Grow Your Own Magazine

I know there are quite a few of us on the vine that container garden, and I thought it would be great to share what veg we've had the most success with this year. This was my first year, and it's all been a matter of trial and error. I'll be ordering my seeds soon for next year, and I could use some ideas of things that really grow great in container conditions.

My best:
Runner Beans - I've had such a huge success with these. I'm not sure the exact variety because they were saved seeds from someone on the seed swap, but they're huge plants with scarlet flowers. I have them in the
standard plastic window box with multipurpose compost, three or four per box.

Cherry Tomatoes - I grew two or three different types of cherry tomatoes all in the same large Woolworths plastic pot, tied to canes. Again multipurpose compost. I didn't get a huge number of tomatoes (due to lack of direct light, I think), but they're healthy plants with no sign of blight.

Nasturtiums - I grew these for the flowers, but didn't really eat all that many because I found them a bit too strong a flavor. They grew great though, and the honey bees just loved them. Which meant there were always plenty of bees around to pollinate everything else I was growing. I grew them in a wall basket, and under my beans. They really added a great bit of color, and seem happy to climb or tumble depending upon the circumstances.

Some other things that did okay, but not great:
Zucchinis/Courgettes - Some harvested, but half fell off after flower bloomed
Lettuce varieties - Never a great harvest
Chard - Stayed small all summer
Perpetual spinach - Miner worms got most leaves before I did
Globe carrots - No carrot fly, just never grew very large
Sage - Got powered mildew despite good ventilation outdoors, some used
Rosemary - Powered mildew, some bits used
Mint - Got white fly, but some used

Things that did really poorly:
Garlic - Never got big
Cucumbers - Fruit started, but never grew.
Dill - Really spindly, then something ate it
Radishes - Bolted before the root formed, grown in spring with plenty of water
Butternut squash - Just started blooming last week


My plot is outside my front door, a very small area with very little direct light.. at most an hour a day.

I had good success last year with dwarf french beans, just keep them watered and you get a good crop.

I had great success with :

Courgettes Tomatoes (plum type)
Cucumber Spring onions
Dwarf and climbing french beans
Mounge 2 Marigolds Broccoli
Chillis Stringless Runner beans
Peppers Potatoes Peas

Most impressive was the mounge 2, couldn't believe how fantastic they are straight from the plant. Every visitor to the house got made to try one.

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I'm new to veggies, but trying !

Amazing success with hanging basket tomato(grown in large pots) red fruit from june to now.Cucumber,kept producing all summer still a couple on there now.Courgette,useless,produced zero!Carrots,good,going still.two more tubs to go.Basil brilliant.spring onions,great,still going now.Chilli,so good gave to my neighbour as they nearly blew my head off.Lettuce very good kept us going all summer.radish again great.all other things were grown in the ground.Oh bar spinach which has gone crazy and am about to go and pick some more today.

Had good results this (second) year with rhubarb saved from my mothers garden and a gifted blackberry plant trained up around a wig-wam of 2.4m supporting canes. These are both in large 50 cm diameter containers. Ditto the success with the hanging basket toms grown in large containers.
Only drawback for me with ground level containers - my dogs eat the toms and blackberries at their head level. Still, it is a healthy addition to their diet.

Its good to see that eveyone is having success container gardening

Watercress Aqua - Having a good crop sowed these in a trough container made sure well watered these are cut and come again made some lovely watercress soup!! due to have second lot any day!!

Cherry Toms fantastic!!

Chillis doing well not red yet though!!

Beetroots they are baby but did well same with carrots

Potatoes were ok expected a bigger crop but that just might be me being greedy

all my herbs did well

My tumbling Tom tomatoes in a hanging basket did very well again this year.

My peas were dreadful this year, but I think that's because their tub was out of the suin as well as all the rain allowing too many slugs to flourish. Most years though, they do very well up a pyramid.

