It’s container garden season, Iowans! Here’s what to know

Container gardening in Iowa is a great option for those with limited space who still want to grow their own vegetables and flowers at home. 

Growing a garden is a very rewarding experience, and with current rising grocery prices, it can help cut down on your monthly food expenses. But if you have limited space to create your own home garden (only an outdoor deck or patio, for example), container gardening is a great way to grow. There’s something especially satisfying about stepping out on the patio, plucking a fresh tomato, and then tossing it right into a salad for lunch or dinner.

We checked in with the Iowa State University Extension Office experts to learn more about how to make container gardening a fruitful, er vegetable-ful, endeavor. 

What is container gardening?

Container gardening is pretty straightforward. You select any container that you’d like—plastic, clay, ceramic, or wood are all acceptable—and ensure that it has proper drainage for watering. You can drill holes in the bottom if needed, but drainage is absolutely essential to growing healthy plants. It is also best to get a larger container than you think you’ll need to give your plants room to grow and spread out. Most vegetables that you plant will need eight to 12 inches of soil to grow in. 

And remember: Just like with any other gardening, proper sunlight and watering are essential to making sure your small and mighty container garden is successful. You’ll need to water regularly as plants in containers tend to dry out quickly. Make sure you water enough for it to reach the bottom of the container. You’ll want to try to avoid watering the leaves of the plants to help prevent diseases. You may also want to consider applying some fertilizer to encourage a healthier growing season. 

There are specific containers that you can use for starting seeds as well, which is a smart option in the late winter and early spring months. You can purchase something at a local garden center, or you can even utilize recyclable food containers. 

What should you plant? 

The good news is that most vegetables that you could grow well in a backyard garden will also do well in a container garden. Tomatoes are perhaps one of the most popular options for container gardens.

One trick with growing tomatoes in containers is that you’ll want to purchase a tomato cage to place in the container as well to give the plant some support as it bears fruit. Some varieties that do well in container gardens include Bush Early Girl, Celebrity, Jetstar, Patio, Patio Hybrid, Patio Princess, Mega Bite, Cherry, Little Sun Yellow, and Terenzo. 

Picking tomatoes from an outdoor container garden. (Curated Lifestyle/Unsplash)

Other vegetables, especially compact growing ones, do well in container gardens as well. Lettuce, swiss chard, and spinach are great container producers. Carrots, beets, cucumbers, eggplant, and peppers are also great options that offer color to your containers and dinner plate. Again, you want to make sure you have the appropriate size of container and spacing for whatever you are planting. 

Herbs are another great option for containers, especially ones located near your kitchen, making it easy to grab fresh herbs when cooking a meal. Some can even be moved indoors during the colder weather months to continue enjoying their fresh fragrance and addition to dishes. Certain herbs complement each other well. Consider growing herbs for Italian cuisine, including parsley, basil, oregano, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Or perhaps you are a tea drinker and want to try chamomile, catnip, spearmint, and peppermint. Particularly aromatic herbs include lavender, hyssop, pineapple sage, and lemon verbena.

Container gardening with herbs. (Anna Jakutajc-Wojtalik/Unsplash)

Strawberries are yet another fun option for container gardening. The sweet fruits are a wonderful reward for your container gardening efforts. When they aren’t producing fruit, they just happen to look pretty in their pot as well.

Look for varieties that are day-neutral or everbearing, including “Albion,” “Cabrillo,” “Everest,” “Seascape,” and “Ozark Beauty.” You’ll want to use a larger pot (12 inches in diameter and 8 inches deep) or a specific strawberry planting pot that has “pockets” to tuck each plant into. You can plant them as early as April (protect them from any late frost) and make sure they get full sun.

You can harvest your berries when the fruit is uniformly red. Be sure to pick them with the cap and stem attached. You’ll see one to two major crops in early summer. 

Can it just be pretty? 

Of course, you might just want to create a pleasing potted planter display for your porch, patio, or deck. While it’s fun to grow produce, it’s also rewarding to have purely ornamental container gardening displays.

Stick with annuals for your containers, as it is not likely you’ll overwinter any perennial plantings. Selecting plants with a variety of heights, coloring, and/or flowers can make for visually striking displays. Vining and trailing plants add interest as well.

The location of the container is going to be key in deciding which plants to select, especially knowing how much sunlight the container will get throughout the day. Some fun foliage that does well in containers here in Iowa includes asparagus fern, coleus, dusty miller, purple fountain grass, silver falls dichondra, spikes, and vinca vine. Some flowering options to consider include alyssum, begonia, cosmos, marigolds, geraniums, amaranth, lantana, lobelia, verbena, and zinnia.

No matter what you select, your container garden is sure to bring extra joy to your part of Iowa for the spring and summer months. 

This story was generated in part by AI and edited by The Iowa Starting Line staff.

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.