Vegetable Gardening (126 page)

You need to consider two other accessories when you shop for pots:

A saucer to place underneath your pot:
A saucer collects water that runs out of the holes in the bottom of a pot and prevents the pot from staining whatever it's sitting on. You can find saucers made of the same or similar material as your pot or ones made of clear plastic. Plastic saucers are least likely to stain.

Just make sure you don't let water stand more than a day in the saucer; water rots roots and wooden pots.

Wheels for mobility:
Most nurseries sell wheeled platforms that you place under large pots to move them easily. Otherwise, you have to lift the heavy pots or cart them around on a hand truck.

An especially useful type of pot is a
self-watering container
(see Figure 18-1). This type of pot is made of rubberized plastic and has a false bottom and reservoir under the soil that can be filled with water. You pour water into a pipe at the top of the pot or through a hole in the side of the pot to fill the reservoir. The water naturally wicks up from the reservoir and into the dry soil so you don't have to water as frequently. These pots allow you to get away during the heat of summer and not worry whether your plants are getting watered.

Filling Up Your Container: Potting Soil Made Simple

Don't fill your pot with soil from your garden — even if your garden has the very best soil on the planet. It's too heavy and too dirty (you know, weed seeds, bugs, bacteria — stuff that you don't want in your pots), and it may not drain properly in a pot.

Instead, use potting soil. I can tell you a lot about potting soil: how it's well aerated, sterile, lightweight, and made of a good balance of organic material and mineral particles like sand or perlite. I can even give you a recipe to make your own, but you'd nod off in a second. So just trust me on this one.

At your local nursery or garden center, buy a packaged, sterilized, soilless potting soil that's meant for container growing. If you need a large quantity, many nurseries sell potting soil in bulk. You may want to try different brands over time to see which ones are easiest to wet and which ones have the best moisture-holding capacity and drainage. But don't have a personal crisis over which brand of potting soil you buy; caring for your vegetables properly after you plant is more important than choosing the perfect potting soil.

If you're growing vegetables in large containers, you'll be shocked at how much potting soil you need to fill each container. However, you don't have to fill the whole container with soil. Most vegetable roots only penetrate 10 to 12 inches into the soil. Add more than that and you're simply wasting soil. A trick to use less soil is to put empty plastic soda and milk bottles in the bottom third of the container, and then throw the soil on top. The container will be lighter and easier to move, you'll be recycling to help the environment, and you won't have to buy as much soil. Talk about a win-win-win situation!

Don't use the same soil each year; it may have unwelcome diseases and insects in it. It's best to start fresh by replacing the potting soil in your containers each year.

Knowing Which Vegetables Grow Well in Pots

If you're persistent, you can grow any vegetable in a pot. However, some of the bigger plants, like squash and watermelon, are pretty tricky to contain and tend to get unruly. But don't worry, many other vegetables fit perfectly in pots. In the following sections, I describe popular container veggies you can begin with and provide some of my favorite veggie combinations.

Some common container veggies

Vegetable breeders have long had container gardeners in mind. They breed many small-space varieties (of even the most sprawling plants) that are ideal for growing in pots. So in the following list, I take a look at the most common vegetables to grow in containers. (For more information on varieties, see Part II.) If you can't find the dwarf varieties that I mention here, try anything with the words
compact,
bush,
baby,
midget,
dwarf,
tiny,
or
teeny
in the name:

Beans:
Bush varieties like ‘Provider' and ‘Derby' are best; you can grow three to four plants in a 12-inch pot. You can grow pole types in a long narrow box, but you have to attach some type of trellis (see Chapter 15 for more on trellising).

Beets:
Any variety grows well in a pot, and smaller varieties like ‘Red Ace' even grow well in smaller pots. However, make sure your pot is big and deep enough (at least 12 inches); beets don't like to be crowded. You should end up having about six plants in a 12-inch pot — more if you're growing them for greens or will pick them as baby beets.