Container Garden

I live in Iowa's capital city, Des Moines.  The greater Metro area has around 500,000 residents most homes have a nice green yard of some sort.  I live about three minutes from downtown, where concrete and high rise buildings reside and I was still lucky enough to find a double lot (1/2 acre) in the middle of the city.  That is just the way Des Moines, and most of Iowa, is set up.  We are big but not big enough to have tons of apartments, row homes, lofts, etc.  We have some of course, I lived in an apartment for years, but as a general rule I no longer have to deal with trying to be an urban farmer, urban homesteader, self sufficient with no personal yard space.  However, I know many of you in New York, Boston, and countless other places live in wonderful cities and towns but have far less space with which to build your garden and homestead.  That is where this post, and many others to follow, comes in handy.  If you live in a row home or brownstone and have a small yard or roof space this will work.  If you have a small area in a mobile home park this work.  If you live in a tiny apartment with a balcony or even a window sill this will work!

I'm talking about container gardening.  It is exactly as it sounds, growing your favorite crop in a plant container.  Even if you have a large yard, you can still use what was once wasted space to grow in a container.  You can see from the pictures that we are growing broccoli and peas in our flower pots in front of our porch steps.  The peas grow kind of on a small vine and they even flower before developing the pea pod so they look nice when in full swing.  Right now the fall cold is coming on fast so these are the only containers we have left but we will add more in the spring.  You can plant herbs, peas, green beans, tomatoes, and tasty lettuce, almost any plant that will fit in your space and your flower pot.  If you want to grow root crops like carrots or beets, make sure your container is deep enough.  Also, you can look for shorter varieties.  I know our kids like to grow the little 4-5 inch carrots in a container here at our house.

If you want to grow inside, make sure you water enough, have plenty of fresh air and sunlight.  Many people grow house plants inside, why not a couple of pole beans or
pea pods as well?  You will be surprised at how much food you can get and how great it will taste with just a few small containers.  If you are using plants that have to be pollinated to produce, you will need to have more than one plant and either pollinate by hand (we will talk about that in another post), or set them outside daily for at least a couple of weeks so the bees can do their thing naturally.

Come spring time we are going to use the container garden method for some small blueberry bushes.  This is a perfect solution because blue berries need very acidic soil, which ours is not, so using a large cedar planter in the yard will look beautiful and also allow us to monitor and change the acidity level of the soil.  Besides controlling the soil, container plants need watered more often but normally use less water so if you can remember to water regularly, you will have healthy plants and use less water then if they were in the ground.  You can also use less fertilizer or compost tea and your plants will still  thrive.  It is basically the same concept as raised bed gardening but with smaller containers that will fit into whatever space you have.