Can I do that? I've never tried before, at least not since I was a kid, but I
'm kind of thinking I'd like to give it a try this year. I was thinking...spinach of course, mixed leaf lettuce and maybe zucchini. Can all these be grown in containers? Does anyone know if deer will eat the zucchini or leave them alone? And I'll grow herbs of course. I used to do that in Denver, but never since I've lived here. I LOVE to cook with fresh herbs! And make applemint tea!!!

Has anyone tried those thingies for growing tomatoes upside down?

Barb

I do square foot gardening in raised beds and self watering containers.

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/sqfoot/

If you are looking mainly at herbs and greens, you might try a salad table.

http://www.hgic.umd.edu/_media/documents/hg601.pdf
A.

I grow a few veggies and herbs. I have had great luck with zucchini and we have bunnies, but no deer though. The upside down tomatoes work well, or at least my mom's did last summer. Green peppers are an easy one for pots too and they are SO expensive at my grocery store right now ($1.99 per pepper YIKES). Sugar snap peas do great in a container too, but i dont know if the deer will eat them or not, i have to do mine in a pot to keep the bunnies away from them. Strawberries are pretty in a pot too.

Good luck!
Stacy

I can put a lot of stuff in the back yard where the deer can't get to it, but was thinking about putting some out front. On my way to check out those links.

Thanks!

Barb

My local farmers' market sells a growing mixed-greens lettuce bowl.

You can grow your tomatoes upside-down with a DIY bucket, here: http://oldfashionedliving.com/tomato2.html My mom did hers upside down last year, but did it with some kind of homemade burlap-bag concoction. It seemed to work out pretty well.

Congratulations on your decision! Come back and share what you decide to do. Fun!

Thanks! I really like the table...woiuldn't have to bend over to garden. It looks like a project maybe for next year. Right now, I have several old washtubs that I was thinking I could use for my containers out back and they would be kind of decorative looking too. Robert has a week off next week and it's yardwork time, so I'm hoping we can at least getit figuredout and maybe get seeds ready to start. It's kind of early, but maybe with some plastic covers...I'll post pics if we get that far.

Barb

Hyacinth-That site for the bucket hanging thingie is way good. Planting in the top and the bottom both. I wonder where I can get clean empty buckets...hmmm....

Barb

Clean 5 gallon buckets can be had at Home Depot, Lowe's, etc.

Slightly cheaper if you go to a Firehouse subs place and buy theirs that used to have pickles in it.

A.

I'm excited to grow my own. We went to walmart and got a jiffy pellet starter kit thingy to put seeds in. Seeds for heirloom tomatoes and peppers. Love the colors. Spinach, 3 pkgs of mixed salad greens, spinach, cucmbers. zucchni. Oh and a basil plant, can't remember the variety off the top of my head. We don't have any of the big box home improvement stores here, but perhaps the locally owned ones. Otherwise, next time I'm in the city, I think I'll look at Lowe's etc. like you suggested, Apostrophe. Anf if Robert can find the time, we'll make a salad table also out back. The dogs won't be able to stomp all over it, I think.

I've always been a great flower gardener. We had tons of flowers at our house in Denver, before we moved here. I hurt my back the first summer I was here and just never got enough gumption to do much, but this year we are doing a bunch of yard renovation and landscaping...finally. I can't wait to see if I can make vegetables grow! It will be fun to eat things I made myself. I'm like a little kid. And I remember how good the lettuce and other veg tasted when I really was a child and we had a garden. YUMMY!

Barb

When I started gardening a few years ago, my first attempts were at a container garden - I didn't want to put a bunch of time and money into landscaping since I have a black thumb when it comes to houseplants. I grew several varieties of peppers, tomatoes, and lettuce. I also had strawberries and a ton of herbs. They all grew very well in the containers. I now grow in the ground, but the containers let me dip my toes into gardening with less work and cost, it was well worth it.

I have a small garden with rather heavy soil and too many snails, so I grow veggies in containers. I've done this with chard, zucchini, chillies, lettuce, basil, tomatoes and more. Also strawberries. I love doing it and always like to have something growing each year. There's something very satisfying about having your first taste of something you've grown yourself and it's invariably better tasting than anything out of the supermarket.

I planted the seeds for the heirloom tomatoes, heirloom peppers, zucchini. and cucumbers this morning in the jiffy pellet greenhouse thingy. I've been watching them carefully, but nothing is growing yet. I think over the weekend we'll find all my fun "vintage" container thingies and get the planting medium in them and figure out where they go. I'm not sure if it's too early yet to plant the spinach and lettuce3 seeds. I know both things like cooler weather, but it has been known to snow here the first week of June. Not that it's cold then. The last frost date is around Mid-May. EEK! I don't want to wait that long. maybe I should start all the stuff inside?? and then just transplant it outside in mid-May? Any advice?

Barb

Way to go, Barb! I'm on my 3rd season of veggie gardening, and still learning so much. Mine is mostly in a few small, raised beds. I have one tomato in a self-watering pot.

I had upside-down tomatoes last year (I modified some hanging baskets), and they did very well, until the high winds broke them.

Lettuces, spinach, peppers, and tomatoes should do just fine in containers. I believe zucchini is a vining plant, and will run off. You can try creating some sort of trellis, and growing it vertically. But you'd have to really keep up on the pruning.

Make sure your seedlings are in a nice warm area (indoors, at this point), and that they get plenty of light. Depending on your current climate, you may even need to set them on a heating pad, with a lamp overhead.

When you transplant them into bigger containers, make sure they have plenty of drainage, and use a medium that is specific for container vegetables.

Good luck!

Got my planting mix for containers with pics of veg on the pkging, planted seeds today for the 2 kinds of lettuce, spicy greens and spinach. Everything else is inside. Hoping they all grow. We shall see.

I used fun old washtubs and such for my containers, with holes drilled into the bottom for drainage. They're kinda boring right now, just look like buckets of dirt, but once they start to grow I'll post pics.

Found a couple of old wooden window screen thingies that I will put to good use as salad tables.

Barb

What County are you in? Let's suppose it is ladybug county.

Search on Google for "Ladybug County Extension Office" and see when their next veggie garden class is, or if they have the "Ladybug County Vegetable Garden Guide" for your region/zone.

A.