Simple, smart and easy…growing a SMALL vegetable garden
Many people grow large vegetable gardens. I grow a small one that fits in five wash tubs. It’s just the right size for two of us, since one of us doesn’t like tomatoes. This is a garden that a Flea Market gardener would love….I do!
Five galvanized tubs, with drainage holes, hold tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, green onions and jalapeno peppers.
For a good mix, I used one bag of each kind of soil at Home Depot just like is recommended in Square Foot Gardening. The salesman there thought I was nuts, I think. I fertilize and watch for worms….didn’t find one, the healthiest I’ve ever seen, until the end of the season.
Black Krim is the variety I grew this year, full bodied intensely sweet and inside, red, not black!
Mini harvest for one.
Tractor Man doesn’t like tomatoes. Most of the peppers I popped into a Zip-loc bag and froze. I then would add them to soups, spaghetti sauce and casseroles.
Watch for this guy, a tomato worm. They say these, (not this one), turn into hummingbirds moths.
Some of the tomatoes, I dried and packed in jars of olive oil. See my recipe here. ~~ Sue
More on easy edibles:
10 Flea Market Seed-Starting Tips
13 Comments
Your galvanized container veggie gardening is lookin’ good, Sue! Looks like a good harvest for one! I tried a couple tubs in my veggie garden this yr …one worked, one didn’t …so I’m going to repeat the one that worked w/a beautiful purple grass…I’ll have to look up the name…a little lettuce grew among it…so cute! Thanks for the idea!
Wonderful,Sue. And so smart. I love cherry tomatoes, so I will plant some next year in a galvanized bucket. I grew A tomato planat last year, but I only got 2 tomatoes off of it…2 BIG ones, but just 2…so I was discouraged for this year…( and about that worm….EEEWWWWWWWWW) LOL
did you drill holes for drainage or use rocks?
Hi Patty, I drilled biggish holes …about four 1″ holes.
Very cool! Thanks for the tips on the flavor of Black Krim. It is hard to know which of the heirlooms to grow sometimes because there is not a good descriptor of their character. They would be a nice addition to sauces with their sweetness and the dark skin coloration. Oh and I adore those planters! I was brought to conviction about a tub I purchased to use as a planter…time to get it into use. I am inspired <3 Great post Sue
How do you keep the plants from getting root bound? And do the tubs not get too hot?
Hi Kitty, Tomatoes need about 12-14″ of depth to grow,..the tubs don’t seem to get that hot…
I don’t use galvanized tubs, but I do use 55 gal. drums that have been cut in half. I then sink them half way into the ground and fill them with potting soil and compost. There are lots of tomatoes on each of my three plants right now. Two are Early Girl (I think), and the third is Sweet 100’s. I picked the first of those yesterday. Each plant gets at least a couple of gallons of water each day, with periodic waterings of plant food.
If you throw in some basil plants, the tomato worms dont like it & it will keep them away. It also makes it easy for Capricee salad. It worked for me anyway, those little green guys can chew up a plant quick!
You pictures look great Sue. I had not heard that about the tomato worm becoming a hummingbird moth. It seems like the worm is much larger than the moth. 🙂
I have been growing all of my tomatoes in very large plastic pots and they grow great! They are deep enough that the tomato cages work just fine. And I don’t seem to have any problems with hornworms since I’ve been doing this.
What are the different types of bagged dirt you used? (don’t want to buy the book to find out…..LOL)
Thanks for sharing and Have a Blessed Day.
Margo, I used three or four different ones of whatever bags of soil the store had,…simple. They were likely all the same! haha
It worked though…