Effectively containered were mangetout (a small bed which is bordered by concrete on 2 side and bricks on the other 2, and very little poor soil in it) - given full sun and a lot of water, they produced MASSES!! (Oregon sugarpod was the variety I think).

Early nantes carrots were a surprising success - picked as baby carrots, they worked out very well in a tub about 12" deep only. In a similar pot, I had a couple of batches of mixed salad laaves, which had turnips in the mix. I let some of those grow to baby eating size, which were a nice bonus too.

I'm waiting to see what happens my potatoes - planted in august but the foliage is going great so far!!

The slugs just munched through my peas, I only got about five or six pods for at least ten plants! I'm thinking of doing them in a hanging basket, has anyone tried this?

most succesful

Runner beans
Radishes
peas
black cherry toms

least successful
rocket and mustard (slug raided to point of total destruction)
carrots until they were transplanted into beds

total failures

lettuce

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'Lets just stick it in, and see what happens?'
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ogs/bridexiii/

I haven't personally but have seen it done. Choose a shorter variety like Kelvedon Wonder

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Warning: I have a dangerous tendency to act like I know what I'm talking about.

Has anyone tried spuds in containers? If so can anyone recommend a type? I'm planning for next year I guess I want to be greedy so if I get a nice yield I'll be super happy

I'm looking for an all-rounder potato (if one exists?!).

Alliyah

I did kelvedon in a tub this year, and it was cropping fine, not that any reached the dinner table, i cant resist eating them from the pod.

then the slugs and snails got at them.

so I might actually try this next year, if not in an actual basket, which might lack depth, but hanging the buckets up on chains, cos they are 'dwarfs' according to the packet, and do look like they will tumble well.

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'Lets just stick it in, and see what happens?'
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ogs/bridexiii/

Hello Diva, there's miles of stuff on here about growing potatoes in buckets so have a go with the search button.
I don't think all rounders are the best bet for containers. They're cheap in the supermarket. If your space is limited to containers it might be better to go for early salad potatoes which are expensive. They always do well dor me. Charlotte is my favourite but others have done well. Good luck. See some of mine here.
Charlotte, Cherie and Sharp's Express.

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

agree with alice i only ever do salad varites like charlotte fir apple vivaldi etc seem to do okay

In containers, this year I have grown:

Runner beans - Scarlet Emporer - big yeld, same as last year
Lady Crystl potatoes - don't bother only got enough for one bowlful
Late Beetroot - look good but haven't pulled them up, currently growing in a trug!
Carrots - Early Nantes - planted 12 seeds got 5 up - will try again next year though
Tomatoes - Gardeners Delight - good amount of toms
Peppers - Gypsy - lots of peppers but not many red ones as lack of sunshine this supposed summer!

I have also got some Charlotte potatoes growing at the moment for pulling at Christmas and they are going great guns, hopefully they will be my Christmas present!

I am aiming to try courgettes next year, haven't tried them before so not sure how they will do.

I think you can grow most things in containers but you may not get quite the size of crop you would in the ground with some veg.

Worth trying anything once I think :-)

Hi

I work for the mag, and I'd like to include tips from members of the forum on growing veg in containers across the UK, for the December issue (on sale 7th November).

Are there any grapes who's like to share their results? It would be good to hear from you if you're in northern England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, as from what I can see from the thread so far, we haven't had many posts from these areas...

If you post your results on this thread, I'll PM you if I think we could use your tips

Thanks everyone!

Charlotte (Editorial Assistant)

Hi Charlotte

I am from northern england and moved south last year. I lived in an old victorian town house in the north east and had great success growing fruit and veg in containers. I successfully grew, blackcurrants, potatoes, strawberries, tomamtoes, courgettes, carrots, beans, peas and much more. I have brought alot of the practices from the north down with me, I still grow potatoes, carrots and parsnips in containers (well bags really). I had very little space up north approx 12' x 8' which was shared with the downstairs neighbour I also had a mini greenhouse which mean't most of my plants be it veg or flowers were grown from seed. I even have a friend that caught the growing bug and she is having great success in a very similar situation to what I had. I loved a sunday as we went into the yard and got the veg for dinner. The watering and feeding was a little more difficult than having a garden, but if you got into a routine everything flourished. I have found I had more crop on some things than when they are grown in the garden I think this may be down to controlling the feed and water a little better.

