Food in Pots - NaBloPoMo #3

I've lost count of the number of times I've mentioned growing food at home to people, and their response has been, "I wouldn't know where to start!". I can relate, because even though I considered myself a "gardener", I had considered growing food an uneccesary skill (and frankly, all those unsightly vegies would have wrecked my Balinese resort-style garden plans... *ahem*).

Of course, regular readers know that I am now gradually replacing all those ornamentals with food-producing trees and shrubs; my garden certainly won't win any prizes now, but in my opinion, it's never looked better :-)

In the beginning though, I was very hesistant about where to start or what to start with, and there really wasn't any room left in my garden which would receive enough sun to grow vegies. So I started in pots. One of the first things I grew were cherry tomatoes, and they were a great success!

They are really tough little plants, much more resistant to disease and pests than regular tomatoes, particularly the variety "Sweet Bite". They are also absolutely prolific producers and the kids love to pick them straight off the bush as sweet little treats :-) They are also much more forgiving of a lack of water than regular tomatoes, which is good if you want to grow them in pots, as anything in a pot will dry out quite quickly. You can get around this to some extent by using large self-watering pots if you have any, or you can have a go at making your own out of materials you can scavenge (a YouTube video on a similar project is here), or have a go at Scarecrow's wicking boxes made from foam boxes.

A word of advice: You must use potting mix in any pots, NOT garden soil. Garden soil will not drain properly and you'll end up with soggy plants with root rot, and/or they will fail to thrive. If you are so inclined, Scarecrow also has some fabulous instructions on making your own potting mix in a cement mixer (but you could use a wheelbarrow).

I have even managed to over-winter a cherry tomato in my vegie patch this year, a result of it self-seeding up against our rock retaining wall (the reflected heat is obviously enough to keep it going - and we don't have frosts here, although it gets down to 1'C occaisonally overnight).

Right now, in the middle of winter I have many edible plants in pots, particularly herbs. Herbs are also one of the first things I started growing - most common herbs (like parsley and basil) are pretty much indestructable and the taste is so much better than bought herbs or (ugh!) stuff in jars from the supermarket.

In pots in my garden today I have:

Spring onions,

Newly planted seedlings of spinach, tri-colour silverbeet and mignonette lettuce. I have grown many vegies successfully in foam boxes in the past, but have been reluctant since I read about chemicals leaching into the soil when the foam is heated (by the sun in this case), but I have many spare boxes and not much room, so I have planted out three boxes using leafy plants only (not root vegies).

Close up of the mignonette lettuce seedlings, These are small, and non-hearting, so can be picked a leaf or two at at time over a long period.

Cress (and also watercress),

Spinach (in several pots dotted about the place),

Rosemary (and many other herbs that prefer drier Mediteranean conditions, like sage and echinacea),

Numerous pots of garlic (makes it easier to harvest as well),

Numerous potted fruits, including these easy-to-grow newly-planted strawberries in hanging baskets (deters horrid snails and slugs a bit and make them easier to pick),

And a potted blueberry "hedge".

Blueberries are great in pots as they prefer acidic soils (which I don't have) - in pots you can use an acidic mix suitable for azaleas. I also regularly add our coffee grinds, which are acidic, to keep up the right soil pH. They don't grow terribly large, and the kids love inspecting them every day for the fabulous berries (mine have just started flowering and will have fruit soon) - and they freeze whole without pre-treatment (if you can steal enough away from the kids ;-)

So don't be afraid of growing food in pots - have a go, it's fun!