Calling all gardners out there

CantWait wrote: I want to start a garden in the spring, but I have no garden space.

I was thinking of buying some medium or large planters and planting things in there. Do you think it would work well?

And what do you suggest for these besides green pepper, and tomatoes?

TheOaf66 replied: there are many things you can grow but I warn you against planters, they seem to make the plants smaller (at least here) my in laws grew tomatoes in planters and they were quite small in comparison to ours.

We grew tomatoes, beans, peppers, jalapenos, cucumbers, strawberries

coasterqueen replied: Well I am no expert, as I just experiment every year and learn from that for the next year.

We have in the past planted tomatoes in planters. I would think you could grow lettuce, broccoli, potatoes maybe?, cucumbers if you get a particular kind (which I can't think of) and put some lattuce behind it to vine up, green beans maybe. You would have to get deep planters, like large round ones or something. I say just experiment and see what happens.

Do you have room to where you can make a few garden boxes?

CantWait replied:
We have a small patio out back where we could put a few boxes.

coasterqueen replied: I was going to post a pic of mine, this one might work:

http://seethenations.net/2008%20Pictures/J...2008/_6000.html

http://seethenations.net/2008%20Pictures/A...2008/_6366.html

You have to pardon the second picture because that was after we had our patio put in last summer and we were trying to grow grass around it and so it looks like weeds. Also we had longer garden boxes over on the side where the pool now sits, so we had to move then and we decided to make them smaller and line them all the way to the kids "playground area". We are going to stone the garden boxes, eventually and have a big flagstone path going out to the playground area. So the boxes don't look beautiful right now. The playground looks bare too because the bounce house isn't up.

PrairieMom replied: strawberries, tomatoes, I THINK cucumbers would be okay. If the planters were big enough you should be able to do carrots, and I have heard you can do potatoes in garbage cans. herbs do well in planters too. I am going to try peas in planters this year. I have no idea how its going to work tho.

CantWait replied:
Oh no My patio is nowhere near that size. When I say small, I mean small. LOL

Tara I never thought of garbage cans, that's an interesting concept. Anyway of making it look less like a garbage and eye sore and something pleasing on a tiny patio?

CantWait replied: Oh and how do you plant potatoes again? Do you cut them in half or plant them whole, or are their seeds. I'm useless I swear.

coasterqueen replied:
Ah, ok.

My MIL gave me potatoes to plant. It seemed like they were cut in half and I just planted them, but I really don't remember.

Kaitlin'smom replied: okay so do they grow in the ground then? how do you know when the ground food like patotes and carrots are ready to be picked?

coasterqueen replied:
The potato "bushes" will die and supposedly that's how you know when they are ready. In the past Dh dealt with that, this past year I was to, but Kylie picked them before they were ready - impatient child!

Carrots, IMO you can just tell looking at the stalks and seeing the top of the carrot up in the dirt. Hard to explain, I guess. Sometimes I just pull them and see, if not they are still good just more like a baby carrot.

BAC'sMom replied: You can grow lots of things in containers Marie. I currently have my tomatoes, cabbage and broccoli in containers. Then I planted them in the ground in my garden. I had a gopher that ate everything up last year so I have resorted to containers. So far so good...we had fresh home grown broccoli Tuesday night for summer.

Here's a few links...
http://www.gardenguides.com/how-to/tipstec.../container2.asp
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extensi.../container.html

Hillbilly Housewife replied: I used to use old stacked tires, just painted the outsides.

Potatoes - I keep a couple with the eyes on them..over winter time.. or take them in the spring.. cut them in pieces, and just dump then at the bottom of a container, cover them with a bit of dirt... let them grow.. when the stalks are a couple inches above the dirt, i add more dirt and leave just the tips uncovered.. and so on, and so on.. until they reach the top of the garbage can... and then i stop adding more dirt, the plant keeps growing, it's a wonderful looking foliage... when they die off, the potatoes are ready. I just dump the dirt into another container to use for other veggies another year, and grab the potatoes.

I also grow radishes in containers, but tend to use their leaves and pods more than the radishes themselves..

Spinach works well, too, so do beans...

Tomatoes, I tend to only put the cherry tomatoes in containers..but the big ones grow in them too, they're just not as nice as in the ground..

I've had strawberries in containers in my front yard, but the dang rabbits and squirrels ate them.

herbs are great in containers, and zucchini worked for me, although not as well as in the garden.

Kaitlin'smom replied: so rocky how many patotoes do you get with that?

and it sounds like using continers are going to do better with the animalse keeping out of them. thats what I worry about not getting anything and them eating them all.

Jamison'smama replied: I did Jalapenos in a pot ..they did well. I attempted okra but the container blew off the porch in a huge storm. I will try that agin this year. I also tried yellow squash but I wasn't successful--storm took that out too. I will try all three again this year.

Hillbilly Housewife replied:
A garbage can yields 10 to 15 pounds of potatoes, for me. It's not all that much.. about 1 1/2 bags of potatoes like you buy in the store.. but I tend to dig through and pick at them, taking them out when they're still small, about 1 1/2 to 2 inches across.. they're much better, I find, when they're still considered "new potatoes".

I used to have an old metal one that I had the kids paint.


I still have about 3 ziploc baggies full of quartered green tomatoes, about 2 handfuls of dried cherry tomatoes, 3 ziploc baggies of zucchini pieces... and 1 1/2 ziplocs of red and yellow sliced peppers in my deepfreezer. I also have 2 ziploc baggies full of dried zucchini, carrot and potato pieces.. I just toss a handful or two of the dried stuff in soups and stews.