Container Gardening

[tigerlily]

If there has been a thread on this subject, please first of all forgive me!

I live in a place with a huge garden/orchard/park around it, with a stream up the middle. Absolutely lovely, but it isn't mine and there are weddings in the grounds on many weekends from April to September.

I have a concreted area around the front of my flat and to one side, on which I am at the moment growing hollyhocks, dahlias, French marigolds, impatiens, a fuchsia and a colchea (I think that was what it was called, anyway). There are growing in two long troughs and in a couple of terracotta pots. The troughs are plastic and have had drainage holes punched in the base. They were then filled with bog-standard compost and planted up.

The terracotta pots I bought last night. They have been filled with organic compost with bark mulch mixed in for extra drainage.

I have just bought four rectangular containers, deep and large. My plan is to plant these up with two types of tomato (I have Alicante and Red Alert plants), strawberries (just two small plants), runner and broad beans, peas, lettuce and Italian salad (these last from seed). I also have some Nicotiana to fill in any spaces in the other containers, and a pack of sunflower seeds cos I love them!

I've bought some tomato feed and intended to use one container for the tomatoes and grow them up one of those obelisk thingies - I'll pop out shortly and pick one up.

The concretey bit is in full sunlight most of the day, and there's plenty of room for all these containers. It will be a little shadier later in the year, as there is a Damson tree and a fig tree along there. (Both produce plenty of fruit).

I'm also going to plant some herbs; I have a kit from about three Christmases ago that I suspect will still be okay, although elderly.

Does anyone have any advice for me, please?

[Tina Biscuit]

Get some water retaining granules and mix them in with the compost in the pots.

Container gardening is great, because if you realise you've put something in the wrong place you can just pick it up and move it - but tomatoes particularly are very thirsty plants, and if they get too dry you'll find the skin of your tomatoes splits before they're ripe

[BjornTobyStomped]

I've just built two raised beds made out of old pallets and fencing. Only just finished the last one at about 6.50 just in time for Doctor Who. ;D

I'm growing Hamberg Parsley, Savoy Cabbage and Button Sprouts. I'm also growing Resistafly Carrots in my old Water butt. Red Spuds in some old fencing clip tubs and one 'Superweet100' tomato in a traditional pot.

[Peek]

Just one thought, once your new plants ( mainly the tomatoes and beans)have established themselves, pinch out the middle leaves, and this will help them bush out better.

[Fi]

Just one thought - terracotta pots, however lovely they look, do not retain moisture like plastic ones. So you'll need to keep a close eye on them in dry weather. The moisture retaining granules that Bobs recommends are brilliant and a fairly thick mulch of coarse grit in all of the containers, as soon as the plants are big enough not to drowned by it, will help retain moisture.If you've got a suitable bit off wall, have you thought of putting the strawberries in hanging baskets?

[tigerlily]

Hmmm.

I will need to look out for moisture-retaining granules and coarse grit.

I do have a hook for a hanging basket, so may very well try the strawberries in a basket. Thanks for the suggestion!

Haven't yet surveyed it all today. Hoping it won't rain so hard the drainage holes in the plastic tubs aren't overwhelmed - last year my dahlias all drowned!

[tigerlily]

Incidentally, once I move out to Germany, I'm planning on sorting out the back garden so that veggies can be grown out there as well as flowers.

At the moment it is not that planted up, there are some shrubs along one side and a tree or two. At the back is one set of containers that are in partial sun and another set on the other side behind a tall pine tree. They do still get some sun.

The left hand side of the garden does get plenty of sun, and I'm considering building some raised beds to put veggies in along there. I like the idea of having flowers as well as veggies in amongst each other, I must admit. Particularly edible flowers.

I love the idea of being able to go out and harvest fresh salad leaves and tomatoes from my own garden, rather than buying packs from the store.

[Tina Biscuit]

Jun 1, 2008 11:22:04 GMT tigerlily said:

Hmmm.

I will need to look out for moisture-retaining granules and coarse grit.

I do have a hook for a hanging basket, so may very well try the strawberries in a basket. Thanks for the suggestion!

Haven't yet surveyed it all today. Hoping it won't rain so hard the drainage holes in the plastic tubs aren't overwhelmed - last year my dahlias all drowned!

The moisture retaining granules are easy to get these days - most supermarkets have them in their gardening sections (somewhere amongst the plastic statues and garden lights) but you'll probably need a proper garden centre for the grit.

Another thought if we get a traditional summer where things alternate between baking heat and 4 inches of rain - it's worth investing in pot 'feet' to raise your pots a little off the ground to stop them getting waterlogged - either terracotta ones, or the plastic ones do equally good a job but don't look quite so pretty

[tigerlily]

I have this horrid feeling I forgot to punch holes in the bottom of two of the pots...the terracotta ones already had holes in, the plastic ones didn't.

Oh flip!

[Tina Biscuit]

Jun 1, 2008 22:20:25 GMT tigerlily said:

I have this horrid feeling I forgot to punch holes in the bottom of two of the pots...the terracotta ones already had holes in, the plastic ones didn't.

Oh flip!

Been there, done that, had the waterlogged plants!

It's probably not too late to gently lift out whatever you've planted in there, hoof the compost out and put some holes in your pots - better done now than wait till your plants get established and then drown just as they're starting to look good

[Kay Ninegriptight]

I find lineing terricota pots with plastic bags [with holes made in them] helps to retain the water as the terricota does absorb rather. I grew all sorts of things in containers of all sorts on a flat roof when I lived in an upstairs flat. The main problem was the wind! I used the dwarf varieties of beans and got huge crops I think because I kept things well watered. I never was troubled with corrot fly perhaps they don't think to fly one floor up!