Simple Garden Hacks for Container Gardening

Containers are so easy to grow in.     Getting started can be as simple as sprinkling a pinch of  carrot seeds in a 10 inch pot on a window ledge.  They will grow, you will have carrots and if you are doing it with your kids it is a great project.

Containers can be super easy so we have put together our 10 best hacks.

1.  Grow a Herb Garden  - This is easy.. grab a terracotta pot, put it by your door and tuck in thyme, basil, lemongrass, parsley and chives.  In another pot (cuz it will take over) plant cilantro.  Rosemary is a perennial as is thyme so go ahead and plant them together... one is tall, the other  as a trailing plant over the edge... you will have years of herbs.

2.   Grow an indoor salad bar.  Put 5  8-10 inch pots in your window.  Fill them with carrots, salad, radishes and onions.   You can nibble all winter.   Move the herb pots indoors for the winter also.

3.  Start a winter garden in 5 gallon pots on your patio.  It is winter and you won't use the patio anyway.  Plant winter vegetables, broccoli ,Brussels sprouts and potatoes.   Protect the plants with tepees of bamboo with clear plastic wrapped around them.

4.  Pick 6 good dwarf trees plant them in  40 gallon or bigger pots.   Select dwarf peaches, blueberries and any cold hardy fruit that goes dormant in the winter.    Plan to move these pots anywhere you live and they will produce year after year.

5.  Plant a couple of lemon or dwarf mandarins in containers if you have a sunny window inside.  They can go out in the summer but have to live inside in the winter.

6.  Carry a plastic bag with you and visit a horse stable.   A few horse apples make a manure tea that will make everyone of your plants happy.   Let it sit in a warm area for 36 hours then dilute to the tea to the color of weak ice tea.

7.  Fill a  25-30 gallon garden container with good dirt and plant a raspberry.. put it next to a fence.  You will have more raspberries than you know what to do with but it WON'T become invasive because you have it in a pot.

8.  Grow a strawberry terracotta pot.  These work and you will have lovely strawberries all year.  They make a great deck plant.

9.  Don't go to all the work of raised bed gardening... just line up a number of 10 inch containers and use your square foot gardening process in them.

10.  Since you are watering containers anyway.  Be sure to plant a few chuck full of annuals and flower seeds.  You will have beautiful containers you can set by your door or on your dinner table or you can go vertical and put them on a wall.

Happy Gardening....

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