SoS: Growing Fruit and Vegetables in Containers – March

A busy week of seed planting and pricking out seedlings means I’ve already filled our two cold frames. I’ve discovered, there’s something quite satisfying about growing seeds… I think. So far so good. I’ve now gone crazy and ordered 5 packets of seeds from a friend who is putting in an order with a UK seed supplier. It was heaven browsing the pages of an English seed catalogue and reading about the various varieties . As well as some herbs, pot marigold and iceberg lettuce, I did splash the cash and ordered some blight F1 resistant cherry tomato seeds. Does F1 mean I can’t regrow tomatoes from the fruit next year? Ponderous, consults google.

1. Growing a Lime Tree in a Container

A few weeks ago I made a spur of the moment purchase of a Bearss lime tree. Perhaps it was not the best choice for a container as I’ve just discovered it can grow to 20ft … ha ha… I better remember to prune it regularly. It needs watering 2- 3 times a week and must never be allowed to dry out.

2. Growing Cucumber in Pots

Dare I say, the one salad crop that grows well in pots is cucumbers. We purchased four cucumber plugs from the farmers market early February. I kept them on the terrace until two weeks ago when I planted them in pots using a plastic mini-cloche to protect them from the windchill until they become established.

So far so good, and baby cucumbers are already beginning to appear.

3. Growing Spring Onions in Containers

The onion seedling (resembling chives) were planted on the 5th of February and are now ready for harvesting.

4. Growing Lettuce in Containers

The 15 mixed lettuce seedling plugs I planted on the 5th of February are now ready for harvesting. I should mention, I only crop the baby leaves as and when required, rather than harvesting a fully grown lettuce. I will buy another 15 end of April so the next crop is ready for harvesting Mid May.

5. Growing Strawberries in Containers

Fortunately for me, strawberries grow very well in containers. This year, however, I failed to cover the strawberries as they ripened and the blackbirds ate them. This one escaped!

This week I discovered two of the containers of strawberry plants had the dreaded white bug that eats the roots, so rather than attempt to clean/disinfect the roots I’ve decided to bin the plants as they were old and scraggy and buy new. Soil dumped and containers sterilized.

6. What’s Growing in Our Raised Vegetable Garden?

Our raised vegetable garden is small yet productive.

At the moment we have

• Rocket  self-seeded from last year
• Red cabbage
• Onions (red)
• French Beans
• Peas
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower

 

That’s my gardening six for this Saturday. Why not pop over to The Propagator’s Blog to check out other other garden bloggers

Related Post: Growing Fruit and Vegetables in Pots – April