Container Veg

[Deleted]

Please post your recommendations for container veg here along with pot/basket size, compost, other tips etc...

I'll start;

Tomato Tumbler - probably the best hanging basket variety. Cherry sized fruit, heavy cropping, 1 plant per 12" basket in good quality MP in a sheltered, sunny spot. Good taste and colour.

Tomato Totem - quite happy in 9" pots (12" preferable). No side shooting or pinching out required and crops really well from August onwards with small/medium sized fruits. MP compost is suitable. Needs supporting as fruit swells.

Courgette (Black Forest) - unique climbing variety suitable for growing in 12" (10ltr) pots with support (i.e. bamboo, netting, trellis, etc). Fill half the pot with processed manure and top up with MP, mixing in. Good cropper, good taste.

Runner Beans - can be grown in large containers (40 ltrs+). Grows okay in general MP. Make wigwam in container and plant out maximum of seven plants per container. Probably best starting off seeds in peat pots to give them a good start.

Carrots (Parmex and Mini Fingers) - Both types do well in containers of MP or Grow Bag compost, with Parmex probably being more suitable due to golfball shape. Better taste as well and kids love them. Grow best in deep troughs.

Cauliflower (Avalanche) - was really pleased with these. Grew them very close together in a small container in MP and they all had really good tight white heads. A real performer!

That's all for now from me...over to the rest of you.

[piggingardener]

Great idea for a thread Drunkengardener.

I have often grown tomato Gardeners Delight in large pots and they have done well outside. I didn't do any this year though and am glad I didn't as outside toms have not done well with all the rain. I tried some French climbing beans Blue Lake instead, but the weather was against me. I really want to try again next year though, so will be consulting this thread for good ideas.

[oldmoleskins]

I guess spuds would be the one I'd suggest to anyone with little space or inclination... any large container (beg a 50 or 60 litre treecontainer from landscape contractor - in fact beg several, cheaper than tyre trugs) or use old compost bags, anything strong and capable of holding a few bucketfulls of compost. Bob Flowerdew stacks old tyres up. Must have some drainage holes. It's a spring/summer thing really, for new potatoes, but you can have a go anytime:

Put about 6 inches of compost in, arrange a few seed spuds, cover with another 6 inches or so of compost and when the stems are well clear of the surface, add more compost, repeating until there's about a foot or so covering the seeds, but never covering the leaves. Keep moist but not waterlogged and in about three months, you can start feeling around down in the compost for your crop, plucking a few as you need them...

Did this first for Tiny Neice who loved spuds but had no garden. Didn't know where spuds come from... apart from Tesco's...

OM.

[Barbara]

i'm gonna try an apple tree in a large old pot i've got, but the garden centre i went to was asking £27-oo seems alot i'll have to look someplace else i think.

[MamIDdau]

Forgot to say, harvested my first 2 tomatoes ever yesterday. I was amazed that they'd actually ripened and not split!

I've got pepper plants, tomatoes and sweetcorn in pots.

[Shrubrose]

I've done potatoes in pots again this year and the yield was better than those planted in the ground.

Also parsnips - doing really well. Oh and garlic chives and squash.

I have bonsai'd some ash and holly trees just to see how'd they do and they're fine.

Acer palmatum doing ok. About 3' tall and bushing out nicely.

Box - small (6'' or so) but lovely at the moment. I want to use these for shaping into small globes in their pots.

Two roses - Wedding Day and one 'anonymous'. Fare less well (probably because I tend to ignore them really).

[Shrubrose]

Got mixed up with threads. Sorry.

[Chuckles]

I'd definately recommend Tats. I was well pleased with mine this year, even if you can only find space for a couple of containers it really is worth it.

Two Strawberry plants in the half circle plastic wall baskets, mine fruited as well as the ones I had in tubs and full baskets. You can even fix then to a fence or the side of the shed.

If floor space is a problem you could do Toms in the half circle thingies too

[Cheerypeabrain]

This year we've grown Sweetcorn in a 20" pot, I had my courgette plant in one too...but that wasn't so successful...outgrew the pot quite quickly. We have beans, peas and strawberries all in containers...and a huge rhubarb crown in an old plastic watertank (used last year for taters ;D

[Shrubrose]

I fancy doing rhubarb and leaving it in a container. Any tips Cheery (quiz-winner extraordinaire ;D)?

[bagpuss]

This year, I have grown runner beans in 30 cm hanging baskets. They haven't done particularly brilliantly, (the seeds were quite old, so don't know if that is a reason why).

I am growing cucumber marketmore in a 20 cm pot (I think). I think 3 plants was a bit ambitious but 2 out of the 3 plants are producing (slowly).

I have a wooden container (made myself !!) which is about 3ft by 1 ½ ft and about 2 ft tall (approximately) which is my veg bed. In that this year I have grown Gardeners' Delight and some Marmande tomato's both fruiting well, although only ripening with the aid of a banana once picked (Marmande is a brute of a plant though), Courgette Green Bush, has just started producing. Leeks, beetroot (better than last year in that they came up!), spring onions white lisbon - very poor taking an absolute age to get to a reasonable size. With this "bed" once everything has finished, it has a yearly mulch with some very well rotted manure, ready for next year.

Also in a terracotta pot (lined with plastic) I have three Tomato Blackcherry which are doing about the same as the Gardeners' Delight! I also have a couple of Swiss Chard in the pot, which are growing very slowly.

