With the average sized home lot getting smaller and smaller, it’s becoming more difficult for people to grow their own seasonal garden. But did you know that someone with a condo, with nothing more than a small patio or walkout deck, can easily grow a substantial garden by planting in containers?
Container Gardening
Every garden plant does well in a container—it’s like a raised bed on a small scale. Some plants, which are not often thought about as container plants, do well in containers when given the chance. Potatoes and carrots especially grow terrifically in containers, if given the right conditions to grow.
Why Containers? And, What is Classified a Container?
Containers allow the gardener to get everything right, in a small, manageable space. The Gardner gets the soil mixed just right, gets the fertilizer mixed into the soil in the perfect portion, and can regulate the ph. of the soil with very little effort. However, the biggest benefit may be that you don’t have to worry as much about weeds, and it’s much easier to keep the seeds and the plants away from the insects and the animals.
Container Gardening
Anything can be considered a container, if it can hold soil and it is deep and wide enough for the plants. In parts of South America, they have developed ways of using plastic pop bottles to both house plants, and work as kind of substrate. Potatoes and Carrots would do well in a container—wood or plastic whiskey barrels work great.
Potatoes and Carrots
For both potatoes and carrots, the trick is getting a container deep enough to allow the roots of the plants to reach deep, unhindered. Planting carrots is straight forward, and following the directions on the packaging—different carrot varieties will have different needs/spacing requirements—will put you on the course of success. Potato planting is simple; however, it does require a general buildup of soil over time, and a little more planning, but when it’s harvest time, you can simply turn the container upside down, spilling out the soil and the potatoes with it; dust a few off and have a feast.
If you have any questions as to which soil will work the best in your container garden, call Rocky Mountain Compost today.
