Vegetable Container Garden Notes

A quick peek at some of what’s growing in my vegetable container garden on the farm.

This year I decided to grow some veggies in containers, rather than directly in the ground. We live in central Texas, and the soil (sticky clay, really) here is very shallow. We don’t have to dig very deep before we hit rock. Planting in a vegetable container garden seems to be working out great, so far!

I have several variety of tomatos growing. They are growing tall and putting on quite a bit of fruit. Soon I will top them out in hopes of encouraging even more fruit.

The containers allow me to easily use better soil and to organize as necessary for the size of the plants. When the plants were small, it was easy to set the containers side by side. As the plants have grown in size, I have spread them out a bit to give them lots of space for good ventilation.

I’m using wooden apple baskets I picked up at the local farm supply store for only a few dollars each. Many of them were nest boxes at one point, before I installed the antique side by side nest boxes in the coop for the girls. When compared to containers of similar size at a garden shop, the apple baskets are much more affordable and so far they work just fine for me. They probably won’t last more than a couple of seasons, but at least they’re made of something that I can compost back into soil.

I have three large zucchini plants, and all of them seem to be doing quite well. I harvested the first zucchini today, and am excited for dinner. I think I’ll saute it up with some chicken and mushrooms! Containers of yellow squash, cantelope, and watermelon are putting on nice growth, too.