Container Gardening 101 for Non-Gardeners

Many people love the idea of having a garden, but hate the thought of working outside. The thought of spending hot summer days pulling weeds, tilling, getting dirty and dealing with bugs isn't fun for most non-gardeners. So, how does one balance the idea of a love for a garden with a dislike for outdoor work? The answer is container gardening. No tilling necessary. Most weeds are tiny and contained within a small space, if you even get any weeds, and container gardening is compact, clean and easy to maintain.

I first started container gardening a few years ago. After several years of maintaining a very large vegetable garden and realizing I just didn't have the time or energy to devote to pulling weeds, watering and being a devoted gardener, I switched to container gardening.

I bought some strawberry plants and put them in the largest container of all - an old wheel barrow. I filled it with top soil and went to town with some hardy strawberry plants. I then got some nice containers and started planting tomatoes, lettuce, spinach and all types of herbs. Every single thing I planted produced a nice little harvest. Plus, I wasn't stuck with too many tomatoes or etc. like I had been the previous years of running a larger garden.

To give you an idea of what I started with, when we first moved into our house, the previous owners had over 80 tomato plants! We had a huge strawberry patch and all types of other vegetables like peppers, zucchini, corn and etc. It was way too much for us to eat, let alone maintain. After giving away as much as possible, I ended up selling a bunch to local health food stores. It was an organic gardening.

Finally, years later, container gardening was the way we decided to garden. There's little effort or knowledge needed. You plant the seeds, water them daily and the next thing you know, you have a harvest of delicious vegetables, fruits and herbs. It was nice to run to our back porch, grab some chives and cut them up into our baked potatoes. When I needed to make fresh spaghetti sauce, I'd cut some basil and oregano from the garden and create a wonderful tomato sauce. For a salad, I'd cut some leaf lettuce, spinach and tomatoes and voila!

Container gardening helps you save on groceries, too. Just plant the types of fresh vegetables you like to eat, and you'll see your grocery bills decrease.

Although this year I did plant a small in-ground garden, I still have containers with a variety of seeds in them. One of my very favorite things to plant in the ground is zucchini. It always grows very well and the harvest is great! One year I had so many zucchini's that I ended up creating my own person zucchini recipe files.

As for the container gardening method, it's truly the fastest, easiest and cleanest way to garden. I've never had to deal with squirrels bothering my containers, either. Sometimes you get brave little birds that swoop down and try to steal a cherry tomato, but for the most part, no bugs and no animals disturb the containers.