I'm new and wanting to start a veggie garden in a pot?? :-)

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the forum and to gardening. It's January in Michigan and I'm hoping to start a garden in the spring. I'm curious, are there vegtables that I can grow in pots on my deck? My deck faces the East and is in shade in the afternoon/evening... if that makes a difference.

Thanks in advance!!

Katie
www.katelorrainephoto.com

Depending on the size of your pot, you could grow most anything.

I grew some beans and peas in 12" containers. I hung them up so that the vines would trail downwards and they were lovely. I've also grown corn in 14" containers, with success. I've heard about people doing tomatoes lots of times, too.

You might want to check out the container gardening threads here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/containers/all/

There are tons of good bits of advice on growing in containers and what will grow best.

Technically, there is nothing you cannot grow in a container, provided you have one that is large enough, has good soil, good drainage and a decent fertilizer.

There was a four-part series on Container Gardening -- pot sizes and recommended varieties -- at HarvestToTable.com in December. Go to the December 2008 archives at the site and you'll see the articles you can print out.

Here's the link: http://harvesttotable.com/

One of my favorite resource books is the Bountiful Container by MeGee and Stuckey. All about growing in containers and a generaly good resource:)

I'm going to try onions, radishes and lettuces.

An idea may be to have a think about what you would like to grow and do a quick search on the net and see how seep it recommends the soil should be for the vegetables. I did exactly that yesterday with radishes and lettuces.

Thanks everyone for the great info!!

I have also grown carrots in containers.

Beautiful carrots, ves522. What kind are they? I attempted carrots last year in my raised bed, but they didn't do well. I had a lot of old seed, and the carrot seed could have been old as well. I did find one tiny carrot a few days ago when I was adding compost to the bed.

g-momma In '07 I planted SugarSnax which is what those are. Then in '08 in another set of pots I planted Sugar Snax again. They grew even better. Don't know if it was right but I used 10-10-10 fertilzer on them. Not alot .Those are 12 or 14 inch pots. Also used the same packet of seed the next year. Last fall I buried vegie scrapes in the pots and will see what happens. I hope they compost in time!

Hi Katelorriane,

Look at the self contained box garden forum and all its threads. We are all growing veggies in containers .

BocaBob

I very successfully grew wonderful tomatoes, bell peppers
and yellow squash in 12-gallon plastic tubs with drain holes
drilled in the bottom. The "Kermit the Frog" green tubs cost
$5.99 each and I've already bought extras for this year so I
can increase my tomato crop.

Growing tomatoes here in the hot, dry and windy desert is a
challenge but I wanted organic produce and can never again
be satisfied with a store tomato!

Good luck with your gardening.

Ooops, meant to attach a photo.

june, do the pinwheels keep the birds away? Does anyone recommend something to keep rabbits away?

This message was edited Jan 10, 2009 11:37 PM

To discourage birds I started with the strips of foil and plastic
bags. The winds quickly shredded them. The pinwheels were
made by a volunteer group for patients at the hospice where I
do counseling so I added them to the plants and they seem
to have worked.

This year I do plan to plant some flowers near my veggies to attract
bees. We have had a serious shortage of them in the last two years.
All that hand pollinating of tomatoes and squash blossoms gets
pretty time consuming!

June_nmexico: If you can, I swear by Nastursums to attract bees and generally be good. They are also edible (something that I always appreciate), with a nice, kind of sour tangy flavor that is wonderful in salads. Even the flowers can be eaten too!

Thanks for the tip, Hastur. I haven't had much luck with Nasturtiums
in the ground but think they might be fine in pots. Our soil here is
hard alkaline clay. I also have a potted lavender and I noticed a
few bees appeared and were attracted to it last summer.