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Growing vegetables is usually the first thought in the mind of a beginning gardener. We are all enthralled with the idea of growing our own vegetables and lucky for us, vegetable growing is quite simple. What exactly can you grow? Well, almost anything you want. Since we have six large pots in our container garden, let's use them for growing vegetables. We'll pick out six summer favorites, perhaps a collection of classics like lettuce, tomatoes and radishes, with some additional greens such as arugula, spinach and Swiss chard. Or maybe you'd prefer something a bit more unusual, some Asian greens such as mizuna, tatsoi or hong vit. Or maybe a pepper? Remember that it can be either hot or sweet, depending on your preference. Spinach and lettuce are both cool season crops and will be finished by mid-summer, so you might want to have a second choice for those garden containers to be planted after the first crop is finished. Do you like green beans? What about eggplant? If this is your first time growing vegetables, pick out those you like. We'll experiment with growing new vegetables next time.
Lettuce: Lettuce is a vegetable that is easy to grow from seed and since it actually likes cold weather, you can start it as soon as the the last frost has passed, even before the temperatures have warmed up or stabilized. When you purchase your seeds, you will usually find a small map printed on the back that will help you determine the frost free dates and the correct time for planting in your area. Since we are growing the lettuce in a container, there's no need to worry about rows that must be kept straight and neat. Simply sprinkle the seed lightly on top of the soil. We want them to be about a half inch apart, all over the top of the soil. Don't worry if they're closer than that. We can thin them later. Now cover them with about a quarter inch of potting soil and water lightly. In a few days you should see tiny green specks peeping through the soil. These are your baby lettuce plants.
Once your lettuce is about two inches tall you will want to thin the plants so they have room to grow. Don't pull the plants! That would disturb the roots of the others and cause problems. Use sharp-pointed scissors to cut them off at soil level. At this point we want our little plants to be about 1 inch apart in all directions. If at all possible, as you cut out the excess plants, drop them directly into a bowl of very cold water. This will keep them nice and fresh... and ready for your first salad.
Repeat this thinning process in about a week, spacing the plants about 2 inches apart on all sides. Now we have a workable spacing for our lettuce crop and further thinning won't be necessary. From now on, you will actually be harvesting your crop so you will want to cut the plants a little differently. If you cut about an inch and a half above the soil level, the plant will re-grow and thus give you several cuttings of lettuce before the weather turns too warm and the plants begin to get bitter.
Remember, lettuce likes cool weather so you can plant it again in late summer for a fall harvest.
Other Greens: To grow the vegetables spinach, arugula and the Asian greens mentioned earlier, just follow the instructions for growing lettuce. All can be grown almost exactly the same way. The only difference is that you will snip off only the outer leaves when you begin harvesting, thus leaving the center growth to grow bigger. All these greens can be eaten fresh in salads or can be lightly cooked.
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Tomatoes:
Patio Tomato
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As a new gardener, you may want to start off with a variety that's actually developed specifically for container gardening. Any of the "Patio" varieties are perfect since they are very compact and sturdy and don't require any type of staking or support. They have fat blocky stems and the leaves generally look thicker and tougher than other varieties but they produce tasty fruit of a decent size. New container varieties appear every season
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Radishes: The radish is a salad vegetable easy to grow in containers. They come in three basic varieties. There are the familiar round red balls, longer French breakfast types shaped like baby carrots and the Japanese daikon. Let's avoid the daikon for now unless you have very deep pots. Those radishes can get monstrously large.
The round ball types and the long French breakfast types both sprout and mature in about 3 weeks so you won't have long to wait for a harvest. For a constant supply, plant every two weeks and thin them so they stand an inch or so apart. If you don't thin them, you will have skinny spindly roots that are useless. Nibble on a leaf from those thinnings and also the leaves from your more mature radishes... you might want to add them to your salad for a bit of "spice". They are perfectly edible and nutritious although most people don't realize it.
Swiss chard: This is probably my favorite green vegetable growing in my own garden because it's not only attractive but also quite versatile. Although it resembles celery or rhubarb, it's actually related to beets and its seeds look almost exactly like beet seeds. It's ready to cut at the baby stage in about a month and it doesn't mind the summer heat.
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Swiss chard can have either white stems or colored in shades of red or yellow or in a random mix of all the above. Both stems and leaves are tasty and edible, unlike rhubarb whose leaves are poisonous and only the stem can be eaten. Chard can be eaten fresh at the baby stage, added to salads, or it can be lightly cooked or steamed when mature. And if you let it get really big, you can separate the stem from the leaf part and cook them separately. The stem has a remarkably similar taste to asparagus spears when steamed and the leaves, of course, are a great substitute for spinach.
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Swiss Chard Bright Lights
Growing this vegetable will provide you with tasty greens for most of the summer.
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With just these few plants you are growing your own vegetables. You can legitimately call yourself a gardener and of course your family will benefit from the fresh and wholesome harvest. No longer will you have to consider yourself a dummy gardener. You will have successfully grown your first crops and will be ready to join the ranks of the experienced gardener, growing vegetables in your containers.
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