CONTAINER TOMATO GARDENING Tomatoes can be grown easily in container gardens.

Here’s how:

USE LARGE CONTAINERS Tomatoes are large plants when they mature. For this reason, your container size should be at least 12 - 14″ in width or diameter. Any smaller container than this and your tomatoes will not last the season. With smaller pots, the plant dries out early in the season and the bloom simply doesn’t happen. The choice is yours. Whether you want to be stingy now or repent later. Pay for the bigger pot to ensure that you get great tomatoes in August.

GOOD QUALITY SOIL Use good quality soil all the way to the bottom of the container. By using an artificial soil mix rather than the garden soil; you prevent the soil from compaction. Compaction stunts the growth of the tomatoes and kills them. The soil should also have the right pH balance for the tomato to thrive fully. The soil should be mixed properly and good quality fertilizer should be added at the time of filling the container this is why garden soil is seldom used. Tomatoes need lots of soil with constant watering. You should put in at least six shovels of soil in the container. Any less than that can spell doom for the plant.

LOTS OF FERTLIZERS> Tomatoes need lots of fertilizers, they need at least fertilizing once a week. This leads to great growth and great yield for the tomato plant. Use a good quality fertilizer that’s available. Both organic and synthetic fertilizers are available in the market. You can also use a liquid mix fertilizer, which assimilates quickly into the soil.

WATER & MORE WATER Since the tomato fruit is 95% water, the plant needs lots of water regularly. You have to water the plant regularly or when the soil appears as if it drying out. Don’t be lethargic in watering the plant else your fruit will suffer. In hotter climate, water the tomato plant at least twice a day.

STAKING IT OUT You can grow the tomato plants on stakes and without the stakes. The branches of the tomato plant are easy to break which is why its essential to secure them. By using stakes, you can ensure that they are secured to the stakes. In this way they have less chances of breaking during a windstorm. A windstorm can easily ruin your tomato plant.

You can leave them to flop over the pots but if there are slugs then they will enjoy the tomato fruit as much as you enjoy the fruit. Tomato plants with stakes seem a better option that those without.

PEST AND DISEASE CONTROL This is as important as watering. Pest control as well as disease control is important otherwise the fruit will rot even before it blooms. There are plenty of commercially available organic and synthetic pesticides and fungicides, which can combat your woes. Added to this tomatoes need to be pruned regularly.

CONCLUSION All other factors remain the same as for the tomato plants, which are grown in the soil.

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Planting an herbal garden that includes scented geraniums is not common to container gardening. Most gardeners think of scented geraniums as a floral plant, not an herbal plant but the species, called pelargonium, is an herb with many uses. This delightful herb has many different aromas and gorgeous colors to delight your senses. The scented geranium is best used in container gardening for two reasons. One, you can control the soil and moisture, and two you can bring it indoors when a frost is imminent.

The scented geranium was found in Africa in the 1600’s and shipped to England where it became most popular. The gardener of King Charles I grew a variety of scented geraniums in the royal greenhouse. The Victorians thought they were geraniums rather than an herbal plant but if you look at their asymmetrical leaves you can see the difference between scented geraniums and regular geraniums.

The scented geranium is truly a herbal plant for all seasons. It grows and has a lovely aroma throughout the spring and summer and when the chilly winds of autumn threaten this sturdy herbal plant will gladly co-exist inside with you. Nothing could be better when container gardening includes scented geranium with their exquisite flowers, lovely scented leaves, and sturdy characteristics for year round enjoyment of your senses.

True to their name scented geraniums come in a multitude of fragrances. Seemly, the favorite is the rose scented geranium but others are gaining popularity quickly. Some of the more robustly planted are the apple scented, peppermint scented, wood, like cedar or balsam, nutmeg and citronella (also know as the mosquito buster.) You can plant a whole container garden with this one type of plant and have a beautiful diversity. Their leaves alone will contrast interestingly to give you a spectacular container garden. The tiny smooth leaves of the nutmeg scented geranium, or Lady Mary, to the large musk scented leaves of the Lady Plymouth.

