Is Container Gardening For You?

Container gardening has become an American hobby, for some a passion. Even if you have space for full-size gardening, the containers can be used in multiple spaces to add color, control weeds, and can reduce the amount of time it takes to maintain a larger garden.

You may want to start with something simple and useful. A herb garden is ideal. Sometimes called “gardens”, a good explanation is that they are things that you bring into the kitchen: herbs, vegetables, fruits and berries, and even cut flowers for your table.

Start with herbs like basil, chives, coriander, dill, marjoram, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, tarragon, and thyme. You can often find these plants in the produce section of your local grocery store. They are usually ready to harvest when you buy them. Put them back in containers, cut the leaves when you need them, but never cut more than a third of the foliage at a time. Many herbs are perennial and can be wintered by moving the container to your kitchen, garage, or basement.

For a salad, choose arugula, endive, lettuce leaves, and mustard. How nice it is to be able to go outside or on your terrace or balcony and eat your green salads for dinner. Fresh and fragrant.

Plant a tomato, cucumber, and some parsley or chives, all in a large container (24-30 “). They grow well together and have the same water and sun requirements. You will harvest them in the fall.

Flowering plants that grow well in containers include petunias, geraniums, and impatiens. Pansies make great spring container gardening projects. Combine colors from opposite ends of the color wheel spectrum for maximum impact:

For fresh fruits, try strawberries. They are easily grown in containers. Plant them in barrels, tubs, hanging baskets, or strawberry jars. Plant them in early spring and place them where they can get at least 6 hours of sun a day. When the season is over, don’t throw them away. They can overwinter them with straw or move the container to their garage or basement. Next year’s plants will be bigger and better.