DIY Container

Gardening

Container gardening, like the page on How to Organic Garden is becoming more and more popular. As food prices rise, so does people's anticipation of the future. Why not begin a lovely little container garden filled with garden vegetables and berries to ease some of that tension and make use of otherwise empty space?

First, one has to choose what they want to grow. Are any plants going to be long-term residents, like blueberry or blackberries? Other plants, like tomatoes, peppers, beans, peas, lettuce and root veggies, are crops that should be rotated yearly and this will dictate that certain containers you buy or make are deep enough to accomodate the larger plant's roots. As an example, consider that a 1 foot box that is 8 inches deep will grow you about 10 bush beans. But next year when you want to put a standard sized tomato plant there, the roots may become a bit crowded.

Now pick a Mix. The perfect combination of loose, rich organic matter along with good drainage addages is key to success when container gardening. If your soil (or soil-less) mix is too heavy, the rootsw will not be able to breathe, become compacted, rot and die. Be sure to not go cheap or pick any easy way outs when mixing your soils. These are prime for great crop returns.

A Six inch Pot will hold 2 1/2 quarts of potting soil. That's enough room to grow 1 escarole plant, 6 radishes, or 1 dwarf tomato plant.

An Eight inch Pot holds 1 gallon of potting mix. That's enough room for 1 head of romaine lettuce, 1 bush bean or 1 spinach plant.

A Ten inch Pot holds approximately 2 gallons of potting mixture. You can choose to grow one bush cucumber, 8 onion bulbs, 1 pepper plant, 8 beet plants or 12 carrots or green onions.

A Twelve inch Pot will hold 3 1/2 gallons of potting mix. That's enough room for 1 standard tomato plant, 1 cabbage plant, 15 long rooted carrots or 9 bush pea plants.

A One foot square Box by Eight inches deep will hold about 5 gallons of potting soil. This much space will allow you to grow 4 to 9 lettuce plants, 9 to 12 bush bean plants, or 25 beets.

A One foot square box by One foot deep will hold approximately 7 gallons of potting mix. In this box, one could choose to grow 1 broccoli, 1 eggplant, 1 cauliflower, melon, squash or eggplant.

A Box that is 2 foot square by Eight inches deep holds 10 gallons of potting mixture. That's enough room for 12 corn plants, 40 bush bean plants or bush peas. Or try a mixed salad box. Plant 10 lettuce head plants, 20 green onions and 10 radishes.

Now that you have a few measurements, you can take it from here. Design your own boxes according to the size you need, or buy some containers at the local big box store and begin gardening right away. After you get started, you'll see just how much enjoyment you'll receive from their care, not only their yummy taste at the end of the season.

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