If you’re like most people, you probably believe that it’s not possible to do vegetable gardening when you live in the city or lack the necessary space. If you live in an apartment, trailer, or condo and you can still grow vegetables if you do container vegetable gardening.

Container vegetable gardening is possible since many different kinds of vegetables can be grown in containers. You do have to make sure the plants get at least five hours of full sunlight per day and take caution to make sure you are using the right size container and good soil mix. Moreover, you want to make sure that you are spacing, fertilizing, and watering your plants correctly.

Size of Container, Planting and Spacing

The size of the container you need to use for container vegetable gardening will be determined by the particular vegetables you are growing. There must be enough space for the roots of the vegetables you grow to develop. For the most part, any vegetable can be grown in a container. Vegetables with shallow roots such as radish, lettuce, peppers need to be grown in a container that is at least 6 inches in diameter and 8 inches deep.

When it comes to planting and spacing in container vegetable gardening, you should check the seed packet or plant tag for specific instructions. You have to be careful not to put too many seeds in one pot since one pot can only hold so much but you also want to add more seeds than necessary since 100% germination is rare. Once the seeds have sprouted, you can thin the plants out to the amount you desire.

Proper Soil Mixtures for Container Vegetable Gardening

Most container vegetable gardeners have the most success with soilless pot mixtures because they are light, drain quickly, and are void of soil-borne diseases and weed seeds. You can buy different kinds of soilless mix from any garden store. If you want to make a mixture for container vegetable gardening on your own, mix one part sand, one part peat moss, and one part loamy garden soil. Heat the mixture for one hour in an oven at 210 degrees F to kill insects, bacteria, fungus, and weeds.

Fertilization in Container Vegetable Gardening

If you are doing organic container vegetable gardening, use slow release or complete organic fertilizer for your plants. Regular fertilizer that is good for container vegetable gardening is an N-P-K formulation of 5-10-10 and 10-10-10. The soilless mixes commonly used in container gardening contain very little nutrients so proper fertilization is important. For best results, as a rule of thumb use half of the recommended fertilizer dosages since many people tend to add more than necessary.

As you can see, container vegetable gardening is much like gardening in general in that it requires time, patience and care. In comparison to gardening on a plot of land however, container gardening is much less time consuming and relatively easier. So rather than making excuses as to why you don’t garden due to a lack of space start container gardening so you can enjoy fresh, homegrown vegetables even without a plot of land.