Edward C. Smith - The Vegetable Gardeners Container Bible: How to Grow a Bounty of Food in Pots, Tubs, and Other Containers

The Vegetable Gardeners Container BIBLE

How to Grow a Bounty of Food in Pots, Tubs, and Other Containers

Edward C. Smith

The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by
publishing practical information that encourages
personal independence in harmony with the environment.

Edited by Gwen Steege and Carleen Madigan
Art direction and book design by Jessica Armstrong

Cover photographs by Jim Westphalen/Westphalen Photography,
except for back cover, center by Giles Prett/Fotografix
Photography credits appear on page 254
Illustrations by Elayne Sears, except for Brigita Fuhrmann: 118 bottom, 120
top, 121 and Kurt Musfeldt: 115, 116, 117, 118 top, 119, 120 bottom

Indexed by Christine R. Lindemer, Boston Road Communications

2011 by Edward C. Smith
An earlier edition of this book was published under the title Incredible Vegetables from Self-Watering Containers (Storey Publishing, 2006)

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Printed in the United States by R.R. Donnelley
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Smith, Edward C. (Edward Clarke), 1941
The vegetable gardeners container bible / by Edward C. Smith.
p. cm.
Includes index.
Previously published as: Incredible vegetables from self-watering containers.
North Adams, MA : Storey Pub., 2006.
ISBN 978-1-60342-975-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-60342-976-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Container gardening. 2. Vegetable gardening. I. Title.
SB418.S633 2011
635dc22

2010051167

DEDICATION

SYLVIA FERRY SMITHgardener, photographer,

my best friend, and my wife is cocreator

of this book. Sylvia and I developed the ideas in this

book together, and we planned, planted, and tended

the gardens where this book grew.

Sylvia both made the garden photogenic and took

many of the images. This book would not have been

possible without her.

Almost all the vegetable gardeners I know grow food for their families in the good soil of their backyards. But what if you dont have a backyard? How can you keep the kitchen stocked with ripe tomatoes or fresh greens if all youve got is a patio, deck, or balcony?

So, you want to have a garden. Maybe youre concerned about the safety of the food you buy from the grocery store. Maybe you want to be sure that what youre eating is as nutritious as it can be. It could be that you just like the taste of homegrown tomatoes, or perhaps you just love to get your hands dirty while helping plants to grow.

But what if you live on the 14th floor of an apartment building, or in a city house with just a deck or a patio? Or what if you have a nice, sunny space in your yard, but the soil is really poor, or its contaminated with lawn-care chemicals or with lead from peeling house paint? Maybe youve got a garden space with great potential, but you simply dont have the time or perhaps the agility for a garden.

Why not grow a garden of containers? Gardeners have, after all, been growing flowers, herbs and ornamental plants that way for years. If you can grow pansies or petunias in a pot, why not peppers, peas, or pak choi?

Well, it turns out you can grow peppers, in a pot (or peas, or pak choi, or even eggplant, lettuce, spinach, or tomatoes). Theres a little more to growing vegetables than there is to growing flowers, but its possible to grow a significant amount of food in containers. Its not a lot of work, and its fun.

In some ways, gardening in containers is easier than gardening in the earth the garden plots are small and easy to manage, plants are less likely to be bothered by diseases or pests, and there are almost no weeds. Set on a table or some other stand, a container garden can be tended standing up or sitting. Container gardening can turn any sunny spot a patio, porch, sunroom, houseboat, or a patch of lawn into a vegetable garden. Even a driveway or sidewalk can be transformed into a lush Eden of edibles.

All you need for a colorful and fruitful garden is a sunny balcony and a batch of containers.Hanging containers help utilize vertical space to maximize growing area.

My wife Sylvia and I have a big earth garden, and plenty of sunny space and fertile soil to make it even bigger if we want. And we have had, for most of a decade now, a big container garden too over 3 dozen containers, ranging in size from 8-inch pots to 9-foot-square minigardens. We plan to go on having a large container garden for the foreseeable future. Why?

Its handy. Lettuce, spinach and other salad greens grow equally well in the earth garden or in containers, but theyre more likely to become a salad if theyre right on the porch or just a few steps from the kitchen door.

Containers are easier to tend. Most of the containers we use raise the plants at least a foot or more off the ground; tending and harvesting therefore involve less bending and stooping. All but the heaviest containers can be raised even higher on a bench; with these, I can garden standing up. Container-grown plants are generally less-pestered by bugs and diseases. And a container of cold-sensitive basil can move indoors or to the garage if night temperatures threaten to drop below 40F.