Pot Gardening 101

pots with snap peas, in back, then a variety of lettuce, basil on the front left and radishes front right. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

Starting a Pot Garden

If you are getting the bug to garden, here’s a quick and easy way to get started and learn the basics: pot gardening. No, no that kind of pot. I’m talking about gardening in pots.

I have had a pot garden for a couple of decades now, primarily to provide tomatoes, peppers, onions, lettuce and fresh herbs. Since I started, I also now have a number of fruit trees from key limes to a pomegranate.

There are a couple of considerations when starting a pot garden:

One is providing your plants enough soil to support their growth and fruit production; and

How do you plan to keep the soil moist. Soil is 25% water so it’s important to keep it hydrated so it can keep your plants alive.

Pot Garden Pot Size

For cool spring crops like lettuce and spinach, you can use smaller pots. Depending on how much lettuce and spinach you plan to grow, the crops sit almost on the top of the soil.

As you graduate to deeper rooted plants such as tomatoes, you will need more soil surface to feed the deep roots. 5 gallon paint buckets with holes in the bottom make excellent tomato pots.

Pot Garden Irrigation

Wood chips, old cotton sock and compost in bottom; plastic bottle with holes, will keep soil hydrated. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

The other consideration is how do you plan to keep the pots watered. I include plastic bottles with holes all over them in the center of the pots. That way when I water I know the plant roots sitting towards the bottom of the pot will get hydrated.

I also line the bottom of my pots with broken up wood limbs, wood chips, cotton scraps and compost. The wood will naturally retain water and help keep the soil moist. You can also use new cut up diapers and old socks to form wicks to hold in water.

Compost will feed soil micro-organisms that will feed the plants.

Also plan on having dishes of some sort under your pots to slow down water loss.

Where to Place Pots

I keep my pots on little rolling plant stands so that I can easily move them to get their sun requirements. The larger the pot, the more help I need to move them.

Other Pot Gardens

As our soils get exhausted from overuse and lack of refreshing, it can become more difficult to get anything to grow. I wrote a 5-year plan for our local community garden to help them improve their soil but it was not implemented.

Today community garden users depend on large pots to grow their vegetables.

Our community garden is one large pot garden. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

To keep your pot garden healthy, compost kitchen scraps and incorporate them into your pot soil before planting.

Compost provides soil residents food to keep them healthy. In turn, those soil microorganisms will feed the plants that feed you. Yes, it’s all interconnected!

Time to get my tomato starts in their pots! (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

When you get this started depends on what you plan to grow. Our last frost date for USDA Hardiness Zone 6b is now mid-April, up several weeks from May 10. If planting heat-seeking plants early, make sure you have a plan to cover them in the event of cold temperatures.

Once you have your pots set up, it’s time to add seeds or plants. I started this pot garden late so it’s safe to get my tomato seedlings in. My first tomato is a cherry variety that re-seeded itself in flower pots that over-wintered inside.

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Charlotte