Finally, I have one fruit tree, Fig - Brown Turkey, which I have in a 30cm pot. I bought it as a very small tree three years ago (it was about 1 ft tall then) it is now almost 5 ft I think, and I had the first edible figs from it this year and they were delicious.

This is the wooden veg bed last year!!

[Rosefriend]

That looks fantastic Bagpuss. My garden is very small and container gardening plays a big part.

Just a question - you say that you did Beans in a hanging basket, well the idea sounds great - what about water though? Did the baskets dry out quickly? I would have room to do that but only on the back of the shed and that is pure sun and I am afraid that they would dry out too quickly.

RF

[bagpuss]

Thanks Rosefriend. My garden is also very small, so I too garden quite a bit in containers.

With doing the beans in hanging baskets this year (an idea I got from Hampton Court Flower Show last year), I haven't found it too bad (mainly because of the weather we have been having). My two baskets I used this year are on the all you can see in the picture, which gets alot of sun (garden faces West) for most of the day. However, I used a liner made from recycled wooly type fibres, which I then part lined with plastic. I also put a layer of well rotted manure on top as a mulch, which I think has also helped.

I suppose another thing that might help is some water retaining gel crystals, but I have to say that I have never tried using these, I just line everyingthing with plastic!!

If you give it a go, it would be nice to know how you get on!!

[piggingardener]

That's fantastic Bagpuss.

It goes to show what can be achieved in the smallest of spaces and with a little imagination. Just think what you could achieve with an allotment! Well done.

[bagpuss]

Thanks PG. I'm starting to seriously consider finding out if there are any allotments near to me.

If there are, I bet they won't have any free plots though, but we shall see.

[Deleted]

Anyone for salad?



Thought these were a goner, but they really picked up once that spell of bad weather we had cleared up...

[Rosefriend]

Well it certainly looks healthy enough - hope it tastes good.

RF

[Deleted]

Nine out of 10 hamsters prefer it...

[Rosefriend]

Hamster fodder eh - well they certainly get looked after in style.

RF

[Biggles]

So pleased I have found this thread. Getting good ideas for container veg growing--

[Rosefriend]

So am I Biggles - I am just making a list of what I would like to grow next year and just how many extra tubs I will need for my veg.. My OH doesn't know anything about it yet but I think I am going to buy some builders buckets - they are so long lasting and pliable.

Things like this anyway.

20 litre - got a few of these.



65/90 litre round ones



90/120 litre oblong ones



RF

[Chuckles]

I fancy trying the Beans in hanging baskets next year like Bagpuss did. Fix a couple of brackets up round the poly kennel and bobs your uncle. Mmmm thats definately on my list for next year, thanks BP ;D

[Rosefriend]

Oooo I was talking to my OH about putting beans in hanging baskets only the other day and he declared that I was losing it - well that's as maybe but I reckon it is worth a try anyway. Bagpuss certainly seemed to have sorted it out well - do they just wind around themselves then?

Talking about making things do what they don't do normally, a couple of years ago I bought some Bocapa and hanging Petunia's and planted them as ground cover - they looked gorgeous weaving their way between the other plants.

RF

[bagpuss]

Hi Chuckles/Rosefriend

I have trellis on the wall under the two baskets, and I just attached some garden wire between the two and just let them get on with it.

You certainly aren't "losing it" RF, I got the idea from some displays at Hampton Court last year, which were either window boxes, wall baskets or hanging baskets planted up with different veg and salads and they looked great. I think, give it a try and see what works for you.

[Chuckles]

bagpuss said:

Hi Chuckles/Rosefriend

I have trellis on the wall under the two baskets, and I just attached some garden wire between the two and just let them get on with it.

You certainly aren't "losing it" RF, I got the idea from some displays at Hampton Court last year, which were either window boxes, wall baskets or hanging baskets planted up with different veg and salads and they looked great. I think, give it a try and see what works for you.

Thanks for that BP, thats a green flag for me to have a go ;D They would be good growin up the front of my poly kennel it gets full sun and the beans could double up as shading too ;D It also frees up one of my raised beds too

How many did you put in a basket, I was thinking maybe two ?

[bagpuss]

Hi Chuckles

I think you should be fine with two. I did one basket with two, and one with 3 and the basket with just 2 in was definitely much better. I think as long as you have a basket that is quite large they should be fine.

One advantage I found this year growing them in baskets this year, was that the spiders made a web between the chains, and any black fly got caught in the webs before they got to the beans!! ;D

[Pip]

Well you certainly have started the old grey cells working Bagpuss. I wonder if I could start a little corner for my grandchildren, I have loads of pots they could use.

Pip

[Rosefriend]

What a lovely idea Pip - I have been talking to my OH and if we move the site of a couple of chairs and a table at the back of the garden then I would have enough room for quite a large "container garden". I must admit that I am rather looking forward to it all.

Any tips Bagpuss will be gratefully received - thanks a lot.

Rf

[bagpuss]

Only tip I can think of at the moment is if you use a container such as the one I made for my "veg patch", you need a certain amount of depth of soil to give some things a fair chance.

Once all the veg have finished for the year, I also give it a really good mulch with well rotted (and shredded if possible but not a necessity) cow or horse manure to help put something back in the soil.

Other than that, I would suggest just give it a go, and see what works well and what doesn't work so well.

Good luck. Can't wait to hear how you get on.

[Chuckles]

I'll be putting some of the carrot seedlings I've currently got in a few tubs/pots and keeping them in the GH over winnter to see how they do. Anyone had sucess with carrots done like this ?