GARDENING

SELF-SUFFICIENT

Growing vegetables in containers is a rewarding experience.

Growing vegetables

in containers

Finding the right pots and sunlight areas

BY KATE RUSSELL

Radishes, beans, salad greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, garlic and many other edible plants can be grown in containers, given enough sunlight.

Without enough light, plants will not produce a harvest. Plants use sunlight, or artificially created sunlight, to create sugars using photosynthesis. Natural sunlight is ideal, but you can use inexpensive shop lights fitted with grow bulbs as an affordable replacement.

Choosing containers for your edible plants can be a lot of fun, just make sure that they have good drainage. Overwatering can drown your container plants. Thrift stores are full of attractive, affordable containers. You can also order beautiful new containers. Keep in mind, when selecting containers, that uncoated ceramic and wood containers dry out faster than metal, plastic, or glazed ceramic. Make sure your containers are safe for food before adding soil.

Soil is the lifeblood of your vegetable garden. This is the one area that warrants splurging. Since you are growing vegetables to eat, organic potting soil is your best bet. While there are plenty of prefertilized commercial soil mixtures available, some of those chemicals are known to cause health concerns.

What will you grow? Look in your refrigerator! What produce do you buy most frequently? Tomatoes are highly rewarding container plants, and cherry tomato plants can be prolific. You can get many of your seeds and starters from plants you already have on hand. Bell peppers and tomatoes are chock full of seeds. If you cut the end from your bunch of celery and plant it, you will end up with celery stalks with far more flavor than you are used to. Next time you take the seeds out of a jalapeño, push them into some soil and add a little water. Salad greens, radishes, and spinach are very rewarding vegetables from seed. Ask your gardener friends if they have extra seeds. I’ll bet they do!

Some plants need pollination to produce a crop. If your containers are outside, bees, wasps, flies, and other insects will provide the pollination needed. You can increase the likelihood of these helpful insects coming into your garden with flowers. If you are growing vegetables in containers indoors, you can still have a successful crop if you pollinate by hand. Simply use a small paintbrush and gently touch the tip of the brush to each flower head, making sure to complete two circuits of each flower in a different order. The pollen from one flower must come in contact with a different flower to create tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and pumpkins, which are, in fact, fruits. True vegetables, such as lettuce and spinach, do not require pollination.

Once you try your hand at growing vegetables in containers, you will become self-sufficient in delicious, rewarding ways that you never thought possible.

The benefits of snow

Our gardens don’t get snow every winter, but you may be surprised to learn that snow can help your garden and landscape. But first, let’s learn the truth about snow.

All of our lives, we’ve been told that bits of snow are snowflakes and that each one is unique. It ends up that snow isn’t nearly as flaky as we’ve been led to believe, and snowflakes are all identical, at first. How snow forms is far more interesting than one would think, too.

We all know that snow starts as water, which is made up of molecules. You might not know that water molecules are lopsided. One side has a positive charge, while the other side has a negative charge. This is how surface tension occurs in water. It’s also why snow forms the way it does.

Snow starts to form when the positive side of several water molecules attach to the negative side of another molecule, creating a pyramid shape. At this point, they all look pretty much the same. As temperatures drop, this film of water turns to ice, suddenly shifting into the iconic six-sided shape that decorates Christmas cards around the world. It’s when countless combinations of trajectory, humidity and temperature changes are factored in that each bit of identical frozen water becomes unique snow crystals. Under the right circumstances, snow crystals can also form triangles, diamonds and pillars, but they are rare.

But how can snow crystals protect plants from freezing? It doesn’t make sense!

If you wake one winter morning to see your garden blanketed in snow, don’t panic. While it is true that some plants will be damaged, a covering of snow also provides protection and stability.

Snow-covered soil tends to stay right around 32 degrees Fahrenheit, rather than getting colder. This happens because of tiny pockets of air trapped within and between the snow crystals. This air insulates and protects plant roots, earthworms and valuable soil microorganisms.

Those cold temperatures also help your trees be productive. Trees keep track of the number of hours they spend each winter between 32 degrees and 45 degrees Fahrenheit. These are called chilling hours. Each fruit and nut tree variety has specific ranges of chilling hours needed to produce crops the following year. Local gardeners are lucky to have their very own Chilling Hours station. You can look up your chilling hours online at the UC Davis website at tinyurl.com/y52jtqb8.

If temperatures happen to rise, the snow melts and plants get irrigated. Another surprising benefit is that nitrogen and sulfur in the atmosphere are captured as each snow crystal falls. When it melts, those plant nutrients are released into the soil.

If snow falls on your garden this winter, take a cue from Nature and grab yourself a warm blanket and start planning your spring garden! ²