growing own veggies in bags and pots (Merged)

tiff

The great thing about growing your own is you can grow what is expensive in the shops or hard to find. I find peppers are expensive in most places, also chilli's, asparagus, blueberries etc. I'm determined to grow more next year.

candyblue

This year I grew in pots on top of the roof tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, courgettes(loads), carrot's along with herbs. I think you can grow most things just make sure you have the right size pot for example a long pot for carrots to give them room to grow.

odds-n-sods

there are short carrote specifically for container growing - can't remember what they were - DH got htem.

ceridwen

There are packets of seeds available for varieties of many vegetables specifically bred for container growing - probably marketed as "patio varieties".

Two useful books I have myself - which I will get round to working on myself at some point:

"The Edible Container Garden" - Michel Guerra
"Kitchen Harvest: A Cooks guide to growing organic fruit, vegetables and herbs in containers" - Susan Berry.

What would also be useful is if anyone knows of a readily obtainable organic "food" for plants in pots - as many of us with aspirations to grow food in containers havent got the facilities to have a compost heap.

DKLS

You can grow anything in pots, Currently I have Fruit trees, aubergines, chillies, courgette and Stawberries and they are producing fruit/veg very well.
Only concession I make is to line the pots with newspaper, and add a handful of water retaining granules, to aid watering.

rachelleblondel_2

I grew pak choi in a trough style container alongside my raised beds. It did really well + it keeps for ages in the fridge & for 99p for 2 saved me lots of cash.
Rachelle

Gingham_Ribbon

We have a greenfingered board that I think you'll get more answers in. I'll move this over for you.

DebtphobicDeirdre

Blueberries are great in pots- you will need to use ericaceous (ACID LOVING) compost and keep well-watered. Although they are self- fertile they still fruit best when 2 or 3 are grown together. Blueberries are really expensive in the shops but are easy to grow given acid soil and water. I even give them a little diluted vinegar from time to time.

Maysie

i bought a wild alpine strawberry plant 2 years ago its it was disapointing to say the least. It just didnt' seem to grow and the berries never developed enough to eat .

This year i was going to chuck an old wicker waste paper bin when i thought why not fill it with compost and repot something. So i did this and within a month it was a different plant its now 6 times the size and we have had quite a few strawberries this year also no slug/snail problems this year either .


Would rubarb be suitable in a pot?

JAMIEDODGER

hi:)

I would love to start growing my own veg in containers in my courtyard. Is there a certain way to go about it? What pots are best? And what veg should I start with?

I would like to do this as cheap as poss as I am on a very tight budget.

Any help or ideas would be fantastic!!

JD x