Growing Vegetables in Pots

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Growing Vegetables in Pots

This year I have started my own patio garden. The hubs and I live in an apartment, but that is no reason for forego home-grown vegetables! So in one corner of our patio, I have a variety of pots for a variety of vegetables. Hopefully, in a month or so I will have a great harvest.

Little House Living _ Growing Vegetables in Pots

Do you have too little space (or no yard) to be able to have a regular garden? Maybe this year you can try growing vegetables in pots! It’s so easy, takes up very little space, and pretty much anyone can do it! One of the best parts is that almost any container will do as long as they are deep enough and provide adequate drainage so get creative and use what you already have!

First, you will need to decide where you are going to get your seeds from. If you are just looking for basic garden seeds that will grow something fairly true to the vegetables that you can buy in the store, you can pick them up at most hardware stores or even some retail stores. If you are looking for heirloom varieties or something a bit different your best bet is to probably order seeds online. We have a great article all about Ordering Gardening Seeds online right here on Little House Living.

Now Let’s Get Started!

Here are some easy tips about growing vegetables in pots:

  • Make sure your containers are deep enough (about 12 inches deep)
  • You will need drainage holes in your containers for the right amount of moisture
  • Tall plants, or ones that grow vines, should be supported with a wire cage or something similar
  • If planted during a season of frost, keep indoors until the frost goes away.
  • Plant seeds according to package directions
  • Plant seeds directly into pot
  • Plant more seeds than you think you need (not all will germinate)
  • Watch out for weeds (there will still be weeds!!)
  • Water frequently (letting plants go dry just once can ruin your harvest)
  •  Fertilize often (at least every two weeks)
  •  Harvest once the veggies get to the size and color you like to eat

One big thing to keep in mind is the types of vegetables that you hope to grow in pots and if you are growing them indoors and outdoors. If you are growing them outside you shouldn’t have much of an issue since a pollinator will find it’s way to your plants. If you are growing plants in pots inside you will need to have plants that self-pollinate (like lettuce or spinach) or you will need to learn how to pollinate the plants yourself which can vary from variety to variety.

Little House Living - Growing Vegetables in Pots

We also have this great article posted on how to create a container garden. It’s a step by step tutorial on how to plant your seeds indoors and where to put them in your house to make sure they grow correctly.

Bonus Tip

Here’s another quick tip. You know how I mentioned that your plants need to be in pots that have proper drainagegravel-350650_640 holes in the bottom? Well, if you want to use another kind of container that doesn’t have holes in the bottom or where holes cannot be drilled in the bottom you can simply take a few handfuls of gravel or rocks and place them in the container before you put your dirt in. This way even if you don’t have overflow drainage on the bottom, your pots won’t get bogged down if you add a little too much water.

And if you don’t have even enough room to start growing vegetables in pots, you could always just re-grow your store bought vegetables indoors. It takes up very little space and you can usually do it on your counter-top!.

Go here to see more articles on gardening, building a green house, picking seeds, and more.

The Gardening and Preserving Journal is here! If you are gardening or planning on doing any preserving this year, you NEED this wonderful sprial bound journal! Get your own copy here.

 

Do you garden? Ever tried growing vegetables in pots? Share your stories below!

erinbio

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19 Comments

  1. Herbs grow great in pots … you can set up your own little herb garden with just a few pots.

  2. I so much want to grow my own herb garden, in pots.
    I have a big dog and she does not leave anything I plant to grow, so now I have to use pots.

  3. First off, I love your website!! My question is, How can we plant a pot garden in an area where we are in a drought. We are in stage 4 water restrictions and can’t water anything outdoors. I am thinking that I could use my dishwater. I do save rainwater when we get rain. Anybody have suggestions??

  4. I’m definitely going to consider this. I’m not big on all of the work a garden requires, but I could water a few plants on the back deck!

  5. We grew lettuce in pots on the deck last year and had lettuce all summer. Thank you for sharing this.
    Kathi

  6. Thanks for linking up to Savoring Saturdays! Your post will be featured when the party goes live at 7 pm tonight. Congrats!

  7. Thank you for this concise article. I’ve been contemplating growing vegetables in pots this year because the only area in our yard that gets adequate sunlight is on our deck. However, I’ve been overwhelmed by detailed articles. This is perfect!

  8. We always do a potted herb garden, but recently started growing vegetables in containers. These tips will be very helpful. Thanks so much!

  9. We just started gardening in raised beds last year. I would have never thought about growing vegetables in a pot! Somehow I had it in my head that it was just for flowers. Excited to try it out! Thanks for the information.

  10. I’m liking these! We’re in an apartment too, but I still like to grow some things in pots. This year, we’ve got tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries, basil, garlic, and onions going. Hopefully I didn’t try for too much! 🙂

  11. I love this! I have about 20sq/f of space on my apartment’s balcony to grow herbs and i want to try to grow veggies so badly. I’ll have to give this a go!

    I would love it if you would share this post on my weekly link-up : )

  12. There’s nothing better and more satisfying than growing your own vegetables. Thank you for sharing it on the Creative Muster. We loved it so much that we’re pinning it to our Creative Muster Favorites board. I hope that’ll we’ll be seeing more of your great ideas.

  13. I grow many of my veggies in pots. That’s because I live on a floating cabin without any land surface for gardening. I do have a four raised beds that are on top of a cedar log float, but many of my larger plants go into pots. I grow tomatoes, squash, peppers, rhubarb, herbs, peas, beans, and of course flowers. You can get a lot of produce in just a small space. Thanks for all the good tips. – Margy

  14. I tried this a few years back and had horrible results; I do not have a green thumb! But my boys wanted to try this year so we got some seeds. This post has helped me see where we went wrong last time– not adequate draining, forgot to fertilize, and often let them go dry before watering. Hopefully we’ll have better results this time.

  15. Growing herbs and veggies in pots is a great way to get the best of both worlds. It can also help keep the critters at bay, if you have hungry rabbits like I do. They try not to get too close to my house because of the dog, so sometimes it’s safer for me to grow veggies in pots.

    Thanks so much for sharing this at the Dishing It & Digging It Link Party, I hope it brings you some wonderful new friends to enjoy 🙂

  16. I started a patio veggie garden a couple years ago. My family loved it so much, I got my hubby to build me a square foot garden in thr hill on our backyard. It’s amazing how much veggies you can get out of a small space. Thanks for sharing with Small Victories Sunday Linkup. Pinned to our linkup board.

  17. I have some herbs and tomato plants in pots on my deck right now and I am planning on having a small garden patch in our backyard this year too. Thanks for linking up with #smallvictoriessunday!

  18. Container gardening was on my list when I retired. My hubby built an 8ftx4ft raised garden area for me. It’s waist high so I don’t have to bend my old body while tending to the veggies. The first year I used plastic garden pots – all shapes and sizes. Could not believe how it grew. I’m a novice gardener and always thought I had a purple thumb. Boy! Was I wrong! I had green beans, tomatoes, snow peas, lettuce (4 types),red peppers, orange peppers, carrots, cucumbers, garlic, green onions and so many herbs. No weeds, no critters and no back pain. The only veggie that i had problems with were the cukes. I live in Canada and my area has extreme temps and a short growing season. If I can do this, so can you! Trying to get hubby to build a second raised garden bed for fruit this year.