Planting a Spring Container Vegetable Garden

• Some plants do best in the cooler months of early spring. Planting them in containers allows you to start them even sooner. Most lettuces, spinach, bunching onions, bush peas and radishes all do well in spring container gardens. All of these can be planted indoors up to six weeks prior to your last frost, then moved outdoors slowly, a few hours at a time, to get them used to wind and outdoor temperatures as soon as all danger of frost has passed.
  
  

Planting a Summer Container Vegetable Garden

• Plants that require lots of heat and sunshine to produce the best vegetables do well in summer container gardens. These include tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, eggplant and most herbs. Plant the seeds for these plants directly into their pots outdoors four weeks after the last frost date. They will need at least eight hours of sun a day, plus plenty of water. Alternatively, you can start the seeds indoors two weeks before the final frost and transplant the seedlings into the pots six weeks later.
  
  

Caring for Your Container Vegetable Garden

• Container gardens generally require slightly more care than in-ground gardens. Because they have less soil, they need more frequent watering and feeding. Provide your vegetables with compost when planting, and feed with a balanced fertilizer as they start to blossom. Check daily for signs that your plants need water. Do not let the soil dry out completely. Your container garden needs water when the soil is dry to 1/4-inch deep. Water the soil, not the leaves, until water flows through the drainage holes.
  
  

Choosing the Right Container

• For vegetable plants to be successful, their roots need plenty of room. One rule of thumb is that the larger the plant above the soil, the more space the roots need. Larger plants, such as tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant and cabbage need 5-gallon containers and should be planted one per container. You may plant smaller, faster growing plants, such as radishes, carrots and bunching onions, around the base of these plants. A cherry tomato plant needs only a 1-gallon container, while peppers and bush beans should have 2 gallons.