reducing my carbon footprint. And then I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)
and got interested in seeing how much of what I ate could I grow—or buy local. A Perfect Storm [great book] of influences that resulted in the proliferation of containers. I still think it’s a fine choice for me—and the urban environment--but raised beds for some crops and improving the soil for others is better if you have more room. I do both now.



Considerations
• They do have to be watered more often than plants in the ground.
• Soil can get too acidic from over-fertilizing [yet to happen to me].
• Both harder and easier to grow tomatoes [roots get warmer easier meaning they don’t fruit but if you are in a rainy area also easier to control for too much water].
• Potting soil can lose its ability to drain and you need to replace it. This has not happened consistently to me but I do find I get some plants that are not thriving and it’s either the soil has become sludge or nematodes. I’ve got two piles of dirt now in the yard where I’m working this sludge with other organic matter to hopefully restore its ability to drain. If it doesn’t work, I’ll just buy potting soil once a year or so.

I have tried the Earth Box. I have a few friends it works great for but I just wasn’t that taken with it. I had this vision of charming containers perched fetchingly on our winsome stone pathways. What can I say? I’m an artist .

I found that Sam’s Club had the cheapest, lightest containers that suited my purposes. 14” cast concrete [much lighter than ceramic pots] for around $8.00. Other than garage sales or otherwise creative containerment [baby pools, old boats] the $5.00 Home Depot buckets would be your cheapest option, but plastic does degrade in this sun and I wonder about what it releases into the soil as it degrades. Plus I wanted pretty. The Sam’s Club containers aren’t always gorgeous, but they can be easily spiffed up with some paint. Buy some potting soil at the same stop, and you’re almost done.


Most of the potting soils you buy already have 90 days worth of long-release fertilizer, so make a note in your calendar [you will need to keep a plant calendar] when you need to start fertilizing. I use a handful [or two for the fruiting plants] of Fertrelle twice a month. I’ve read lots of stuff that suggests you should use a liquid fertilizer with every watering, but this seems insane to me, because then you periodically have to water the hell out of your containers to get rid of the salts. Plus, how much fertilizer are you putting into the water supply? So, I don’t get HUGE eggplants and peppers, but they’re big enough to feed us [might also be a function of being in containers].