Container Gardening Plans

Submitted by James Meador on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 16:49

The following container gardening pictures are to show the diversity of container gardening and the limited space required for growing plants in containers.

For more technical information see the article on Container Gardening available on this site in the Home and Garden section, Container Gardening Ideas.The plants in the following pictures are planted in an L shaped pattern approximately 24 inches apart with wire cages around each plant for support. The plants are one tomato, one straight neck yellow squash, one cucumber, and six bean seed in one container. The tomato is a Celebrity, the cucumber a Burpee hybrid, the squash a standard yellow straight neck summer squash, and the beans are a red Mexican bean. The bean seed was purchased from the dried bean section of Lowes Foods (a local food store) and is an unknown variety. The bean is of a climbing type (runner), and is best picked and shelled when the pods start to turn a pale yellow. However, any runner or ½ runner beans works well in containers.

The tomato was transplanted April 20, the cucumber and squash were transplanted May 1 and the beans were planted from seed May 1. The pictures were taken from June 1 to Aug. 1 and are not in exact order, but were placed to show the progression of the plants. Pictures were taken just before harvest so that a picture with ripe tomatoes may be followed by a picture with green tomatoes. The pictures are as follows: a general view June1, b general view June15, c bean June15, d general view July 1, e general view July 15, f bean July 1, g cucumber July 1, h squash June 1, k squash July1, l squash July 15, m tomato July1, n cucumber July 15, o tomato July 7, p bean July 7, q and r tomato July 15, s squash and tomato June 15, s2 cucumber July 20, t tomato July 20, t2 tomato July 25, u tomato July25, v tomato Aug 1, w cucumber June 15, X squash Aug 1, y tomato Aug1, y2 bean July 15, z2 general view July 15.

The weather here this summer has been very hot and dry with temperatures from 90F to 100F most days. Water requirements were about 1 ½ gallons per plant per day when the plants were mature. Yields were good. The season for these plants is over. To carry the crops through the full season for this part of NC another planting would be required. These plants were fertilized with water soluble fertilizers, but had no pesticides applied. Late season crops in this area nearly always require pesticides for disease and insect control.

Happy container gardening!