I can remember as a kid picking fresh raspberries and cherry tomatoes right off of their plants. The flavors were bright and fresh and there was never a mention of GMOs at that age.
But this nostalgic memory is only half of it. I’m also 100% Italian and have grown up with a great grandmother who spends most of her spare time gardening. She’s also 104 so she has a bit more spare time than I can find.
So it’s probably fair to say that I’ve been itching to start my own garden for quite awhile now.
Fast forward a few years– almost twenty years later–and I finally decided to pull the green thumb trigger. Now I’m the proud owner of a full-blown patio garden. Technically, I have about ten plants growing, but I consider that full-blown.
I have to say though, there are a few things I wish I knew before I started my container garden.
1. The containers make a huge difference
For starters, if you want a variety of veggies to fill your patio, like I did, prepare to buy a at least three times the amount of containers you initially thought you needed.
I know, I know, if you go onto Pinterest you’ll find veggies that can share pots and grow happily together thus cutting down the amount of containers you need.
Well, it doesn’t work like that. That’s gardening fantasy right there. They start out as friends and quickly fight over space.
I should have known something wasn’t right when a co-worker pointed out, “How do the plants get enough sun if other ones are towering over them?”
Gee, I hadn’t thought of that. Let me go back to Pinterest. Hmm…no mention.
Let’s see how this goes.
After six months, my co-worker was right.
When using containers, you shouldn’t combine plants and you probably shouldn’t listen to Pinterest all the time. Lesson learned. Plan on having one single plant per container.
That’s how the containers triple in quantity.
2. Your initial investment can be pretty high
And that leads right into my next point.
The glamorous notion that you’ll eventually have this huge financial savings from growing your own food is much further into the future than you think.
Initially, you’ll shell out some money to buy the seeds, starter kit, soil and containers and then you’ll have to grow for at least, in my opinion of course, somewhere around three years to recoup your initial investment.
If you have a massive patio and can grow a ton of veggies at once then this may be different for you. For me, space was limited and that means a much slower yield. A snail’s pace is probably more apt here.
As of right now, I’m still in the red.
And if you want to increase your production, or get anything edible, be prepared to work like a farmer.
3. It’s a lot of work even though it’s small
Sure, you’re not plowing huge fields, but trust me when I say, it’s still a great deal of work to keep your garden growing.
Things such as heavy rain required me to re-do some re-planting and positioning for plants that were crushed or over saturated with water. If you don’t take this step, you end up with brown, foul-smelling lake water at the bottom of your pots. This little surprise runs the risk of things getting moldy and completely unusable.
It rains all the time where I live, and then on some days, it didn’t rain enough.
Therefore, my plants constantly battled a Ping pong of hot and humid air to soaking wet and miserable. And they made it clear how they felt.
There were days that I came home from work and it looked like a desert out there while other wet times completely smashed some plants so hard that they never recovered.
It was a constant pain that I never anticipated.
You can’t set it and forget it.
I went from having 14 plants to about 10 after a few storms and some mistakes along the way.
4. Certain veggies need to be trimmed or you lose the whole bunch
I learned this one the hard way. I was so excited that my basil plant was growing faster than a toddler until my mom informed me that when it gets too high, or at the stage I was excited about, the whole plant is ruined.
Apparently, some plants need to be trimmed. Be prepared to get your Edward Scissor Hands on or you’ll end up with a tall basil plant that you can’t use.
5. Start small, no seriously, start small
I spent over a year on and off–mostly off–trying to learn how to garden properly given the small containers. Even though I spent a great deal of time planning and researching, it still wasn’t enough.
I think I owe this over planning and still making mistakes route to the fact that I didn’t listen when everyone kept telling me to start small.
I started my garden very ambitiously by planting 14 veggies and herbs. Initially, that number seemed like nothing. When you’re in the store facing a wall of seed options, what’s 14 out of 100?
(Look how cute they were as babies!)
Boy was I was wrong.
For anyone starting out fresh, choose your top 5 veggies and herbs to start and expand only when those have been mastered.
It’s also in your best interest to use vegetables that grow in similar conditions, direct sunlight or partial for example. I tried to wiggle my way around this step and it didn’t work.
Read your seed packets and choose the 5 that can be taken care of in a similar way so you’re not having to scramble trying to remember who needs what.
My hope is that this post doesn’t deter you from starting a garden. I’ve gone through the ups and downs of my first season and can honestly say that eating a fresh veggie that you’ve grown makes up for all of the sweaty and disappointing bumps along the road.
If you have any questions, I’d love to help. I’m not an expert, but I can share what I’ve learned.