Chicago Home and Lifestyles – A Garden on your Deck

Do you think you need lots of space for a vegetable garden? Guess what: you can grow a great number of edibles in a smaller space than you think! 

3 sixteen inch pots can provide vegetables all season long. Even if you only have an apartment balcony you can harvest enough vegetables for 2 people. The idea is to have quick growers along with later crops. 

In each of the 3 pots lay a layer of small stones to aid in drainage. Fill with a good quality container soil. Container soil is specially blended to stay airy and does not compact as much as garden or topsoil. Place in support poles for peas and beans around the edges. In another pot support poles for tomatoes and thirdly peppers. Choose vertically growing beans and peas rather than bush varieties, same for the tomatoes and peppers. Jalapenos and cubanelle are good for peppers. Grape or teardrop tomatoes work well. Peppers and tomatoes grow quicker from plants than seeds. 

In the rest of the space in the pots you can sow lettuces and greens. Mustard greens can be ready to harvest in as little as six weeks. Loose leaf lettuce eight to ten weeks. There are also Asian salad seed mixes which take even less time, four to six weeks. Keep sowing every two weeks to have a constant harvest of salad greens. Sprouts and herbs are quick growers too. Make sure to harvest often to give the other plants enough light and air. The taller plants will protect the tender greens from too much sun. Make sure to pinch the growing tops of your tall plants after they have several sets of fruits. 

Containers do need a little more attention than a regular garden. The pots will need daily watering, especially during the hottest part of the year. Frequent watering can also wash away nutrients though, so it will be necessary to feed more often. Use an organic vegetable food and dilute it by half. You can use this weaker mix weekly through foliar feeding and into the soil also. Good luck and happy gardening! 

Kathleen Weaver-Zech and Dean’s Team Chicago