apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Having about 20 various containers on my patio and courtyard I agree. Mine is strictly for decoration though, not eating. I do have a large sage plant but I've never harvested it. I think the one exception I would have would be tomato plants. Nothing tastes better to me than fresh picked cherry tomatoes.

I am absolutely pro container garden.
The land around my house is too rocky to garden without raised beds and we've got so many critters that I'd need to put up a tall chicken wire fence, etc-- way too big a project for me. So I started container gardening a couple of years ago. It's easy, even with two toddlers, and it looks lovely. We grow sugar snap peas, a mesclun mix, green leaf lettuce, arugula, (salad for the whole spring and summer) cilantro, basil, thyme, a couple of varieties of lavender, scarlet runner beans, kale, swiss chard, and several different varieties of tomatoes. All do really well in pots. We also have lots of potted flowers.

I love this time of year.

The only reason I'm container gardening is because I am house-hunting and wanted to make sure I was able to plant during season instead of waiting until I had a yard for a permanent garden. Personally, I would never choose a condo/apartment/loft based on the fact that, yes, I could raise my own vegetables/fruit from my patio. I enjoy having a yard for my family's happiness. Nothing beats a wine and dinner in the backyard under stars on a summer evening with the dogs running around and kids chasing lightning bugs; no skyline view would ever be worth giving that up for. I grew up in the South and I certainly love being within a short distance (bicycle or car) of the city, but I need more than a patch of grass on my rooftop to keep me busy.

My container garden has four varieties of tomatoes (including heirloom), two varieties of dwarf carrots, romaine lettuce, arugula, kale, swiss chard, Georgia collards, okra, artichoke, sugar snap peas, snow peas, cucumbers, chives, basil, two types of dill, mammoth sunflowers, canteloupe, and random flowers to attract/keep our ladybugs/butterflies/bees around. Oh, and three varieties of blueberry plants and a mango tree that is throwing out a ridiculous amount of fruit right now.

I live in Florida so some plants are easier and hardier here than others; some require more work and patience, but they are so worth it. It kills me to wait over a year for artichokes, but it pays off big time! My garden keeps me busy and definitely helps battle stress. Farmer's markets are still heaven, but being able to harvest your own veggies/fruits/herbs is so rewarding to the belly and soul.

I'd love to see more city farming posts, though!

Another plus- it helps keep neighbourhood cats uninterested. Just plant some catnip lower than the containers, and make the containers unappealing as lookouts or litterboxes.

That's an awesome looking garden. I do a bit of 'farming' myself, but my little balcony doesn't have room for monster planters like those.

http://the6x8garden.blogspot.com/

In my experience thus far, container gardens, while they allow some who don't have yards for gardening, pale in comparison to the same plants growing in my raised bed. Last year I did only containers for things like basil, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc... the grape tomatoes did produce, but not much. The basil and other herbs thrived. This year though, peas in containers died off while the ones in the raised bed are STILL producing. The tomato plants in the containers are pygmies in comparison to the ones in the raised bed, and they are all planted and watered at the same time. The only thing that I think I'll keep in containers next year are strawberries... I'll definitely invest in another strawberry pot. Next year the containers will be strictly flowers, I think.

Darice, what do you feed your container plants?

I'd love to do this!