Container Gardening My Dear Friends, Ok, here goes, I will keep these posts general, but my methods can be adapted to many many flowers and plants.. and forgive me if they are not nicely arranged as I am doing this from my mental files, as I haven't really written all of this out before..some things are hard to describe without pics so if it is unclear let me know and I will try to explain things better. May I recommend the book Square Foot Gardening, from which I developed most of my methods.. I am sorry, cannot call the author to mind, but I know www.amazon.com carries it and you can search for just the title there. For my 'buckets' I love the food containers used by restaurants.. contact a few in your area and you can probably find some who will give them to you..a local sandwich making company here also sells them for 50-75 cents each..check facilities that house and feed people regularly, they often have them, such as elder care homes, county jails, private schools.. the mom-and-pop type places are best bets as most national chain restaurants and state facilities recycle the pails nowadays..the buckets hold say 5 gallons or so.. you will want to get a few together. My planters are made of two of these stacked one inside the other. Prepare your planters: Take two buckets which will fit one inside the other.. you want drainage holes but if you try to puncture these babies with a nail and hammer, they tend to split..so here is my way.. Fit one bucket into the other, place so that you can see the light through the bucket sides (most of these are white and you will see the shadow of the inner bucket.. make a mark on each side of outer bucket some inches from the bottom of the bucket.. but not so high that the inner and outer bucket are tight against each other.. you want water to be able to run up the inner bucket to this point and run out at these points, but you want them so that the planter will hold some water..separate your buckets to make your holes...take a largish nail, a pair of pliers and a lit candle.. holding the nail in the pliers, heat the nail nice and hot in the candle flame.. hold the pliers tightly and melt holes into the buckets..for the inner bucket, melt two holes near opposite corners right in the bottom of the bucket..for the outer one, you put holes at your marks on the sides, one hole per side.. the importance of these holes will be explained in later a lesson..now when you fit the inner bucket into the outer one, you have a planter with drainage and the outer bucket can hold water that drains from the inner one.. fit your buckets together and you are ready to plant..fill buckets with your preferred soil.. do this where you want the planter to stay, these babies are heavy once filled.. If you are wishing to plant your goodies to grow inside the house (for winter goodies, for instance) do not put holes in your outer bucket, put holes ONLY in the inner bucket.. Now you are ready to plant.. Also a note.. I am gonna do the methods for outside containers first, then explain adjustments for growing your goodies indoors.. and yep, I have roses indoors too these outside directions are great for planters to be left in your yard (a great fix for icky soil places), on a deck, porch, patio or balcony..(I had a full garden on balconies of apartments when I stayed in them) once we get rolling if you want specifics for particular plants, ask and I will try to address them if I can.. To determine how many plants per planter, here is my method.. use this as general guides and you should be able to figure it out for virtually any plant..for bushes and vines- 1 per planter- you can cheat and put two or three of the smaller vines such as cukes and squash, for melons, gourds and such, stick to one per bucket or you may not get maximum yield For other plants, try intensive plantings..your planter is equal to about 1 square foot of garden space..read the planting instructions and divide the spacing distance by 2 (i.e., if it says space 1 foot apart, you will plant 2 in you planter, in each direction, thus you will have four plants total in the planter) Note: the Square Foot Gardening book recommends 3 or 4 as a division but I have had much better luck dividing by 2 because you have to adjust for the fact that the soil and plant are contained and won't have access to ground water and minerals If you are planting a vine or tall plant, get yourself four sticks of some sort.. real sticks, pieces of 1" x 1' wood, pieces of 1" plastic plumbing pipe, tomato stakes, something rigid but not much more than 1" across.. you want 4 of these which will be able to be stuck all the way down into the bucket and stick up 2 or 3 feet above the bucket..put these in the corners of your planter (on the inside) BEFORE you fill it with soil, it is MUCH easier than trying to shove them into the filled bucket (ask me how I know) you may also line your bucket with chicken wire, take your length of chicken wire (measure around the outside of your planter to find the right length of chicken wire) and roll it to make a cylinder.. fit into your planter and stretch it to line the sides extending up out of the planter..chicken wire is great for cut flowers, or any plant which is kinda tall but won't want to lean heavily on the wire..you want the frames for plants that you would stake up in the garden, such as tomatoes..for melons and squash and such, you don't want any frames, just plain planters.. Now fill your planter with your choice of