Container Gardening
Even if you’re renting, you can still grow healthy, low cost food by doing container gardening
If you’re renting property at the moment, it can be a bit frustrating as far as building a gorgeous and productive garden goes. However, it’s not that hard to have a productive food garden while you’re renting or even if your space is limited.
If you have no garden at all, then you’re limited to container gardening. That’s OK, cause many food plants will grow in containers as long as you can provide all the needs of your plants.
This means starting off with a sunny position – at least 4 to 6 hours a day for most vegetables and fruiting plants.
You need to make sure you’re using premium potting mix for your containers – and that your containers are the right size for the plants you plan to put in them.
Watering is also important – especially with container gardens. In very hot weather you may need to water every day. But overwatering can kill many plants. Don’t have a saucer under your pots.
You’ll also need to provide all your plants food requirements. There are many organic fertilizers available now, so just follow recommended application rates.
If you only have a balcony, you can have a small balcony garden and you can also grow things vertically, or maybe you could have some dwarf fruit trees in larger pots.
You can also grow some of your vegetables inside, under lights. It is a bit more effort to grow indoors, but can provide quite a lot of food. Start off with a few herbs or smaller vegetables til you get the hang of it, then experiment with other food plants.
In any case, there’s almost always room to grow at least a few of your own food plants even if it’s on a sunny window sill.
Today’s Top Tip
Planting Up
Planting from plastic containers? Carefully remove the plant and gently tease the outside and base roots if they have grown solidly against the container.
