Container Gardening in a Small Space

Many of us dream of a small holding or homestead where we can live a self-sufficient life. But sadly, dream and reality don’t coincide. I am lucky, as I have a small allotment, but there are many people who only have a small space, a yard or a balcony. Can they achieve some degree of self-sufficiency? The answer is yes. They can grow vegetables in containers anywhere. Even a small balcony will grow something.

Take an example. I was travelling through inner Manchester, UK, a crowded part of a crowded city in a crowded isle, when a balcony caught my eye. Half way up a small block of flats was a polytunnel. It took up about half the balcony, and inside a gardener was growing tomatoes, cucumbers or who knows what. This enterprising gardener was practising container gardening in a small space.

Pick Your Pots

Let’s look at how container gardening in small spaces works. If you have a yard or patio, then you can fill it with pots easily, but if you have a balcony or roof you need to be careful not to overload it. However, there is a solution: use lightweight, improvised containers. For example, in the course of my job I receive letters in plastic rhino sacks. These light-weight sturdy sacks can be filled with compost and used as containers. You can use other plastic containers, but it is a good idea to wrap them in black material to prevent sunlight decaying the plastic. It is important to seek advice and permission from the owner of a building to ensure that you do not infringe their legal rights. This is very important in terms of balcony and roof gardens.

Easily grown vegetables

If you have a yard/patio, then any container of reasonable size will suffice. I use old tyres. Getting them is easy. I just beg them off the local garage owners, who are glad to see the back of them. I have grown potatoes, carrots and peas in tyre planters. It is often a good idea to plant one or more on top of the other to create greater depth of soil. For carrots, which grow long if they have to send a root down for water, I insert a section of cut-down drainpipe, which I picked up from a guy who trains plumbers, and pour the water deep into the container soil, so the carrot roots plunge down to drink and so lengthen. For potatoes, place a layer of manure at the bottom and cover it with soil. Don’t fill the container at first, but earth it up steadily as the potatoes grow. Peas require some sticks to hold them up, and bamboo canes will be good enough. You can grow leeks in containers just as easily. Salad containers are really useful. You can plant enough of a variety of salad plants for a week, using one container, and then use another one for the next week’s salads and so on.

Anything can be used as a container, provided that it is large enough for the plant that you want to grow. Be advised that potatoes benefit from larger containers, as those grown in small ones can be on the tiny side. Refuse sacks or dustbins/trash cans work well.

But you must be careful to control moisture. I have known a container flood in heavy rain, which drowned the plant in it, so there must be drainage holes at the bottom. On the other hand, container soil often dries out, so you have to keep up the watering, especially in hot summers. Do not overwater so that the soil becomes soaked, as this will deprive the plant of the oxygen contained in the soil and kill it. A good idea is moisture retaining gel, obtainable form various garden suppliers. This can be placed in the compost, where it will hold any extra moisture over and above what the plants need, then release it slowly as the compost dries.

Select Your Spot

You must place your container garden in a sunny area or choose shade tolerant plants. Ideally, in the northern hemisphere it should be south facing, but cabbages and other close relatives, like kale, can cope with shadier conditions than some other vegetables can. Grow lights can be used, but they take up much electricity, and the police might think you are growing cannabis, so you might be raided. You must also keep vegetables out of the wind. I have to confess that where I live [South Lancashire] the wind is the biggest problem, as we are a very flat, low lying area where winter winds can cause some damage. But do not let the plants sit in entirely still air, as it’s the best way to get fungal diseases, such as mildew.

Many gardeners grow vertically as well as horizontally. The traditional garden grows flat across the ground, but you can use containers affixed to walls. Hanging baskets can be filled with strawberry plants, and bean or tomato vines can be trained to run up walls. All you need is some brackets and wire, and this takes the weight off a balcony. In fact, tomatoes and peppers can grow indoors behind windows, and I was once quite impressed by this kind of growing performed by a class of physically and mentally handicapped children at Saint John Vianney Special School in Manchester. They had some lovely peppers, all grown at their classroom window, and were very proud of them.

You can grow great vegetables in containers. Clearly, while trying to grow giant pumpkins on a balcony or roof is not wise, most other vegetables will grow easily, given sunlight, water, compost and tender loving care. You can turn an urban space into a small oasis of greenery that will help feed you and your family and provide you with something beautiful to look at.