Do you live in an apartment or a house with a small backyard? Have you always wanted a garden but don’t have enough space? There’s a solution: Bucket gardening. All you need are some 5-gallon buckets, rocks, peat moss, planting soil, and compost. That might sound like a lot, but it’s actually very simple.
Not only is bucket gardening a great solution for people with limited space, it also has many advantages over traditional gardening. You can have a greater variety of plants, you won’t have to do any weeding, and you’ll have fewer pests to deal with. Here are some other benefits of container gardening.
If you decide to give it a try, the first thing you need to ask yourself what you’re going to grow. Beginners should always start with very easy plants. It will boost their confidence and give them valuable practice before they move on to more difficult plants.
How To Grow Vegetables In Buckets
Follow these steps to grow your favorite vegetables in buckets. A tip: Only grow vegetables that you like and love to eat, do not waste your time, money, and bucket on vegetables that you don’t even want to eat.
Collect Some Buckets
For a bucket garden, you will need 5-gallon buckets and a few 10-gallon buckets. You can find them from a local home improvement store and from restaurant food suppliers.
Remember, do not use buckets that were filled with toxic chemicals to grow vegetables. You can still use those buckets to grow ornament plants in them but not edible plants. You can also buy clean 5 gallons or 10-gallon buckets from Amazon.
Make Some Good Soil
This is a very important step for a container garden. You cannot use your garden soil or topsoil to grow vegetables in them. This kind of soil is very compact and it can stop the growth of roots.
Even if your soil is very fertile, you should add some compost and peat moss in it to make it more suitable for plants. The best soil for a container garden is potting soil. It is not heavy, has great drainage, and a good number of nutrients.
Important Steps Before Planting
Drill some holes at the bottom of buckets. Add a layer of pebbles at the bottom for drainage. Paint your buckets to give them a good fresh look. You will already have some great ideas for painting according to your need.
Plant In Buckets
You can sow seeds in the potting soil of buckets or plant seedlings. Both will work fine. After planting or sowing, give them water and put them in the location according to the need of plants.
This is the beauty of a bucket garden, you can change the location whenever you want. Some crops love sunlight and some like shade. You have to figure it out.
Fertilize Your Plants In Buckets
Plants in containers always need some extra fertilizer to produce more and more. You can use organic compost as fertilizer.
Watering In Buckets
Watering is the factor that depends on so many different things like weather, crop or stages of crops. There is no exact amount of water that works for everyone. You have to learn this trick on your own.
I always check the moisture level of the top 2 inches of soil. If it feels dry, I give water to my plants. Plants in buckets will need some extra water but do not over-water them.
Here’s a list of 10 vegetables you can grow in buckets, grouped by difficulty.
1. Eggplant – If you’re a big fan of eggplant, you might be surprised to learn that it’s super easy to grow in pots and planters (and looks gorgeous too!). Eggplant needs full sun and fast draining soil. You may also want to add a cage or stakes to help support them as they grow taller and heavy with fruit.
2. Swiss chard – Another great container vegetable plant, Swiss chard is a cool-season crop that you can harvest all summer long. They’re great for adding tons of color to your potted veggie garden too. Chard can grow anywhere from part shade to sun, and performs best in well-draining soil.
3. Determinate tomatoes – Also known as bush tomatoes, determinate tomatoes are made for growing in pots. They need lots of sunlight and fast draining soil to produce the best crop. It’s especially important to consistently water your containerized tomato plants to prevent problems like cracking and blossom end rot.
4. Peas – Both vining and bush peas grow great in pots. But be sure to choose a large container for vining varieties, and either stake them or add a small trellis for them to climb. For the best results, be sure to give pea plants lots of water, and protect them from the hot sun.
5. Zucchini – Though not commonly grown as container garden vegetables, zucchini performs great in large pots. Zucchini plants love lots of sunshine and moist (but not soggy) soil. Once they grow larger, you can add a small trellis to help support the plant, if desired.
6. Peppers – There are tons of different types of peppers, and all of them grow very well in containers. Peppers are my favorite vegetables to grow in pots, and they require little care. Give them plenty of sunshine, and allow the soil to dry slightly between waterings, but never let it dry out completely.
7. Okra – Okra is a wonderful container garden vegetable that is both highly productive and has beautiful flowers. Place them in the sun for the best results. They don’t like wet feet, so plant them in soil that has good drainage, and let it to dry out a little between waterings. Okra plants can grow pretty tall, so use a large pot for them.
8. Bush beans – Another ideal container vegetable, bush beans are fast growers. The compact plants will continue to produce throughout the growing season. You can grow them in partial shade to sun. But the more sun they get, the better the harvest. Give them lots of water, but make sure to plant them in well-draining soil.
9. Kale – Since kale plants don’t need a lot of space to grow, they’re excellent vegetables for planters and pots. These long-season veggies are very cold hardy, and you can harvest from them all season long. Place kale plants in partial to full sun, and give them plenty of water, but never allow the soil to become soggy.
10. Tomatillo – Believe it or not, tomatillos are great vegetables for containers. They do grow very tall though, so plant them in a large pot, and be sure to add stakes or a cage support to keep them upright. Tomatillos perform best in full sun with plenty of water, and require fast-draining soil.
11. Tomatoes – Probably the container planting go-to crop, tomatoes are ubiquitous in containers. You should grow bush varieties in buckets. For a single tomato plant, one 5 gallon bucket will be needed. You should also provide a cage for your tomato plants. Tomato plants require 6-8 hours of sunlight, so pick a very sunny location for your buckets of tomatoes.
12. Carrots
You can grow tons of carrots in buckets. Small varieties of carrots are very suitable. In a 5 gallon bucket, you can grow 20-25 carrots. Sow the seeds of carrots directly in the potting soil of your buckets. Give them water and watch them grow. You can harvest your carrots in 65-80 days but you don’t have to wait that long, leaves of carrots are edible too. Add some leaves of carrots in your salad.
Leave a reply
