Container gardening for a total begginer

[CatfishKev]

So I'm wanting to start gardening a bit. I will start with containers for now and go from there. I know absolutely nothing so I am going through YouTube University right now to figure out some of the basics. What are your suggestions for a new guy for growing in the southwest? I'm interested in knowing the style of containers you use. I've seen different designs and would like something efficient I don't have to baby too much. I've seen many you can fill and leave alone for awhile. Also what types of plants would you recommend for a beginner? I was thinking of buying the sifted mulch they sell at the local dump which I think is basically the plants and trees brought in by landscapers and homeowners etc that are ran through a chipper. If anyone local has a garden that would like to teach a green guy I'd be all ears.

 

Thanks. Kev

[muledeerarea33?]

A wooden box around 3' wide and 6-9' long or use old rail road ties. Get a good 12-14" of soil in it, amend with mulch and manure. Some Pete moss helps hold moisture too. Tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, and peppers are fairly simply. Put your lettuce in now because by late July/august it'll be to hot for it. Wait on the peppers another 3-4 weeks, still to cold to start them.

[PRDATR]

I don't have much space so I use large plastic pots I got from Walmart. I use premixed potting soil that has crystals in it that help to retain moisture.

In the cold weather I move them under my patio so they done get frost damage. My patio faces east so the plants get morning sun and by 12:30 when the suns rays get really intense and the day is getting hot like in the summer, they get shade for the rest of the day.

I have a battery operated time that attaches to the hose bib and a short piece of garden hose attached to it which runs to a piece of 1/2" PVC which is attached to the supports of the patio. I drilled a few holes in it by each pot for water. Times vary to every other day in cooler weather to twice a day in the heat of the summer.

Many of my plants came from kitchen scraps like pepper and tomato plants. Peppers do like hot weather and a rule of thumb is if plants are being sold in the nursery like Home Depot or Walmart you should be good to plant.

Right now I am growing herbs like basil, oregano and tyme. I also have some beans coming up and some garlic. The garlic can take 4-6 months to mature and these were started from some cloves I had in the refrigerator that began to sprout. If you like artichokes they grow well here but you won't get any chokes the first year and they take up some space.

You can use miracle grow plant food and they make one just for veggies with the right amount of nitrogen, too much will kill them. I have a pineapple plant I started by cutting the top off and putting it in dirt that is two years old and don't know if it will ever get fruit but it looks cool.

Yesterday I used some green onions in some scampi and planted the bottom three inches which should continue to grow. Lettuce grows well but keep it covered or the sparrows will eat it up. Onions and potatoes do well in our climate and soil. Phoenix is Zone 9A and areas like Queen Creek are 9B.

Opps, just saw you are in SV which is 8A a bit cooler. Plants that should do well for you are tomatoes, kale strawberries and possibly blueberries. Also carrots, radishes, brusselsprouts.

[DesertBull]

I've got rosemary and sorrano chiles out the wazoo right now. No maintenence required.

[CatfishKev]

Thanks for the responses. Looking forward to giving it a whirl.

[AzPlumber]

Containers tend to dry out quick, for less maintenance use a potting soil that retains water

[Hoss50]

I built a 4'x8' box this year out of 2x10 boards. 4x4 boards to reinforce the corners. I used standard boards and put weed barrier on the bottom. I used 3" deck screws for the corners, and pre drilled and counter sunk the screws. I filled with garden soil and organic mix from lowes. I have about 8" of soil in it. It has cabbage, lettece, beets, onions, a little broccoli, carrots, and some pepper plants.

 

I also have an existing in ground garden with more peppers, beets, onions, carrots, lettece, and a cherry tomato. I have a couple pots with garlic, onions, beets, and asparigous in them. There are 2 existing artichokes also.

 

I am not master gardener but I am working on it.

 

I am hoping the cucumbers grow this year. Last year was a bust on that and corn.

[Hoss50]

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p87/

 

 

By "pots" you can see tires, buckets, and pots...

 

Harley

[muledeerarea33?]

Gotta remember, catfish is in SV and I'm near benson. We grow a week or three later than you Phoenix guys! Good luck to you all, my grass and mesquites are still yellow!

[CatfishKev]

Do you guys do any of the self watering containers? I was looking at some with Rubbermaid totes and 5 gallon buckets. I can get tons of buckets.

[CatfishKev]

A wooden box around 3' wide and 6-9' long or use old rail road ties. Get a good 12-14" of soil in it, amend with mulch and manure. Some Pete moss helps hold moisture too. Tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, and peppers are fairly simply. Put your lettuce in now because by late July/august it'll be to hot for it. Wait on the peppers another 3-4 weeks, still to cold to start them.

If you put lettuce in shade where it gets direct sun only a few hours a day and have it grow year round? That's one of the reasons I was looking at containers since I could move them around.

[ASUOutdoorsman]

Here's a cool link from the College of Agriculture at UofA about what to plant and when. I believe it's based off Maricopa County, so like Muledeerarea33 said, dates may be slightly different at your location. But still a cool link.

 

https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/extension.arizona.edu/files/pubs/az1005.pdf

 

I got the link from the YouTube Channel "Weed'em & Reap". It's about urban farming/gardening in Arizona. Justin Rhodes is another neat YouTube channel.

[CatfishKev]

Here's a cool link from the College of Agriculture at UofA about what to plant and when. I believe it's based off Maricopa County, so like Muledeerarea33 said, dates may be slightly different at your location. But still a cool link.

 

https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/extension.arizona.edu/files/pubs/az1005.pdf

 

I got the link from the YouTube Channel "Weed'em & Reap". It's about urban farming/gardening in Arizona. Justin Rhodes is another neat YouTube channel.

Pretty interesting chart. Sierra vista is usually 10-15 degrees cooler than Tucson and Phoenix. Would you guys bump this schedule back two weeks for me or maybe a whole month?

[mikaele]

I grow habanero's, chili's and bell peppers in bucket planters. I built mine the same as in the video, but use food grade buckets from Lowes and better plastic for the cover. I imagine you could grow just about anything in these and there are some systems out there for setting up a linked watering system.

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AlWGQIMHok

[6ANut]

I just started a garden this fall at my house. I will take a few pics when i get home and post them up. I wanted to try a sample of lots of veggies to see which ones grew best and they all are doing pretty good. Artichokes are growing amazing, so are cherry tomatoes and basil. All of my herbs have been doing well, rosemary, thyme, and all my mints. I hooked all of it up to my drip system and bought some pretty cool rotary sprinklers for it. Pics when I get home.