Because we are renting our home we are unable to have a garden in the ground. For the past four years I have had to settle for a container garden. Does anyone have suggestions on what grows well in containers and what to avoid? Do certain containers work better then others? What kind of plant food should I use?

-- Lugene Lancaster (lugenelancaster@yahoo.com), April 18, 2000

Answers

Lugene,

Our best experience with container gardening was when we lived in Europe. People frequently grew toms, peppers and even squash in grow bags. They are little more than plastic bags of potting soild with 3 four inch holes cut on one side where you plant and several small holes punched in the underside for drainage. The plastic bags help keep the container plants from drying out which is one of the biggest problems. Can't overwater cause it drains out. Good Luck. We grew great tomatoes like that.

-- Kim (fleece@eritter.net), April 18, 2000.

I bought some 24 gallon plastic tubs on sale at K-Mart for about 4 dollars each. Drilled drainage holes in the bottom, filled the bottom quarter with packing peanuts ( to make them lighter), covered the peanuts with a plastic sheet with holes poked in it, then filled the rest with potting soil. My mother grew, on her deck,lots of green beans, a tomato plant, zucchini, lettuce, and even one corn plant. She used Miracle-Gro or generic equivalent. This year she wants to try pole beans on a trellis-very doable. (I told my husband to bring me several in a nice color, but all the same color. He brought purple! He's colorblind and thought they were blue.)

-- Peg (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), April 18, 2000.

I grow all of my herbs in hanging baskets under the edge of my porch. The Texas heat is so unbearable for herbs, they wilt and go to seed much to quickly. Get Richters Herb catalog, its full of information www.richters.com We have in the past grown tomatoes, onions (multipliers not bulb) grew my favorite Sunburst squash in a pot and trained the vine onto a chainlink fence, you can also grow anything up, with a pot and trellis. Cherry tomatoes (tom thumb) are beautiful as a hanging basket. I start with my pots half full of compost, and so I don't use fertilizer. My mom-in-law swears by her Miricle Grow, course she is always robbing my compost pile when she comes back, probably the only retired folks I know that have piles of poop in plastic bags in the back of their caddy! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 18, 2000.

I grow a few cucumbers in hanging pots. Main crop is in the garden, but this allows for a few very early ones, so I know that does work. Tomatoes do well in 5 gallon buckets, as do peppers and eggplant. Proper watering is the key. Incidentally, peppers and eggplant love warmth, and if you put your buckets on a blacktop driveway that absorbs the heat from the sun and releases it during the night, they'll love it! GL.

-- Brad (homefixer@mix-net.net), April 19, 2000.

there is a gardening site that may be helpful:

The Garden Web

http://www.gardenweb.com/fourms

look at container gardening, gardening by region and vegetable gardening.

You didn't give a zone, but- potatos, tomatos, peppers, peas, salad greens, all herbs, strawberries, dwarf fruit trees, rhubarb, onions, garlic, squash, artichokes, cucumbers, grapes, and so on :)

This years experiment, I am growing jerusalem artichokes in a cedar planter measuring 8 feet long by 2 feet tall by 2 feet wide, so far they are doing great!

-- Ima Gardener (ima@gardener.com), April 19, 2000.

the miricle gro was on the grass then i duluted 1/3 tablespoon with 50ml of water then i poured it on the grass once a week with me puting it on then i need some bckground information so please send me it thank you

-- ashley moffit (macky005@hotmail.com), November 09, 2000.