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Container Gardening

The Challenges of Growing Vegetables in Containers and How to Overcome Them

I love growing vegetables in containers. Don’t get me wrong; I couldn’t be happier to have the space to grow a big garden in my backyard, but I’ve always loved having a few or more containers full of vegetables on the porch or decorating the front steps. Flowers are nice, but I’ll take a planter full of rosemary any day.

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Container Gardening

7+ Perfect Plants for an Edible Front Porch Garden

I’ll be blunt; if you enjoy cooking, you owe it to yourself to have a garden. I realize not everyone has the space for a big garden in the backyard. An edible front porch garden or balcony garden is a lot more attainable. In fact, even if you do have space for a big garden, there are some distinct advantages to growing your herbs and veggies right outside your door.

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Container Gardening

Making Food-Safe DIY Window Box Planters Fit for a Home Chef

I love window boxes – especially those DIY window box planters I come across now and then. They’re just bursting with personality. I saw a fantastic steampunk window box a few years ago that I wish I would have taken a picture of. The box itself was ordinary, but it was embellished with these amazingly detailed metal gears, copper piping, and even a few pocket watches thrown in for good measure. Naturally, there was garlic growing in the box.

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Container Gardening

What Can You Grow in Deck Rail Planters?

I’ve always loved deck rail planters and window boxes. They’re kind of quaint, and they can bring some natural beauty to a space that’s usually ignored. It’s always nice to walk by a house and see lots of colorful flowers hanging over the railings of a front porch or balcony.

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Container Gardening

A Review of the Vegepod Raised Garden Bed

If you’re done with rabbits eating your kale, deer munching on your tomatoes, skunks enjoying your cucumbers, and slugs eating your lettuce, you’ll want to know about the Vegepod Raised Garden Bed. What’s a Vegepod, you ask? It’s understandable if you aren’t familiar with the Vegepod Raised Garden Bed. I’ll admit that I only heard […]

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Container Gardening

How to Fertilize Container Vegetables for Best Results

Have I told you how much I adore container gardens? Container gardens are the quiet MVP of the vegetable gardening world. Container gardening provides accessibility to everyone. If you rent a house or apartment, a traditional garden bed might not be feasible. With the help of containers, you can turn a porch, deck, or balcony into a lush vegetable garden. (All without losing your security deposit!) Before starting out, it’s important to learn how to fertilize container vegetables.

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Container Gardening

Pros and Cons of Fabric Grow Bags for Vegetables

In some universe, there’s an older version of me sitting in a rocking chair on a big farmhouse porch, looking in disbelief at the latest gardening catalog. I can hear myself now: “Fabric grow bags? What’s with all these newfangled things. Back in my day we just put seeds in the dirt.”

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Container Gardening

How to Clean Terracotta Pots of Algae, Minerals, and Disease

Plants don’t just absorb nutrients from their environment; they actually filter them out too! That’s why we’re able to grow plants using manure, for instance. If you’ve inherited old pots from previous owners, you may be wondering what was used inside them before they were yours. Plastic—which certainly has its own risks—can be washed down […]

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Container Gardening

The 6 Best Containers for Container Gardening

You’ve probably heard that using old wood pallets isn’t the best idea, because you never know what they were carrying and could be filled with poisons you don’t want leaching into your soil and food. So then, if the most Pinterest-ed DIY project is null, what are the best containers for container gardening when you grow food? Mason jars. That’s the end of the list. Pure glass, no plastic.

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Container Gardening

5 Vegetables You Can Grow in Hanging Baskets on a Porch

Is there anything better than sitting on a porch, drinking a glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade, and reading a good book? I love a good porch sit but what I love even better is utilizing porch real estate as bonus garden space. I’ve written about the joys of container gardening before and how it’s a great gardening entry point, but we shouldn’t forget to think vertically too.