soil.. leave 2" or so at the top unfilled..this allows you to water more easily and neatly..mark your soil's surface with your finger or guess your spacing..plant your seed or plant at normal depth by its planting instructions, but dividing the spacing apart by 2.. Example: you are planting tomatoes.. you have your planter with your stake frames..you are going to put 4 tomato plants in one planter.. fill you planter with soil... mark the soil into four squares with your finger.. you will plant a tomato in the center of each of these squares..your babies are in the ground.. bless them and water them.. water a little at a time until you can see the water begin to drain into the bottom bucket, then stop..watch your planter to see if it overflows the outer holes at this point.. if it does you will wish to adjust your watering just a bit, especially if the water is a problem..this will not be needed in the yard or if it will not drain onto your downstairs neighbor or some such .. this is why your indoors planters do not have the holes in the outer bucket.. but it is healthier to have these if you can for reasons discussed later.. For your planters with stick frames..as your plants grow, take some old runned panyhose (yep, a frugal tip here), and cut the legs off.. tie these to the frames, looping them around each corner to make a soft 'cage' kinda like a hose fence with your frames sticks as the fenceposts.. (egads, hard to describe this one, does it make sense? much easier to understand if you are actually looking at the darned thing).. keep your plants inside this 'cage'.. After this it is time to start experimenting.. I am planning to do some posts on some of the individual plants I have grown in my planters with hints from my experiences with them.. the next lesson will be on how to adjust this stuff for an indoor garden.. you have your planters and you have your babies all nice and cozy in the soil.. all you gotta do now is stand by and watch the magic, plus a little maintenance and care.. Planters and pots of any kind have a tendency to hold minerals and sediments in the soil from waterings and fertilizing/feeding.. these build up and can affect your plants.. here is where those weird holes on the outside of your planters come in.. once or twice a season, it is a good idea to flush your planter.. this is not as critical if your planters are outside exposed to rain (assuming you've had any ).. but if they are under a porch or a covered balcony, they need it.. So to flush your planter, you will water heavily.. simply fill your planter with fresh _warm_ water.. fill the 2" or so you left at the top of the planter from the soilline.. let it sink in and repeat, watch for the planter to drain as the water fills the outer bucket to the level of the holes.. keep repeating this until you have flushed quite a bit of water out of these holes.. I use some five gallons per planter for a good rinse..if you can tilt your planter (if it isn't too heavy), this will accelerate the draining process..allow extra time after this before the next watering All other times, water normally..if you need to feed your plants, I suggest you wait at least two weeks after planting, feed with a good commercial water-soluble product such as Miracle-Gro or Peter's Plant Food (my personal favorite).. I mix this at 1/4 directed strength..plants in containers can easily be overfed.. Another hint: if you plants get kinds sickly looking, and you are SURE that you are not overwatering them, try my coffee trick.. take cold coffee and mix with water, don't mix it too strong, takes just a bit of coffee.. use this to water you plants.. don't do this too often, because it can 'burn them out'.. the coffee will stimulate the plants and you will see more vitality in many cases.. I give all my plants coffee once a month at regular watering times.. Would you like a hothouse to enhance growth? easy as pie.. take a clear (preferably) or white garbage bag, put over your planter stakes..tie around the planter to hold it.. poke some nice holes or cut some slits with a knife to let in air.. and voila!! a disposable greenhouse!! Your Indoor Garden To grow your garden indoors is not as hard as you might think..your planters will do well inside with some considerations..be sure to use only planters without holes in the outer buckets, unless you don't mind water draining on the floor (and don't laugh, my mom's indoor garden is in a basement near a drain, so she uses the 'outdoor' ones) Plant as you would for outside, use the same spacing, etc... watering and feeding will be the same.. your big problem indoors is most probably light.. but don't dispair, with the growlight bulbs which you can now find at most department stores (in the garden section, not the lights ), you can have sunlight-spectrum light almost anywhere, even in a closet..the bulbs come in many sizes, but the most convenient, imho, are the ones shaped like regular light bulbs.. these will work in any standard fixture.. I have one in every room, one of my multi-light fixture in my kitchen, one in a chosen lamp in every other room..'grow' light is not harmful to the eyes, but I find it better to have some regular lights, not just grow lights to 'live' by..you do not have to turn out all the other lights, just run the grow lights right along with regular lighting.. If you are growing in a place where only one light needs to be, say a closet, use just growlights..no fixtures? get yourself a yardsale floor light, great