Grow a Pot Garden!

Maybe calling it a "pot" garden doesn't quite have the right connotation but I'm talking about growing vegetable gardens in flower pots.

There are a lot of products and guides on how to do this so before I make container garden gift suggestions, here's how my "pot" garden is growing.

I have been gardening in pots for years, keeping large soil-filled and compost-enriched pots on my deck so I can keep them watered and away from maurading wildlife. I leave them on the deck over winter, adding compost late fall so it can slowly trickle through.

Not that wildlife don't find the pots; I saw a raccoon checking one pot last night, and a squirrel took a nap on a bed of spinach last spring but all in all, I can at least protect the containers faster when they're sitting outside my deck door.

To make these large pots easier to move around, I put half a dozen soda cans in the bottom before adding soil; and each pot is on metal casters, which ran $4 each at a local liquidation store.

This year my little "pot" garden included lettuce, radishes and onions, some of my favorite salad fixings, and a sprig of dill that came up from last year. If you would like to make a - well, let's call it a garden gift in a pot  - for someone, herbs are a wonderful choice. Basil, dill, any of the mints, catnip, parsley, chives and oregano all do well in pots in direct sun in Missouri. Although most of these are annuals, some do come up next year.

Want something more interesting?
Plant a tomato or pepper in the center and surround with marigolds, nasturtiums and onions, or chives. The onions and marigolds will keep bugs away and nasturtium flowers make a lovely salad garnish.

Charlotte