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roselee_gw

Pros and cons of container vegetable gardening ....

Hi everybody! My yard is pretty much fence to fence planted in ornamentals, but I want to do more veggies this year.

I already have two raised bed areas of about a 70 sq. ft total in a sunny spot that I can devote to vegetables and was thinking of setting out about 8 or 10 five gal. buckets behind this area to plant in as well. (Asthetics is fairly important to me so am planning to paint the buckets a terra cotta color and hope they won't look too tacky.)

But the real question is about the pros and cons to planting vegetables in buckets. You all always come up with good ideas I hadn't thought of.

One pro is we can take the buckets to a garden soil site and fill them with potting soil so that part is easier than building a narrow raised bed in the area which would take more soil -- not to speak of lumber costs. Also building a raised bed means digging out some small ornamentals that could stay there if I used buckets.

Also my interest may wane in years to come and the buckets could easily be removed. I can run a drip irrigation system to water them and will mix in some water absorbing crystals which I do with all my plantings.

Right now I'm interested in growing squash, several kinds of greens, okra, green beans, cucumbers, and maybe some of those black eyed peas that Kathy mentioned. Which of these would be best for the buckets?

What advice do you have for me. Thank you! :-)

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