It’s surprising that more people don’t take advantage of container vegetable gardening, since it’s one of the best ways to grow plants. Saving space is the greatest benefit of container vegetable gardening. Many people live in apartments or in homes with very little yard space. Container gardening allows you to have a vegetable garden on your porch or patio, or even indoors.
Some people have these gardens in their sunroom, in the kitchen window, or even in the window of a spare bedroom. Others utilize a closet space to grow plants by using a grow light.
Being able to move your vegetable plants around is a real benefit of growing your garden in containers. When bad weather comes, you can move your plants indoors where they’ll be safe. Your plants can be moved with just a little effort if they are getting too much or not enough sunlight, or if you think they’d look better elsewhere.
Vegetables grown in containers don’t contract diseases as easily compared to plants grown directly in the soil. It’s true that plants grown in containers can still become infected with diseases, but you will find the probability is much less than if you had grown them in your landscape. Potting soil is generally free of disease-causing organisms, so your plants will be safer.
Keeping your vegetables well-fed is also easier when they’re grown in containers. It’s much easier to ensure the fertilizer you use gets to your plants if they’re confined to a small area of soil. When you fertilize plants that are growing directly in the soil, the fertilizer may drain away or be absorbed by other nearby plants. This is not as likely when plants are grown in containers.
Of course, when the soil area is relatively small, there is a chance the fertilizer can be washed out of the soil faster. Because of this, you do need to fertilize more often than you would a traditional vegetable garden. But you can rest assured that your plants are probably getting more of the fertilizer before it does wash away than they would if they were in the ground.
The growing season is extended when your vegetables are grown in containers. You can keep the soil of your potted plants warmer by wrapping them in blankets or any other insulating materials. Your plants can be started sooner indoors or in a cold frame and then be transported outdoors to larger pots when the weather is more permitting. You can also use careful insulation to continue to grow vegetables after the first frost, and you can even bring them indoors once it becomes too cold to keep them outside even if insulated.
One of the biggest benefits of growing your vegetables in containers is the fact that it makes gardening accessible to almost anyone. Handicapped individuals find growing their plants in containers makes it easier to locate plants where they can easily reach them. Many people in wheelchairs like to place their pots on a low table to make them more accessible. Elderly people who can’t work traditional gardens may find container gardening to be an excellent way to once again enjoy their favorite hobby. Even small children find container vegetable gardening to be fun and easy, since they don’t have to have someone till the soil and there isn’t raking, weeding, and hoeing to worry about.
Growing vegetables in pots really makes it easy to have a garden when you don’t have the space for a traditional one.