ones are those poles that hold 3 or 4 lights, put your growlights into it, and move your lights to the plants.. My mom has two of these which she has on opposite sides of a small area of her basement, with her planters between them.. she turns them on for 6 hours a day, and has a great garden down there... you can kinda adjust for 'sunlight' time with these..plants that need full sun (in their directions) should get 6-8 hours of light a day.. and don't dispair, these bulbs are not expensive to run, even for these kind of hours..growlights give your plants wavelengths of light that they don't get in regular electric bulbs... they are well worth the cost to buy and run..they last a long time (most of mine are longer- lived than my regular bulbs) This will be the last one friends.. we'll wrap up some loose ends.. I will be posting some stuff specific to certain plants but with these 5 lessons, you should be able to go it alone.. and don't forget to experiment.. I always make at least one planter for trial runs of new ideas.. something I've not grown before in planters, or a new trick.. you'll be amazed at what you might stumble upon.. It is not necessary to pay the extra money for the bush type plants specially bred for container gardening.. you can use regular varieties, the cheap seeds..just prune your plants as they get too rangy or big.. watch the fruiting of your plant, most of our garden veggies bear fruit on the plant other than at the very tops.. tomatoes, beans, vines and such bear fruit all along the plant stems.. when they get too big or cumbersome, just trim them up.. in most instances, you want to trim just above a set of leaves.. many plants will then grow from there, adding thick bushiness to your plant.. Watch those vines.. you don't wish them to hang sharply over the edge of your planter to the ground/ floor..they can get damaged and kill the whole runner..this is a factor with your vine plants especially, such as watermelon, beans, melons, squash..so try to place your planter near something which is around the height of your planter or higher.... you can use your imagination here, what you wish to achieve is a 'table' for your runners to sit on..I place my planters for my watermelon, squash and things by my front and back porches.. then I lead the vines right along the porch, allowing the melons to ripen right on the porch.. Hint: place cheap trash bags or old window plastic under the vines, topped with some old newspaper.. as the vine fills out, this will be hidden, and it will keep the plant from discoloring some porch materials..In my bedroom garden for winter, I have a cheap yard sale kid's room bookcase I run my watermelon vine onto, then the melons ripen "on the shelves"..at my front porch, six planters of beans run up the porch columns.. the planters are placed on the ground right in front of the posts.. people always compliment me on my front entrance.. I have intermixed flowers with my veggies to add color.. veggies have the greatest leaves.. pick your planter spots with an eye to using them to enhance sparse places in your landscaping..things like clothesline poles are great for vining plants..I grow my loofas on my clotheslines, and one section I fill the lines with the vines also so I can get more fruit.. And in case you're new to vertical planting.. some fruits are too heavy to allow them to just hang from the plant and stem.. so make little hammocks for them.. you can use lots of things for these.. my favorites are old panyhose (a great garden tie up material, strong, springy and soft).. tie the legs near the panty and cut the legs off (use them to tie up plant stems).. you now have a nice hammock for your fruit..simply watch your fruit developing, when you see the strain start on the stem, put that baby melon into the panty, and tie up to your stake at a place where the stress will be relieved..I also use the net bags from grocery veggies..you want a material which won't hold water, is strong, and will let in air.. And a last note, don't be afraid to crowd your planters.. plant little flowers around a bush or vine..plant garlic everywhere!! it helps keep bugs away, and a garlic clove can be stuck just about anywhere there's a little room..plant a low vegetable around a vine.. if you have say, 4 beans in a planter, and you are going to be running the vines onto your porch..plant some radishes around the beans, or plant one lettuce plant smack in the center of the planter between the beans.. the short plant won't get in the way of the tall one, and the tall one won't need that ground space.. experiment.. you'll also learn that planting certain plants together will help control pests on both.. this is called companion planting.. And don't forget--- mix your flowers and veggies, there is no reason why you should separate them, and they often help one another.. lots of pests that love to eat your veggies won't go near certain flowers..most bad bugs really hate marigolds..the best ones are the cheap seed you see everywhere in the spring, the marigolds that actually do stink..the little orange ones.. great bug repellents.. And so dear friends, thanks for hanging in there through this..you are now graduates of Stardust's Container Gardening 101..go forth and cultivate!!!!... I will open the podium to questions.. and post some specific-plants info as I think of it or it is asked about.. Bright Blessings, Stardust -- stardust@ipass.net Bubbles & Bars Handcrafted Bath Creations North Carolina