Organic container gardening (vegetable and herb) 101?
April 24, 2010 by admin
Filed under Questions and Answers
Hi everyone,
I am absolutely new at gardening. Ive never even planted a seed! So I need things explained in detail step by step. I have searched all over the world wide web on this topic and all I find is “Container gardens are great for cities, its so easy, just get a container and fill with potting mix…etc” But they all state the same thing and dont go into any detail.
What I would like to do is begin this first year with cherry tomatoes, parsley, green beans, thyme, maybe some other things. Ill see how it goes and make adjustments next year.
Does anyone have any good resources for me? I dont know when to plant the seeds, how many seeds to place in, how far down in the soil, or even how often to water them. I dont know anything and really need some help. Any comprehensive websites or blogs would be amazing. Thanks!
first you need to figure out where you are going to grow stuff.. then, how much sun does that area get during the summer.. a south exposure is the best for growing veges.. you need to take into consideration any trees or other things that may shade the area
once you’ve found your nice, very sunny spot to grow.. you need to decide what plants you want to grow… seeing as you are not experienced it may be best to start with easy things like tomatoes, beans… it will probably be better if you buy small plants for your herbs and tomatoes…tomatoes, even cherry tomatoes get very large so you will want to have a very large pot (with drainage holes) for each tomato plant. at first, when the plant is very small and you put it into the big pot you won’t need very much water, just a lil around the plant every couple of days; as it gets bigger and more roots you’ll need to increase the water.. the end of the season when it is heavily producing you’ll need to water every day
herbs… best to buy plants.. most do not like nice, black rich soil… they prefer poor, rocky soil.. and not very much water.. you’ll be watering them much less than veges.. they also like to be in a ‘tight’ pot.. meaning the pot you decide to put them in should be about 1″ larger than the pot they are currently in
beans.. pole or bush? probably bush type for pots. easy to start from seeds.. need at least a 12″ pot for each seed.. water light in the beginning and daily when producing
to find info about growing: search for the individual plant, research what that plant needs; check your local county extension office ie: I live in Brown County, WI.. the office is UW-Extension, Brown Co.. you look up University of Your State Extension.. try to stay with websites that give info about growing in your area (zone) as growing is much different in the north than the south..
As a newby, I would buy starts at the garden center for most things, especially tomatoes and thyme. Once you have more experience go on to planting tomatoes from seed. Parsley is pretty easy to start from seed, and depending on your region/hardiness zone, you should be able to plant parsley seeds now. You need to wait for the soil to warm up for beans. Do you want bush beans or pole beans? I would suggest bush beans for containers. The seed packets should tell you how deep to plant and their spacing. Plan on putting at least twice as many seeds in a pot as you would think, some won’t sprout and some will be weak. Then once they have a few true leaves, thin out the weaker plants to have one or two plants per pot depending on their size.
Some kinds plants need another plant for pollination (ie, they can pollinate themselves), so you may need two. Tomatillos can self pollinate, but are more productive in at least pairs, manzano and rocoto chilis cannot self pollinate at all. Beans do better if they pollinate each other.
Ask at the garden center for determinate types of tomatoes. Indeterminate types get huge and lanky; you probably won’t have enough space. They may even have “patio” tomatoes. that make a small bush and for their small size put out a lot of fruit if they have sufficient light.
If you are planting seeds indoors, you have to be careful of damp off disease. Really, wait until next year for planting indoors from seeds and ask about that here then. You will probably need to get a lot of things to buy, such as lamps, something for bottom heat, cells, fine seedling potting soil, etc.