Need-to-Knows for Veggie Container and Small-Space Gardening

It couldn’t be easier to grow veggies thanks to the ever-increasing availability of patio veggies and vegetable seed.

You can now grow the most delicious veggies in pots on the patio, in the kitchen courtyard or even on a balcony, without the hassle of starting a veggie garden from scratch.

Kathy Varney, Marketing Executive from Ball Straathof, a supplier of horticultural services and products, shares some tips…

Container gardening

For gardeners who want to bypass the hoeing, sowing and growing, the Simply Delicious range of veggies offers established plants in pots. These simply need to be transplanted into a pot that is 30cm in diameter or a large hanging basket.

Go for veggies that are compact or choose dwarf varieties that can be grown in containers or hanging baskets. These have been bred to grow fast and produce early, with continuous high yields so that it is easy to grow moderate but satisfying amounts. 

What to grow

As mentioned, you want to go for dwarf varieties such as cherry tomatoes (tumbler, tumbling tom red or tumbling tom yellow), a mini vine cucumber like a patio snacker and mini sweet peppers such as cute stuff gold and cute stuff red.

You can also opt for dwarf capsicum jalapeno (la bomba), butternut (honeynut), eggplant (patio baby), gold zucchini (Easy Pick) fruit, mixed salad and Asian greens.

Herbs have always been a traditional balcony plant and the Simply Herbs range includes a compact sweet basil (Dolce Fresca), a pot of three different basils (Try Basil), as well as parsley, oregano and rosemary.

Funky veggies

For gardeners who are looking for something completely different and ‘funky’ (yes even veggies can be funky) the RAW seed range taps into the mood for heirloom and non-GMO varieties.

The 40 different vegetables in the range have also been selected for small-space gardening. But they are not the conventional varieties that granny grew or that you usually see on seed racks. They look different, kind of quirky, the sort you see on cooking channels and Buzzfeed articles.

Just how different? A quick glance down the list picks up artichoke violet de provence, rainbow blend beet, parisian carrots, rosa bianca eggfruit, blue shelling peas, watermelon radish, and a list of heirloom tomatoes as long as your arm like black krim, flame orange, rainbow mix and green zebra to name a few.

Getting started

1. At least six hours of sun a day is necessary for most vegetables. With pots, it is easier to move them around to follow the sun.

2. Bigger containers are better. Because soil dries out faster in containers, the larger the container, the longer the soil will stay moist. Make sure the pots have drainage holes.

3. Use good quality potting soil (a mix of organics), and add a sustained release fertiliser (Vigorosa 5:1:5).

4. Don’t neglect watering your plants. Water every day during the hottest months and every second to third day as it cools down. The soil should be moist but never waterlogged or completely dry.

5. Fertilise regularly because the water leaches out the nutrients. Use an organic liquid fertiliser like Margaret Roberts OrganicSupercharger.