Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Small space garden plants
A small space doesn’t mean you can’t have a garden! I have a raised bed for my vegetables but I also plant in pots. I like to have a few cucumbers but don’t want to give up space for them. ‘Patio Snacker’ is the perfect size cuke to plant in a 15 inch pot with a trellis for the 3 to 5 foot vines to grow on. Bonus, they mature in 50 days!
Peppers are perfect for pots! And Johnny Seeds has some new options including an early Thai cayenne pepper called ‘Bottle Rocket’. The seeds for this variety were found in a market in Budapest in 2016. Johnny’s improved the variety by selecting for a more upright plant, earlier maturity, and more uniform fruit size. While actually from Hungary, it has the small fruit size and fiery heat of a Thai chile. Fruits are borne upright on the plants, are smaller and yield earlier than typical Thai peppers especially for those of us with cool summers.
Most vegetables need at least 12 inches of soil to grow well, but larger vegetables will require more space. A 5-gallon container is a good size for growing something like a tomato or squash plant, while a smaller container would be perfectly fine for shallow-rooted plants such as lettuce or other greens.
Remember too that smaller pots dry out faster and I highly discourage the use of terra cotta if you are someone that forgets to water, they also dry out very quickly. You can use mulch to help hold moisture just as you would in a normal garden setting.
Consider your space and what you really want to grow then give yourself room to move as well as room for your watering can and other essential tools.
This link will take you to great information on vegetable growing container sizes!
If you’re looking for color, Knock out roses are great for container growing. I love my carpet roses. While mine are in the soil, they could easily be grown in containers. Just remember that they are not as protected in cold climates so will need protection in Winter.
