Green Gardening Tips - Top 10 Summer Fruit & Vegetables For Container Gardening

Green Gardening Tips - Top 10 Summer Fruit & Vegetables For Container Gardening

Green gardening is a very rewarding activity. Those lucky enough to have a large garden can really develop their green gardening skills with big compost heaps, crop rotation, water butts & 'grey water' irrigation systems. Fortunately, green gardening is also possible for those with small gardens or even no garden. The answer is to grow green using containers.

The good news is that there are many types of fruit and vegetables which can be grown successfully in containers. These range from salad leaves to miniature fruit trees. Using containers you can even 'choose' your soil type by buying compost that is suitable for the plants you wish to grow, rather than putting up with your garden's natural range. o water your containers every day (& possibly twice a day in hot weather) 
o use a natural, organic plant food to help your plants keep producing all season

This is vital for producing strong, disease resistant plants.

This allows water to be directed deeper into the compost & nearer to the roots of the plants. Don't forget, even if you don't have room for a water butt, you can still use 'grey' water from your washing up bowl or bath to water your plants.

Green gardening generally relies on improving soil condition and structure to add nutrients and encourage strong growth. This is more difficult to achieve with container gardening, so additional nutrients may be required. Organic plant foods are available from a wide variety of online & other garden stores and will come with instructions on how & when to use. My top ten suggestions for a good range of versatile, mouth watering produce are:

1. TOMATOES: not just a key ingredient of salads but an integral part of so many wonderful summer dishes from gazpacho (cold tomato soup) to pizza toppings, pasta sauces & salsa. There is a huge range of tomatoes available from the large 'beefsteak' tomatoes which are great sliced & served with a herb vinaigrette or on top of barbequed burgers to tiny cherry tomatoes that are sweet as sugar. For our purposes, the smaller tomatoes that will grow in hanging baskets & strawberry pots, or pot grown cordon tomatoes, are likely to be most successful. Tomatoes do need a minimum temperature (10ºc) to grow well & a good deal of sun to ripen, so a sunny spot is needed for your pots or baskets. However, the trusses can be removed from the plant & ripened indoors, on a window sill, if necessary. Trusses are the long branches on which the tomatoes grow, so if you are planning to ripen your fruits in this way, take off the branches rather than the individual tomatoes for best results.

Tomatoes are definitely high on the list of plants needing frequent watering & regular additional feeding. Liquid feed can be added when watering to keep things simple, but wait until the first fruits have formed before feeding, otherwise you will encourage the plant to produce leaf growth rather than fruit. 2. SALAD LEAVES: again a huge variety of salad leaves is available these days, from mustard leaves & Mizuna to wild rocket, spinach, lambs lettuce & chard. 3. STRAWBERRIES: well what can I say - can you imagine summer without strawberries? Wonderful! The design of the pot means that it grows the strawberries in vertical layers so even a fairly small diameter pot may be able to take 10 -20 plants. Strawberry pots come in different sizes & materials (mine is terracotta) so they can be decorative as well as functional. So look for pots that are double skinned to help warm up the compost & get your plants going. 4. DWARF BEANS & PEAS: broad, French or runner beans & peas; all will do well in pots if you choose dwarf varieties. If your patio or growing area is in a windy spot you may need to stake your plants to prevent them from being damaged. 6. COURGETTES (Zucchini): you will need quite a large pot for a courgette as they can spread out quite wide. 7. BEAUTIFUL BERRIES: strawberries may be summer incarnate but let's not forget the other mouth watering soft fruits. It is perfectly possible to grow gooseberries, blackcurrants, blueberries & white & redcurrants in pots too. It is better to re-pot soft fruit plants into a slightly larger container every year or two years (depending on size) than use an over large pot to start off with. Juicy berries need water & sun to develop & ripen, they will also benefit from regular feeding

8. SWEET PEPPERS: colourful & tasty, peppers are easy to grow in pots. They germinate easily in small, plastic covered pots, on your window sill, and will grow to around 30cm. At this height the growing tips need to be pinched out to encourage new branches to grow. Keep potting up as the plants grow; they will probably need a 5 litre pot once they are ready to be put outside and a stake for support. If you have a wall to grow plants against, peppers will benefit from the warmth & reflected heat as will tomatoes & aubergines. 9. AUBERGINES (Egg plant): like the sweet peppers, aubergines make very colourful & attractive patio plants. Leeks are easy to grow & can be densely planted in pots for picking while still young. So there we have it, just a few of the huge range of fruit and vegetables suitable for container growing. Remember, if it grows in soil it can probably be grown in a pot as long as the climatic conditions are right.

By growing plants in home gardens. More specifically, by using commercially manufactured, chemical and organic fertilizers to enhance the growth of plants in home gardens.

This increase in the number of home gardens is unfortunately, accompanied by an increase in the use of commercially manufactured fertilizers and the needless wasting of millions of gallons of water.

Reduce your use of commercial fertilizers

Before you apply any fertilizers to your garden, or your yard, you should test your soil. A soil test, even a basic one, will tell you which nutrients are present in your soil, and at what level. A basic soil test will also tell you the acidity level of your soil. This is important because even though a particular nutrient is present in your soil, it may be unavailable to your plants if your soil pH is outside a certain range.

Applying too much fertilizer, the wrong formulation of fertilizer, or applying fertilizer at the wrong time can cause serious health risks to you and your plants, and create an additional burden on our already overburdened environment.

Avoid unnecessary watering

One effect of the misuse or misapplication of commercial fertilizers is plant dehydration. In an attempt to remedy this effect, many home gardeners over-water their gardens. This is wasted water, and it is unhealthy water, for both you and the environment.

Unfortunately, water is not an an antidote for fertilizer-poisoned plants. Water will not make your plants healthy again, some may even die. Practice green gardening; protect yourself, your plants and the environment

Green gardening is a modern approach to organic gardening. It effectively combines the "natural" elements of organic gardening with the "conserve and replenish" elements of the green movement.

To that end, green gardening uses more naturally created, organic materials in place of commercially manufactured, chemical and organic fertilizers to foster healthy plant development and growth.

Naturally created, organic materials such as home-made, or home-grown compost and mulch add nutrients to soil in a more natural way and over a more relaxed and beneficial time frame. Liberal amounts of natural, organic compost and mulch applied on top of your garden soil and around plants helps to conserve water by retaining moisture in the soil and promotes a healthy environment for beneficial insects and microbes.

Green gardening really is a modern approach to organic gardening!

Toad houses for organic gardening is a perfect way to attract hungry toads that feed on thousands of harmful garden pests each day. The toad is nocturnal and very sensitive. A simple tray of fresh water and a daily garden hose-down will provide a necessary water source. While any flower or vegetable garden needs it's appropriate amount of sunlight, toads like cool, dark, damp and shaded places to make home. This, however, is where the many commercially made toad homes can provide a more dependable and safe day time environment for Mr. Toad while he prepares for his night time patrols.

The female toad can be quite large. If you should want to decorate your green garden space with creative and cute ceramic or cast toad houses, please remember the toad by not placing his home in the ever-changing sun where he will sit and bake before the day is over! Take time to shop the large and wonderful selection and different themes of green gardening toad houses, which will make your garden special!

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