| How to grow a box garden on your deck for vegetables and flowers? |
| The main consideration when gardening in containers is good drainage from the pots, and good soil in the pots. Use a commercial potting soil rather than regular garden soil to fill your containers. Use pots large enough to accommodate the root mass of the plant you intend to grow. To keep mature plants from toppling over, the pot should be about 1/3 as deep as the plant is high. Your containerized garden will rely upon you to provide adequate moisture and nutrition. Plan to water daily in hot weather, less if the weather is cool. Use a diluted liquid fertilizer about every third time you water, to provide a constant supply of nutrients to the roots of your plants. It's wise to flush the salts out of the containers every month or so to prevent a build up and subsequent burning of roots and leaves. Here are some good books on container gardening: "Window Boxes: How to Plant and Maintain Beautiful Compact Flower Beds", by Tovah Martin, "The Creative Container Gardener", by Elaine Stevens, "Movable Harvests", by Chuck & Barbara Crandall. |
