Sometimes it’s just easier to keep our plants, herbs, Fruits and vegetables in containers. Most will do really well if you give them enough room.  It is less time consuming and there is more control as a gardener.  Growing in containers is especially useful as you do not have to prepare the ground for planting. Container gardening is really beneficial to people who live in small places but can be a great benefit also when you don’t have the time or money to prepare a large garden in the ground.

Which plants do well in containers? Well, most will do well but some popular ones are tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. I have grown cucumbers in a window box and have gotten some nice cucumbers.  You can even grow squash and zucchini in container as long as it is big enough for the roots to grow. Lettuce is an excellent one to grow in small areas as their roots are very shallow so they don’t even need very much room to grow. The most exciting way to approach this way of gardening is to experiment.  You can even grow strawberries in containers.  It’s amazing how plants can adapt in small places.

Be creative with contain shapes; anything that isn’t a flower pot you can drill holes in the bottom and make it one. This way of gardening can save lots of money by recycling what you have or what you can get for free.  Think outside the box when you are looking for containers. Almost anything can be turned into a container for plants as long as you can provide drainage.  If you’re creative enough, you could probably come up with some new ideas for small containers. It does not have to be a flower pot to work.

The best places to get containers for free are Bakery Departments. They will give you containers that they recycle anyway. Just go to Walmart or Sam’s club and ask.  They are usually tall plastic containers and you can drill 3 or 4 holes in the bottom for drainage.  You can also purchase some odd and ends to add to your container garden collection like the tomato hot house container in the picture which was very inexpensive.

You can also purchase flower pots cheap at yard sales, and flea markets.  You can buy big lots of them very inexpensively.  When you see them, purchase all shapes and sizes as you will never know what you need and they are easy to store.

Investing in a mini greenhouse will also be a great benefit for the season.  This can be great for protecting younger plants until they are more stable to put outside especially if you are growing from seed.  

The possibilities are endless when it comes to Container Gardening. Don’t hold off your garden because you don’t have time to prepare the ground, when you can have a beautiful collection of garden vegetables and herbs which will produce delicious food for the season.