If your “backyard” is the size of a postage stamp — or if you’re in a condo or apartment building with just a small balcony for outdoor space — you can still enjoy tomatoes right off the vine.
Container gardening is a great way to boost the look of your patio, deck or front porch. Plus, it gives you the flexibility to add a splash of color from unique containers, flowers or plants in spaces that could use some help.
If you're working with a small space, go vertical! Shop for hanging plants on hooks or add a tower to a pot for a flowering vine to climb. If you're thinking of growing cherry tomatoes or hot peppers, you can do those in a pot that is as small as 14 inches wide, but they'll do best in a 20-inch pot with five gallons of soil.
One of the hottest things to hit the container gardening market are tower gardens. Designed for indoor or outdoor use, tower gardens allow you to grow things like lettuce in a vertical space. With recent concerns about e-coli in lettuce, more people are going the grow-your-own route with certain vegetables.
For container gardens, your best bets for veggies are beans, beets, chili peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, kale or spinach.
Flowers and Blooms
Some things to consider before ordering anything from your local garden center:
- Go to your favorite home décor websites and magazines for ideas that will work with the size of your deck or patio.
- Make sure you keep track of how the sun hits your gardening space. Most plants at your garden center will have labels with recommendations about which ones are better for full sun, partial sun or shade. (You can also ask your nursery whether the plant you're considering needs a lot of sun or shade.)
- When choosing containers, make sure they have drainage holes in the bottom so roots won't sit in the water.
Thriller, Filler, Spiller
Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia suggests adding some drama to your containers by going with the "Thriller, Spiller, Filler" recipe. It works like this:
Thriller: Put a showy upright plant in the center of your container to add height. Examples of thrillers are spikes, canna lilies, caladiums or tall ornamental grasses.
Filler: Add bushy, medium-height plants to fill in the spaces in between. Some plants that make great fillers are lantana, nemesia, diascia and coleus.
Spiller: For your "spiller," use trailing plants that spill over the side to create a lush feel. Some examples would be sweet potato vine, creeping jenny or petunias that trail.
