CREATE YOUR OWN Container Victory Garden

When master gardener Maggie Stuckey was stuck at home in 2020, she turned to her twenty-year hobby of container gardening on her small patio for solace. And so did her neighbors. And their neighbors. It seemed like the whole world was planting gardens in a way that hadn’t seen such widespread popularity since the victory gardens of World War II.

Maggie found that 18 million people began gardening for the first time during the pandemic. And so, in a spirit of solidarity, she set out to write a book to help them with her beloved hobby. Here she shares some tips from her brand-new book, The Container Victory Garden.

1. PLAN

• Start with a list of all the things you want to grow. Be sure to add at least one new thing that may be fun to try. Then start to narrow down your list, saying goodbye to suggestions that are simply not practical (i.e. your son wants giant pumpkins).

• To maximize your limited space, look to plants with a good ratio of edible parts to overall size. The best bang for you buck here:

Compact cherry tomatoes

Bush beans or peas

Beets and radishes

Leafy greens

Herbs

2. GEAR UP

Good news: you need fewer tools than you might imagine!

Trowel. You need it for digging holes so you can slip in your transplants or gently remove plants that have passed their season.

Cultivator. Looks like a giant fork with the tines bent down ninety degrees. Useful for fluffing up the top layer of soil in your container when you’re getting ready for planting.

Hand pruner. This is the one you should budget for, in the range of thirty to fifty dollars. A good hand pruner will last you many years; a cheap one will drive you mad.

Watering can. Essential and wondrously inexpensive. Or you can make a nifty DIY version from plastic milk jugs.

Gloves. Protect your hands from sharp thorns, broken pottery, and giant slugs. For more run-of-the-mill tasks like weeding and light pruning, you may decide you don’t really need them.

Containers. The range of options is wide, so I’ll let you decide which works best for you.

3. GROW

Are you ready for the fun stuff? This is the point where you shop for new plants, plant them in your beautiful containers, then stand back and smile.

Go to your local nursery, and look for baby plants that are strong and healthy; that much is obvious—and pretty easy to spot. But I also want you to think in terms of beauty. Choose plants that will delight you with their coloration and blend beautifully with the overall look of your garden. No reason you can’t have both good health and good looks.

The Golden Rule Of Containers

Every container you plant must, absolutely must, have drainage holes. No exceptions, no excuses, no backtalk.

Want to know how to move your new plant to its brandnew container? You’re just going to have to pick up Maggie’s book, The Container Victory Garden!