The rose scented geraniums are gaining popularity for calming and are increasingly used in mediation and for healing purposes. The plant truly releases a delicious rose scent when rubbed against or crushed. Just brush the leaves to release their scent or make a soothing rose geranium tea to help you relax.

There are many culinary uses for the scented geranium to delight your taste buds. Chop up the leaves and mix with your other favorite herbs such as chives or chervil or thyme to make interesting flavored butters or dips and spreads. A really clever way to use the leaves is to line a baking pan when making pies, puddings or cakes to impart a wonderful flavor to your desserts. Use them for desserts, syrups or custards for another unique flavor. You can even make flavored sugar by layer dry, fresh leaves with sugar. Let them sit a few days, remove the leaves and store the sugar in an air tight container. This can be used in teas, baking goods, or as a sugar scrub. They are delightful in baths and infused in water to rinse your hair.

The scented geranium is a great as a room freshener or added to potpourri. Try adding some to your vacuum bag or put them in a mesh bag and add them to your dryer for a new fresh scent for your clothes.

Scented geraniums are grown from cuttings taken from the mother plant. Cut three to four inches just above a leaf. Strip the lower leaves off and place in a rooting medium, such as a mix of sphagnum peat moss. Place your cutting in bright light and keep it moist. When roots have been established it is time to place it in your container garden. Make sure the soil is porous and fast draining.

When the scented geranium is indoors it is necessary to feed it once a week to ensure full leaf growth. Pinching back the plant not only encourages bushy growth but releases a delicious aroma into the air. Keep the soil evenly damp; do not over water them as this will kill them. They can come back from overly dry situations but not wet ones.

Now it is time to add this multi-talented plant to your container garden. Just one word of caution, once you get to know the scented geranium your herbal garden will never be without it.

Copyright © Mary Hanna, All Rights Reserved.

This article may be distributed freely on your website and in your ezines, as long as this entire article, copyright notice, links and the resource box are unchanged.

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Growing vegetables in a regular garden just didn’t work. It took too much effort to control weeds, pests and a couple of critters called raccoons. So I decided to try growing in containers. At first, I thought that meant going to the store and buying some pretty pots. As inexpensive as they were, I was going to need a lot of them to make up the space I needed. So I started thinking of the things I could use as containers just until I had the money.

I have eight cats, six inside cats and two outdoors. Now these cats go through a lot of cat litter in a month’s time. I have all these 27-35 pound cat litter containers hanging around my garage, most times until I manage to put them out to the garbage dump. I thought I’d try to use a cat litter container as a make-shift planter. I cleaned it out thoroughly with a little soap and water. I knew it had to have holes in the bottom to allow for sufficient drainage. I drilled holes into it with a smaller sized drill bit. I plopped the potting soil and behold! A garden pot was born! My kids think I should have decorated up the sides so that the kitty litter panels wouldn’t show up but it didn’t bother me a bit. I was recycling something that would just end up in the trash anyway.

In that same week, I got my answer to how I was going to plant the squash. I knew the squash would need some significant room to bush out. I was driving down a back country road and came upon a heap of tires. I thought I remember reading somewhere that tires would make excellent planters. I grabbed a few and by the end of the season was very surprised at the results. Not only did my squash go crazy in the tires, we had enough squash for the whole neighborhood.

I lost my first lettuces to the critters called raccoons. But not because they ate them. They tipped them over and spilled out the lettuces. What a huge mess it caused. But I as determined to set it right. I soon learned to plant the lettuces in a garden away from the deck. I came upon some idea of using cinder (concrete) blocks to make a raised bed. Similar to a container garden, a raised bed garden would be better suited to lettuce gardening. So I made my first bed using cinder blocks. They never lined up completely as I planned them but they worked out just fine. The lettuces grew, so did the spinach that I threw in beside the lettuce.

I had two small kids blue swimming pools just wasting space in the yard so I used them as a lettuce garden as well. I cut more holes in the pools and filled them with lettuce and one was filled with onion sets.

With a little thought and creativity, anything can become a planter. Before you throw it out, think. Could I envision something grown in this?

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