Well hope my fond memories help!!

I grow early potatoes in tubs & containers, you don't tend to get massive harvests but they are usually good quality & escape the reaches of underground slugs, scab & other pests & diseases which you get from planting directly in the soil. I've grown lots of different varieties including 'Winston', 'Colleen', 'Charlotte', 'Rocket' & 'Harlequin'. The one thing you have to remember is to keep watering them in dry weather, also if you add some chicken manure pellets or organic potato food to them when you plant them just the odd seaweed or tomato food dose will see them through.
I also grow courgettes in containers although they haven't been so successful the last couple of years because of the dreadful summers we've had. I got a couple of 'self-watering' tubs a few years ago & these are ideal for courgettes as you can keep an eye on the water level & also add feed through the water tube. 'Tumbler' type tomatoes grow well in hanging baskets, I keep one on the fence by the back door so that I can just pop out & grab a few when I need them, they also look pretty if you grow some parsley or basil along with them. Cut & come again lettuce or salad leaves are great to grow in a shallow container on the patio or even in a windowbox as you can pop out & snip a few leaves at a time whenever you want to. I've also managed to grow dwarf apple trees & raspberries in containers too, you just have to keep watering & feeding regularly as they are relying on you to keep them happy!

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

I've found tomatoes also grow well in growbags or containers as long as you pinch out the tops before they get too tall so that they concentrate on ripening just a few trusses of fruit. I've grown Itakian plum this year in a large pot & they have done reasonably well until they were struck by blight. Chives also grow well in a window box, in the past I've grown them outside the kitchen window, snipped off some when needed & then left them to flower where they look very pretty & even the flowers can be used to add flavour to salads if you want to.

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

This year i did well with my
desiree potatoes
new rasberry plant
all my strawberry plants
and got loads of green toms which i made into chutney

I also took a cutting of my sister-in-laws large rosemary plant and managed to get 8 successfull plants wich are growing really well and smell lovely, also chives but none flowered as i ate them straight from the ground

What didn't do well
broad beans - not enough room
spinach
savoy cabage - eaten by pilars
celary - didn't leave enough room

Still growing
more toms
onions

so not too bad as every thing was outside and in tubs, will contnue to try again next year

Over the last 2 years I have grown 95% of my crop in containers.
Consistently, carrots and radishes have been my easiest crop to grow.

This year I added a few things to my range, but due to the weather had mixed sucess.

Potatoes went ok, the bigger the pot to just one or two tubers seems to be the best ratio I found when experimenting with yields. Charlottes were my favs, but even Pink fir apples grew ok although not huge.

I grew half pint peas, never enough for a portion for dinner, but great to snack on a night!

I also grew mini cabbage, cauliflower and calabrese, but never got them full term before being savaged by slugs

I even managed to grow sweetcorn in containers, it all worked but then just as the cobs were about to swell, bad weather came, no sun and lots of rain, thus I only got 2 cobs in total from 10 plants Had the weather stayed decent, I suspect I might have got quite a few cobs so would have been a container success despite living in the north east.

Next year, I will deffo do carrots and raddishes. Will also try again with sweetcorn and peas (but "proper" peas). May do potatoes but feel they took too much compost and costed too much.

As with some other things in life, it's the size (and depth) that counts.

Give your container-grown vegetables enough space and a good growing media - and keep them sufficiently fed and watered - and you'll be laughing. Oh, and know when not to bother - i.e. perennials and very large, long-growing plants.

It is rare to get harvests of the same weight as ground-grown plants - all else being equal - but sometimes it's the difference between something and nothing.

I am about 80% container, 20% ground and my best performers in containers (of an appropriate size) are: