Container Veggies thread

[hamsterqueen]

they don't do them in my Morrison's either, so I have to wait to go to see my sister. They are the black bucketsthat teh cutflowers are in and they sell them at 8 for 99p. A bargain!!

[elleme]

Pity I can't get hold of similar, but never mind. In my greenhouse I'm growing a couple of ruby chard in containers - I really wish I'd sowed more - some rocket (again, not really enough). In previous years I've done komatsuna in winter but I think I've left it far too late to bother sowing. I also a cape gooseberry plant into the greenhouse which I had out in the border all summer. It's grown huge and is flowering and fruiting again now but I'm not expecting edible results. I also brought my tabascos indoors, quite some time ago.

[Lovely Helen]

This year I am trying a few more fruits including blackberries, blueberries and black currents. I grew raspberries last year which grew well and I had a fabulous fruits, unfortunately my strawberries have not done well.

I grew strawberries this year in window boxes from Wyevale which had a false bottom leaving a water reservoir underneath and a tube to directly water into. They did brilliantly in these and the fruits were well clear of the ground. The ones I grew in a traditional strawberry pot were rubbish in comparison!

My grand plan for next year is to mount the wall brackets on the sunny side of my shed and have a wall of strawberries!

[Storming Norman]

Hi Snager - what is BFB in your post?

My peppers have just gone over in the greenhouse and I wondered if it would be possible to repack their pots with the old soil and the worm compost from my worm bin, then use it to repack a few of the mizuna plants and perpetual spinach from the allotment and pop in the green house.

I cannot get the the allotment during the week now to pick fresh due to it closing at 3pm in the winter.

[jackyspratty]

Flower buckets

Hi
What are these Morrison's flower buckets everyone raves about? We dont have very many Morrisons down here, and when I have been in them, I have not seen any buckets at all?

I live in leeds and went into asda. They have a meet and greet person at the door usually. I asked him about the florist buckets and he directed me to the person assisting in the flower area, who then went and got me about 20 buckets for free! Felt a bit like I was stealing as I left the shop but no alarms rang! The guy said they are happy to get rid of them, they asked me how many I would like said about 10 but got 20!:
Give it a go.
Donnax

[Bren In Pots]

Good result, and like you say it saves them getting rid of the buckets.

[jackyspratty]

Squash in pots

My son loves squash, and I like the idea of carving initials in them so the boys can se them grow. Is it possible to grow them in pots? If so what sort of size etc Although my garden is quite big its very shady and the bit that gets the sun is concrete! Plus I like the idea of jack poping outsde to check on them etc. We do have a quarter plot allotment and will be growing squash there but hope Jack can do one or 2 at home? Perhaps make some sort of trellis to grow them over?

Thanks
Donna

[roy]

free containers

Hi
I am new to container veg gardening, I have a lot going on so far in this my 1st year.

This seems to be a super site to use. I must thank jackyspratty, and others, for the flower container suggestion. Just when I was wondering what sort of containers for planting out, there comes a terrific suggestion. So off to Asda I went and YES they give flower pots away. 9-10" dia. 10" deep. I got 24 of them. I drilled some holes in bottom, be careful when doing this, as plastic splits a bit, bobs yer uncle.

[Sylvan]

We used to heat up the poker and use it to make the holes in the buckets. Now that we no longer have a rayburn we use the soldering iron. No cracks

[Helgalush]

How have I not seen this thread before?!

I am a newbie to gardening and have started my first lot of things this year. Since I have very limited space in my garden and no borders/beds I am doing container gardening. I am going to have to spend some time looking through this thread I think. At the moment I have seedlings/small plants of:

leeks
spring onions
carrots
beetroot
potatoes
various herbs
rocket
lettuce
peas
climbing french beans
dwarf runner beans
cucumber
bush tomato
tumbling tomato
aubergine
red pepper
chilli peper
strawberries

Think thats it. I am fairly sure that either a) it will all die or b) there will be too much and I will run out of space!

last weekend b) looked more likely but since I have forgotten to give any extra protection tonight and its going down to 2 degrees, a) might be more likely!!

[tamsin]

I'm growing all those in pots, apart from the cucumber which I'm planting out but could grow in a pot if I hadn't filled um all up

[GlenAmple]

I see a couple of you have successfully grown raspberries in pots, what size of pot did you use?

I've successfully grown peas and baby carrots in pots. Peas 'Hurst Green Shaft' a small variety that has normal sized pods with lots of sweet tasty peas Can't remember what the baby carrots were though. Going to try normal sized carrots in a large pot this year.

[lindyloo]

this is a great thread! i havent read all of it yet- a glance through only, but i think i will be coming back to it time and again. do any of you "pretty up" the containers with annual flowers in with the veg? what are your ideas as to what goes with what- i think i saw somewhere, pansies with tomatoes, and lobelia with tomatoes in baskets- what works, what doesnt?

[solway cropper]

lindyloo, if you google 'companion planting' you'll get loads of info on this subject. I grow loads of stuff in containers, all mixed and matched and have few problems with pests. I'm also experimenting with square foot gardening/block planting with flowers among the veg. The monoculture thing is OK for commercial growers but is quite unnecessary in a small plot. Having grown up in the 60s I just have this thing about regimentation and straight lines

[Helgalush]

A book I have suggests planting flowers in with the veggies. From this I have just planted up a planter with tumbling tomatoes, parsley and black-eyed Susans. I live in hope that it may look even vaguely like the pic in the book by harvest-time.

I also have some morning glories on the go which are meant to go with climbing runner beans, only I am using climbing french beans.

I have some marigolds in troughs at the base of my carrot/beetroot container in the hope that they keep the flies away. Who knows, it all looks pretty anyway!