Patty, depending on the location of where you will put them, they might be to small.

Drying out is the main concern during the hot summer month. Overall, I think, one plant per bucket might make it.

Why don't you just try, and let us know, how it goes?

Moni

Patty,

I've done it and it works just fine. The kitty litter buckets are a great size for any kind of pepper plant, and will work for some of the smaller determinate-type tomatoes.

In buckets I have raised all the following peppers: Orange Habanero, Red Savina, Red Habanero, Peach Habanero, Chocolate Habanero, White Habanero, Mustard Habanero, Alma Paprika, Bulgarian Carrot, Fish Pepper, Jalapeno (any named variety--the only one that might get too big is "Biker Billy"), NuMex Big Jim, NuMex Twilight, Red Cayenne, Blushing Beauty, Carmen, Marconi, and just about any sweet bell (except Super Heavyweight, which gets too large).

Some of the tomatoes that have grown well for me in kitty litter buckets and 5-gallon buckets include: New Big Dwarf, Husky Red Cherry, Husky Gold Cherry, Grape, Bush Early Girl, Kimberly, Stupice, Better Bush, Porter, Porter Improved, Yellow Pear, Roma, Viva Italia, Martino's Roma, Window Box Roma, Sweet Baby Girl, and Celebrity.

You can grow a lot of different veggies in kitty litter buckers and 5-gallon buckets, and I do restrict it to one plant per bucket for tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc. I wouldn't put two of anything in a kitty litter bucket except carrots, radishes, lettuce, etc. or, perhaps, bush beans--and I think you could put 2 or 3 bush bean plants in a bucket. You even could grow sweet corn in buckets, at the rate of 1 plant per bucket. You'd have to use one of the really small dwarf corns, and you'd need 16 buckets, with one plant per bucket, set up in a square grid, to get good pollination though. Corn would need higher nitrogen than most other plants, and lots of moisture too, but it can be done. For broccoli, I think any variety would grow in a bucket, but the smaller ones like "Small Miracle" would be especially well-suited for growing in containers.

You do need to drill multiple holes in the bucket for drainage. It helps to have a very well-draining soilless mix--NOT ordinary garden soil which will pack down too hard and make root growth impossible. I mix up my own container mix so I can get the blend of ingredients just right.

You will have to water often and, during the hottest part of the summer, you may have to water every morning and every afternoon. You can simplify your irrigation by lining up all your containers in rows and setting up a drip irrigation system with one or two emitters per bucket. You also will have to feed the plants consistently because daily watering can cause nutrients to leach out of the soil. I use slow-release organic fertilizers, but, if you choose to use chemical fertilizers, there are many slow-release ones available.

If you water your buckets with a hand-held hose, you need to put a couple of inches of mulch on top of the soil in each bucket to prevent soil splash because, otherwise, soil-borne diseases will splash up onto your plant foliage each time you water.

You could put 2" to 3" of bark mulch in the bottom of each container if you're trying to save money on soilless mix, but they'd do better with all container mix. And, you're going to have to keep the bermuda grass completely away from the buckets or it will grow up through the drainage holes and get well established or, if allowed to sneak in behind or between the buckets, it will grow into the upper soil surface while you're not paying attention...like while you're away on vacation for a week or not out around the plants because it rains every day for a week.

The best way I have found to keep bermuda grass away from my containers is to lay down heavy, thick cardboard...like the type you'd get from furniture or appliance boxes. Then, on top of the cardboard, lay down a good, heavy-duty weedblock-type fabric--the woven type. Don't use the weedblock with perforated holes to "let moisture through" because bermuda grass will grow right through those perforations. Line up all your buckets on top of the weedblock fabric, fill them with your soilless mix, and plant your plants. Then, sweep any excess soil off the surface of the weedblock fabric and lay down 2" to 4" inches of mulch on top of the weedblock fabric. The bermuda grass STILL willl try to grow into your mulch, but it is easier to pull stray bermuda runners out of mulch than out of the ground.

And, no matter what you do, you ALWAYS will have bermuda trying to grow into an area where you're growing veggies. ALWAYS. So, you still have to be very vigilant.

Because I want for my "container garden" to look as attractive as possible, I spray paint all my kitty litter buckets a very dark green, using Fusion spray paint, which is formulated specifically to adhere to plastic.

I also choose my location carefully, and try to site my buckets where they have some shelter from the wind, some shade from late afternoon sun in June-August (I like to place them in a spot with full sun from sunrise to about 2 or 3 p.m. and then shade after that), and protection from the deer (they'll nibble container-grown plants just like they'll nibble plants in the ground).

Good luck,

Dawn

Thanks for the info. I may reconsider then. I am in a tight finanial situation too & it sounds like it could get expensive filling the buckets & trying to keep the dreaded weed down. If you have to weed-eat around the buckets it might not save any time anyway.

Patty,

You're welcome. I love growing in containers, but it can be expensive the first year to fill up the containers with a good soilless mix.

In the very wet spring/summer of 2007, my plants in containers produced better (and had less disease issues) than my waterlogged plants in the garden--at least until the heavy rains stopped here in mid-July. Late in the season as the veggie garden's raised beds finally dried out, the in-the-ground tomatoes finally caught up, production-wise, with the containerized ones.

As we've discussed here so often before, there is no easy way to garden around bermuda grass although paving over the entire lawn and then planting in containers on top of the concrete "might" give you bermuda-free gardening. : ) I hate bermuda grass. My veggie garden probably would be 4 times its current size if I didn't have to expend so much time and effort keeping the bermuda grass out of it.

Dawn

Two summers ago I buried the cat litter buckets in my garden thinking that it would cut down on the amount of wasted water spreading to areas with no plants. They seemed to be stunted and the harvest was very poor (probably due more to drainage issues).

Trees were cutting down on the overall amount of daily sunlight so last season I set up what I called my 'patio garden' and didn't plant anything in my garden. Everything was planted in litter buckets along with a couple of Topsy Turvy hanging planters. I drilled four 1/2" holes about 2" above the bottom for drainage. I filled the lower half with some old yard mulch consisting of dried leaves, wood, etc. that had been piled for a couple of years. The top half was filled with a mixture of top soil and a Miracle Grow equivalent. I used small squares of black plastic with holes poked in it on top and then covered it with some wood chips to keep weeds from growing. There was never any problem with bugs or slugs so I never had to use any vegetable dust. Watering was once a day if it was very hot and I used rain water caught in empty buckets if available. I had over 30 tomato plants and about 20 green pepper plants.

They grew so big that I had to use my tomato rings and once they started producing vegetables I even had to tie the rings together for support. At the end of the season I had enough to can over two dozen quarts of salsa. You can see the results on my blog using the link below (if the bucket photos have worked their way further back on my blog, just do a search for 'topsy turvy' in the search box at the top left).

Here is a link that might be useful: Mamma Blogga's Blog