Container Vegetable Gardening: It’s How We Started

We first started using containers for vegetable gardening before we had space for a vegetable garden. We eventually bought a home with plenty of garden space but we still continue vegetable gardening using containers, as well as our regular vegetable garden. We grow things like peppers and tomatoes.

I started my first container garden while living in an apartment. Made great use of the balcony. Once I met the girl I would marry and got married we had to rent our first few homes. We wanted a veggie garden but the owners wouldn’t allow us to dig up the yard so we went with containers and gardened anyways.

Today we use containers so we can put them around our property and that way we are able to grow even more, saving us more money on the grocery bills.

Container Gardening, A Few Helpful Things You Need To Know

Through the years we had container gardens we learned a few things that will benefit those just starting out. No need for that trial and error, as we have already done that for you.

1. Use Containers That Will Be Large Enough

It’s easy to buy containers or pots for your vegetables that seem like they will be big enough. We found that we made the wrong choices a number of times. Since then we have learned to always buy the next size larger as that always seems to be the case.

I am not talking about containers to start your veggies in. For that you can use regular pots and then just transplant them into the larger containers once they are big enough.

2. Containers Need To Drain Well

I have to admit that not all of my vegetables survived due to poor drainage in a few containers.

While I’m confessing I have to also admit that the containers weren’t the problem. I was the problem and didn’t put enough stones in the bottom of the containers allowing dirt and roots to block the drain holes.

3. Include Perlite As Part Of Your Potting Soil

Perlite, a siliceous rock is a special volcanic mineral which swells to a dozen times it’s original volume when it is heated to a temperature of approximately 871C, about 1600 F. During the heating process, the mineral particles pop like popcorn and form a granular, white snow-like material that is so light in weight it weighs only about 80-128 kg/cubic meter or 5 to 8 pounds per cubic foot.

This allows the material to have a great surface area and to hold moisture which slowly releases back into the soil keeping your plants watered much longer.

4. Veggie Plants Are Going To Need Water

We can use mulches as ground cover in our gardens to help keep moisture from evaporating under that hot sun as well as keeping the breeze or wind blowing over our garden from doing the same thing.

It tends to be a little tougher in containers as there are more factors involved. Because the soil is actually above ground it tends to heat up much quicker which either cooks your roots or bakes them.

So give perlite a try in your containers and see how well it works for yourself. You can also use a drip irrigation system. They seem to work well and give the gardener control over how much water is used.

Keeping your containers on the lawn will keep them cooler than leaving them in the driveway or on dirt. It’s a fact that the temperature at lawn level is several degrees cooler than the breeze moving across dirt or pavement.

5. Move Your Container Garden Around

This wasn’t the case with my balcony vegetable garden but for our veggie container garden in the places we rented we moved our containers around to take full advantage of the sun.

Vegetable gardening in containers is fun and relatively easy. We only had to learn the few steps I have shown here. Even at the beginning when we messed up we still had vegetables and felt like we were doing something good and healthy for our family.

When I initially began it was container gardening tomatoes, then we tried adding strawberries and green peppers

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