The Garden Helper

Helping Gardeners Grow Their Dreams since 1997.

No-dash-here, you've found The Real Garden Helper! Gardening on the Web since 1997

container gardening

Gardening Reference » Gardening in 2004
by lsalmi on August 20, 2004 05:11 PM
Hi, I know it is a bit early to be talking about next years growing season but I have a few questions about growing veggies in containers. For many years I have always had a large garden, which included tomatoes (regular, roma and cherry)Cukes, a variety of peppers, and cold crops and have always had success. For the past few years we are living in a house that is next to a car radiator shop My husband will not let me plant my normal garden due to the antifreeze (one never knows how much has leaked or seeped into the soil) I really miss the garden. I would like to start preparing for growing in containers and am looking for some advice and places to research what I will need to do ( already found the post on growing tomatoes in a 5 gal bucket.) Thanks for any help and info
by Newt on August 20, 2004 08:46 PM
Hi Isalmi,

I do understand your husband's concern about antifreeze and the possibility of contamination to the soil with chemicals and heavy metals. I would suggest that you have a soil test done for chemicals and heavy metals. It costs about $15.00 and should be available through your local extension service.

http://www.ces.purdue.edu/

Keep in mind that your containers should not have ground contact so that the chemicals won't wick up into the soil if it's contaminated. Use soil and compost to fill your containers and not peat moss or peat moss based potting soil as that contains little nutrients and peat dries out and is difficult to wet. You could also do a search at www.google.com with terms like:

container + vegetable
container garden

Hope this helps,
Newt

* * * *
When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.

Active Garden Forum



Search The Garden Helper: