Growing your own veggies, fruits, herbs and microgreens at home is the best thing ever. Nowadays, growing own food is getting so much popularity. Why? Because of all that non-organic GMO foods in supermarkets. People are tired to eat all those foods.
Growing your own food has so many benefits directly or indirectly. You can grow organic Non-GMO food. You can grow lots of different varieties in your vegetable garden. It will save you money, and it is a way more healthy activity than watching a show on Netflix.
Why Use Containers To Grow Vegetables?
Not everybody has a front yard, back yard or any kind of land to grow vegetables. Or you simply don’t want to handle a bigger piece of land for some reason, or you just think growing in Containers is a lot more fun.
If you are a teacher or parents, it would be easier to teach your kids or students about growing veggies.
In this post, I will share with you 10 of the best container vegetable gardening ideas.
1: Bucket Garden Idea.
This is one of the best, cheapest and DIY vegetable garden ideas. You have any kind of bucket at your home, you can start right now. If you just paint your house, you definitely have some empty buckets of paint. You can use them. Just clean those buckets and sterilize them with hot water.
Firstly, clean and sterilize the buckets.
Then make some holes at the bottom of the buckets.
Add some gravel at the bottom, about 1 inch.
Now add good kind of potting soil in them. Remember do not use the topsoil from the land. You can buy some potting soil from stores (which is very cheap) or you can make your own.
After adding potting soil in the bucket, you are good to go. Now plant whatever you want. You can grow tomatoes, potatoes, onion, garlic, mushrooms and so much more. Remember if you wanted to grow potatoes, beets or vegetables with underground fruit, you will need a slightly bigger bucket.
After planting vegetables of your choice, pick a place according to the need of the plant. Some plants are sun-loving and some are not. The best thing about bucket gardening is, you can put them at any place. Put them on your balcony or roof or indoor etc. They are easy to carry and change the spot.
Here is a tip for bucket gardening.
If you have a piece of land or a raised bed garden, you can cut the bottom of buckets and place them on land or raised bed garden. That’s how you can manage your land or raised bed garden easily and bucket plants will have more soil to play with.
Video about bucket gardening:
2: Compost Bag Vegetable Garden Idea.
If you don’t have a bucket in your home. No problem, you can grow so many vegetables in a compost bag directly. No need for any other kind of containers.
Buy some good kind of compost from the market. Don’t worry compost is very cheap if you buy in bulk.
Shake the bag full of compost, to loosen up the compost. You don’t want to plant in compact soil.
Cut a slot out of the bag. The number of slots depends on the kind of plant. If you wanted to grow tomatoes, cut 3 slots max. You can grow your salad in grow bag as well.
After cutting slot out of the bag, plant your seedlings or sow seeds in that space. Water them.
Place your grow bag in a nice shady or sunny place, depending on your crop.
You can plant your seedling directly or use growth rings. Watering the plants will be easier and more beneficial with growth rings.
Growing potatoes or beets in grow bag is not a good idea, because the thickness of the soil is just a few inches. Fruit will not grow very well in the bag with that kind of thickness.
Video about compost bag growing.
3: Cheap Grow Bags Made Of Fabric.
Grow bags made of fabric are the coolest. They are cheap, non-toxic, environmentally friendly, easy to carry and reusable. Growing your food in the fabric grow bags is very easy. Just put some potting mix in grow bag and you are good to grow your own food.
These bags have a good number of pores in the fabric, which is very good for air transport between roots and the environment. They also have drainage holes and handles on them. You can easily carry them and change their spot if you want. They come in different sizes and quality.
You can grow almost every vegetable in grow bags. For potatoes, there is a special kind of grow bags in the market. Here are some tips for better use of grow bags.
After harvesting a crop, change the potting soil of grow bag. If there is no weed or any kind of disease or pests in that crop, no need to change the whole soil, change the top few inches with new potting soil.
Do not overwater the soil in grow bag, it can cause a fungal attack.
Save the plants from slugs by putting grow bags in a tray or any place where they cannot reach.
Read More: How To Grow Tomatoes In Grow Bags
How To Grow Beefsteak tomatoes in Pots
4: Old Tires Garden Idea.
Is it safe to use old tires for gardening purposes?
Well, answers to that have many factors involved. There is a lot of research on this topic. According to research, old tires are not bad to grow vegetables in them, until they start to break down. Which is a very long period of time. When they start to break down, they can add toxins to soil and then vegetables.
If you are growing ornamental flowers in tires, you don’t need to worry about that either.
Here are some tips to grow vegetables in tires.
Do not select black colored tires, black is not good for shade-loving plants. Because black color absorbs more heat.
Pick a good place for tire, because, like other kinds of containers, you cannot change the place of the tire.
It is good if you place them on land because they don’t have a bottom. Extra moisture in the soil can cause problems for you.
Paint the tires in different colors. They will definitely add a layer of beauty to your home.
Use good kind of potting soil for tires to grow vegetables. You can grow almost everything in tires. If tires are small in size, grow salad greens, like lettuce in them.
5: Plastic Bottles Garden Idea.
Growing in plastic bottles is a new trend. Do not throw away your soda bottles. I have a better idea to use them instead.
Growing vegetables in bottles have the same concern as growing in old tires.
Is it safe to use plastic bottles to grow vegetables?
There are 7 different brands of plastic bottles in the market. Four of them are safe to use.
Here are some tips to grow your veggies in plastic bottles.
You can grow your own salad in plastic bottles. Growing bigger veggies will need bigger bottles.
Growing microgreens in bottles is also a very good idea. For other vegetables, use potting mix. For microgreens, use coconut coir as a growing medium.
Paint these bottles with varieties of colour. They will look beautiful in your home.
Using plastic bottles for vegetable gardening is also a very good school project. It will encourage kids to reuse plastic instead of throwing them away, which causes a great amount of harm to our environment.
Read More: Which Plants Can Be Grown In Plastic Bottles?
Video about bottle gardening:
6: Vertical Plastic Bottles Garden Idea.
We already talked about using plastic bottles to grow vegetables. If you are dealing with the space problem, this might be the best idea for you. Collect some plastic bottles and make a vertical vegetable garden in no time. There are so many ideas for using bottles as a vertical garden. From this video, you will get the idea.
90 Beautiful Garden Ideas Using Old Plastic Bottles
7: One-Pot Herb Garden Idea.
This is another great idea to cop with the space problem. All you need is a pot, soil and some seeds, you can have your own herbs garden in no time. You can plant 15 different herbs in this kind of pot. You can also grow strawberries in this pot. You can hang this pot to a wall or put it anywhere you want. Growing herbs in this pot are very easy. You don’t even have to buy seeds of herbs. You can grow them from store-bought herbs.
Here are some tips to grow herbs.
Use a good kind of potting mix instead of normal garden soil.
Pick some green cuttings of herbs from store-bought herbs.
Put these herbs in a bottle of water. In a few days, roots will appear.
Now plant these cuttings in a pot. Put this one-pot herb garden near a window for good sunlight or use artificial grow light (if sunlight is not available).
These herbs are very easy to grow:
Basil, parsley, rosemary, mint and thyme etc.
Read More: 4 Store-Bought Vegetables and Herbs You Can Regrow in your Kitchen Garden
8: PVC Pipes Vegetable Garden Idea.
There are so many ideas to use old PVC pipes to grow your food mostly herbs and salad greens. You cut them from the centre and grow your plants in them. Or make some holes in a pipe and use them to grow.
Again potting mix is the best way to go in this case too. You can grow lettuce, kale, watercress, spinach and arugula in PVC pipes. You can also grow herbs like mint and basil in them too.
PVC pipes are the best to make a vertical vegetable garden. You can paint them in different colours to look cool. Mostly they come in white colour, which also looks so cool.
Like old tyres, when start to break down, stop using them and throw them away. PVC also used in growing plants hydroponically. But you can fill them with soil and grow your food. You can put them outside or inside. If you are planning to put them inside, use some grow light for better growth of plants.
Buy PVC Hydroponic Pipe Home Balcony Garden From Amazon
Video about making a garden with PVC:
9: An Old Tree Container Idea.
This is the coolest idea ever to grow veggies. If you have an old tree stump in your home, you can make it a most beautiful container ever. You some tool to make space for soil inside the tree stump. Put potting soil in that space. Sow some seeds of salad greens or plant seedlings. Water them when needed. You can paint the tree stump, but I think it looks more beautiful in its natural colour.
Remember, do not overwater the soil, it can kill your plant, and it can destroy the most beautiful container too.
10: Mason Jar Herb Garden.
If you want your window full of beautiful green herbs than mason jar herb garden is a must. Especially if you are living in a cold area. Growing herbs in a mason jar are easier than you think. All you need is a few used mason jar (or you can buy new) some pebbles, soil and seeds or seedlings of herbs (store-bought cuttings of herbs will just do fine).
Select some good looking mason jars (numbers depend on how many different kinds of herbs you want).
Put pebbles at the bottom of your jars.
Now fill the jars with some good kind of potting soil.
You can sow seeds of herbs, plant seedlings or use the same store-bought method I explain above.
Now water the soil, do not overwater it. Only water, when you feel the soil is dry. Use your finger to check the soil. Top 1 inch of soil should be moisturized.
Harvest only a few cuttings and leaves of herbs, so it cannot hurt the plant.
Conclusion:
Growing veggies in containers are the best thing if you don’t have a piece of land to grow. If you have a piece of land, still it is the most fun way of gardening. Also the easiest way.
I hope you enjoy this post and ready to start your own container vegetable garden. Share it with your friends and family. Because sharing is caring.