Container Gardening

If you only have a small patio, a tiny garden, or live in a flat with a small balcony or even a window box then container gardening is the thing for you. Growing vegetables in containers is easy and take very little time to do, yet can give great results.

It is one of the fastest growing forms of gardening today. The beauty of them is that you can grow them in tiny spaces. Not only that, unlike planting vegetables in the ground if you find they are not doing well in one spot then simply move the container to a sunnier or shadier place as required from time to time during the year.

Whilst I have an extensive cottage garden set up with a couple of raised beds I also have a lot of containers growing carrots, beetroot and leeks to name but a few.

They are also easier to keep slugs out of, as a scattering of slug pellets around the bottom keeps them at bay.

They are also great for getting kids involved in gardening as well. As the containers are of a manageable size. You could even get small children planting things in old buckets.

The beauty of them is any container will do, there is no need to buy anything fancy at all.

Also seeds cost only a few pounds yet with the growing prices of food, with some items going up 20 percent or more, then over a season they can easily pay for themselves.

Growing salads in particular can save you a fortune as can growing tomatoes (A single grow bag takes up less the 3 feet in length). Salads meanwhile just love being grown on a nice sunny windowsill.

So as you can see there is a lot to be said for container gardening or growing vegetables in pots as it is also often referred to.

Crops will vary from year to year in their yield but it is well worth giving it a try as gardening is good exercise as well as calming.

Thee think you will need to do at the start of each season though is replenish or swop out the old compost. You can boost it with a liquid fertiliser to save money if you wish. Although personally I change all of mine each year. A large bag does not cost the Earth to buy from any good garden centre.

So give container gardening a go today.

By Richard Allen -