by Obiora Embry

Created on: May 19, 2009

It's that time of year again when we seek out nature after a long Winter of being cooped up inside...we are now spending more time outside preparing and tending to our soil for this year's garden. We are thinking about a garden filled with love as we nurture the land, hoping that it will pay us back tenfold with healthy fruits and vegetables that can be picked fresh and eaten, frozen, given to friends and neighbors, and/or sold to the general public.

If you didn't procrastinate this year, then you began germinating your seeds inside during the Winter or out in your greenhouse waiting for the soil to warm up enough for you to transplant your seedlings into the warm ground filled with an abundance of worms and organisms (micro and macro) that are good for the soil and your plants...and maybe you even added some mature compost or even better, worm castings.

This all sounds good, but what can you do if you live in an apartment, attached house, a townhouse, a condominium, or multi-family housing, and you have no or little ground space available? You have 2 choices, either you can move to another location with more space, which is highly unlikely, or you can start a container garden to grow edible plants.

Container gardening is growing popular for those that do not have available ground space and even those that do because it is portable gardening that allows for lots of flexibility. With container gardening, you can rearrange and redesign your garden at any time because of frost, hail, insect or bird attacks, heavy rain, etc. that could cause damage to your crops. The containers can also be rearranged to stay in tune with Mother Nature making sure that your "babies" (aka plants) get the right amount of Sun, water, oxygen, and/or shade needed to grow and thrive.

Container gardens allow you to sow your seeds (directly or indirectly) in the containers that you have on hand, whether they are hanging baskets, flower pots (plastic or clay), oak barrels, metal trashcans, rubber tires, etc. This flexibility allows you to get and be creative, experimenting with different containers to determine which plants do best in certain containers. It also allows you to start gardening quicker as the soil should be sterilized from year to year (for a maximum of 2 years), so you can "cook" your soil when you are ready to begin gardening.

It also allows you to techniques of organic (or natural) gardening like biodiversity and companion planting. Biodiversity through companion planting allows you to sow in the same container, plants of varying types (herbs, vegetables, fruits, edible flowers, or spices) that can be used to ward off pests; protect against diseases; help root development; add vital nutrients, vitamins, and minerals; improve the flavor and growth of your crops; and/or keep weeds at bay.

Container gardening like "in-the-ground" gardening is what you make of it, in other words, "you reap what you sow." If you put little effort and time into your container garden, then you shouldn't expect to receive a lot from it, however, if you put forth an effort, then it will be a rewarding and fulfilling experience that can positively impact your life and those around you, by helping you to become more nurturing and patient, if nothing else.

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