Pot farming

Cafe Society
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Got your attention, didn’t it? But that’s not what I mean. I’m talking about growing foodstuffs in pots. Around the homestead we are seriously lacking in suitable ground for a garden, so we have resorted to hanging pots. I just harvested the first of what my mother refers to as “$40 tomatoes.” The peppers are ripening nicely, the herbs are green and lush, and by the weekend I will be able to put together the most expensive salsa I’ve ever eaten! :smiley:

Who esle around here pot-farms, and what do you grow? Any tips?

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This is the first year I’ve tried it seriously. I’ve got very large containers for all but a few herbs - I think the label said 58 quarts on most of them? Took like 3-4 bags of dirt to fill each one. My neighbors call it “The Farm”. :smiley:

Let’s see, I’ve got:

two pots with 7 tomatoes total. Yeah, overstuffed, but they’re happy! I think most of them are grape/cherry, but one might be a beautiful orange/red stripey midsized (mental note: don’t use water soluble markers to label your peat pots. :smack: )

one pot of basil (very happy)

one pot of dill (not so happy)

one pot of dwarf parsley (meh)

one pot of nasturtiums (ecstatically happy)

one pot of borage (likewise)

two pots of carrots, which the squirrels “thinned” for me quite a bit. Well, they were mostly for fun anyway, since we’re in entirely the wrong climate for carrots.

one pot of broccoli, which is growing well, but unfortunately also part of the salad bar for the squirrels. They’re munching the leaves, the little rats.

One pot of bush green beans, again about 6 plants to the pot.

One pot with a mix of echinacea, lavender and chamomile. Yes, I know, that’s a ridiculous combo as they like entirely different treatment, but my friend begged me to try. The ech. is meh, the chamomile is giving it a good ol’ college try, and the lavender is all “WTF?”

one pot w/ 6 plants + another 4 plants of mixed colors of bell peppers - I hope. The luck of the draw, really, because the seed packed was mixed. I might end up with all reds, for all I know. But I’m hoping for some orange, yellow, white and/or purples as well. The 4 additional pepper plants are sharing pot space in the front of my…

two windowboxes, laid on the ground in front of a trellis, of sugar snap peas

one pot of assorted “shade mix wildflowers”

one pot of assorted “sun mix wildflowers” (both the sun and the shade mix are mostly borage right now.)

The only thing I have technically in the ground are three trilliums, which I think I planted too late, and four columbines (all that germinated indoors), which may or may not have disappeared, but haven’t flowered. I hope they pop up next year.

In a built in ground level planter by the garage, I ripped out a bunch of ground ivy and put in chives, apple mint, lemon balm and catnip. We’re going to see who wins. It’s like X-TREME GARDENING WARZ! :smiley:

I’ve got some baby tomatoes, but nothing harvestable yet. Yesterday, though, my friend and I shared an afternoon snack of fresh off the vine sugar peas and green beans. Yum.

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I have all kinds of garden pictures at Flickr, though I haven’t put up so many from this year yet.

I mostly do herbs in pots. I have (off the top of my head) five different kinds of basil, seven different mints, Greek oregano, three rosemarys, cilantro, Italian parsley, thyme, tarragon, hyssop, chervil, dill, arugula, sage, and a few more I can’t think of.

Herbs are great for the lax gardener, because all the work is in the springtime when you want to be outside anyway, and then it’s just watering and using them to make tasty things. Even if you slack off with the watering they tend to be forgiving.

I’ve done tomatoes and peppers in pots, and they did fairly well. We’ve since dug an actual in-ground garden for those.

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Check out earth boxes: http://www.earthbox.com/

My mother sent me five of these a few years back. I gave one to each of my daughters (who love them) and have used the othe three to grow tomatoes, peppers (sweet & hot), bush beans, and herbs. The website says that squash can be grown in an earthbox, so I’m trying my hand at zucchini this year.

It’s too late in the season (here in Mich., anyway) for many vegetables, but leaf lettuces, peas, broccoli, and other crops could still be grown.

Let us know how it goes whether you use boxes or not.

Love, Phil