How to Grow Terrific Tomatoes in Containers

How to Grow Terrific Tomatoes in Containers.

Nothing beats the taste of a ripe, juicy tomato pulled from your own garden bush.

A little sprinkle of salt and a big bite…Yum! Who cares if the juice runs down your chin! It's pure ambrosia!

But what does a gardener do if she has less than perfect soil? Should she give up on the glorious tomato, which the Aztecs called "the fruit of the gods?" Not by a long shot.

Tomatoes can be grown in containers, and they will flourish with just a small amount of loving care.

There are tomatoes that have been developed especially to grow in containers. If you like cherry tomatoes, why not try Gurney's “Baby Girls,” which ripen in large trusses of bite sized real tomato flavor. Or how about Thompson and Morgan's "Tomato Gartenperle," which tumble from hanging baskets in a heavy crop of delicious rosy-red, cherry sized fruits. These yummie nuggets will flourish in 8 inch pots on a sunny patio.

Don't stop with cherry tomatoes, if you have more room or a large sunny deck. Larger pots from a gallon to 3 gallon will grow incredible beef-steak sized fruits, such as Gurney's "Big Beef," with true old time flavor, and "Burgermaster," a flavorful 9 ounce beauty that will have you screaming for more. Both are tops in yield, size, and flavor, plus they have the highest disease resistance, a blessing in the disease prone south of zones 7 through 10.


If acid is a problem, but you like a real tomato, you will love Park's “Razzleberry Hybrid,” which is mild and sweet, promising to melt in your mouth with delicious flavor and good disease resistance. Park's “Early Challenge Hybrid” is true to its name, giving you an early delicious tomato that has good yields and great disease resistance.

Growing tomatoes in containers is actually easier than growing tomatoes in the ground, since the plants are held above the nesting ground of slugs, caterpillars, and cutworms. Disease is rare, especially if you choose tomato plants with the best disease resistance.

Buy the largest pots that you can find. I like clean 5 gallon pots for my big indeterminate tomatoes, which bear and bear and bear throughout the season. Smaller pots, such as 3 gallon are good for determinate plants that bear all at once, for canning, freezing, or simply sharing with friends.

Packaged, sterilized vegetable garden soil or soil blended especially for tomatoes will give you less disease woes, and higher yields. Fill the pot to within an inch of the top. Starting at the top of your soil, dig as deep a hole as your pot will allow, and bury the tomato plant to within an inch of the top, stripping off the leaves all the way up, leaving just the top leaves.

Mix a good, low-nitrogen, granulated, slow-release fertilizer within the soil, following package directions, and keep well watered. Place a large tomato cage over the pot, and press the wires all the way into the soil. Then place in full sun. The tomato plant will grow up through the cage and give you the blessing of real tomatoes no matter where you live.

Water your pots frequently, especially in dry periods and on windy days. This may require watering twice a day. Your plants will reward you with fresh, healthy tomatoes. In this day and age, where food-safety is a major concern, there is nothing like a fresh tomato sandwich to make you feel like you have truly bitten into "the fruit of the gods." Jaye Lewis

The Advantages of Indoor Gardening

The Advantages of Indoor Gardening.

by Jason Earls

Indoor gardening can have quite a few advantages over outdoor gardening.

Most obviously, your plants will be protected from birds, animals, and harmful insects when kept indoors.

Having plants safe from cold, hail, and other elements is also a definite advantage. And some plants and plant varieties simply grow better indoors than out.

When picking what to grow for your indoor garden, remember to select smaller tomato plants rather than larger types, such as beefsteak for example. Also smaller varieties of carrots, peppers, strawberries, and green onions, are other kinds of vegetables that will grow well indoors.

Some plants such as cucumbers and squash will require more indoor space and vine support; and strawberries and dwarf or sugar peas will make excellent hanging plants that are quite attractive.

For containers, you will need to select some from a gardening supply store, or you can improvise your own by finding items in your garage, or at rummage sales. Wooden boxes or baskets lined with plastic bags, barrels and other items can make interesting planters as well.

After selecting some containers, next you will need suitable soil. You may want to use gardening soil or purchase soil already pre-mixed with healthy nutrients and minerals. If you use gardening soil, be sure it contains only decomposed material.

Plan out exactly where in your house your indoor garden will be located. Beans or tomato plants should be situated near a window since they require more sunlight than carrots or lettuce. Keep in mind that leaf and root-producing plants need much cooler spots and less sunlight than fruit and seed-producing plants.

Start your seeds in plastic tubs, or use abandoned egg cartons, and set them up in a proper area. Follow the easy-to-understand instructions on the back of the packages for best results. When the young plants are about two inches in height, transplant them into larger containers; and when transplanting, keep in mind that drainage can be a problem when growing indoors.

Use mulch to help maintain proper amounts of moisture in the soil. Also misting some of the plants with a sprayer is necessary to simulate dew. But don’t mist them when the sun is shining directly onto the plants. Try to imitate natural outdoor rain and dew conditions when watering. Don’t overwater on hot sunny days either. You may also want to check the moisture content of the soil with a moisture meter.

Indoor plants that are properly selected, maintained, and arranged can make your home look more natural, environmentally friendly, and highly attractive, while also bringing out qualities in your home decor. The list of different indoor plant varieties available for growing also continues to increase every year as new hybrids are developed.

Video - Growing Herbs With The Easiest Indoor Herb Garden Ever.

Bulbs Gardening and Landscaping

Bulbs Gardening and Landscaping.

Bulbs are generally great plants, full of colour, and very easy to cultivate.

A lot of them have leaves that are green all the time, while others have leaves that after the flowering they ripen.

Once this happens, store the bulbs and next year start it all over again. While some bulbs are tender, others are hardy, but what means hardy from one region to another depends on their type of weather.

If you’re in a cold region, treat gloxinias, gloriosa lilies, calla lilies and begonias as if they were summer plants. This way you have where to choose from once spring comes knocking.

Part of the Dutch bulbs group are the snowdrops, the crocus, the winter aconites, scillas, leucojums, eranthis, chionodoxas, grape hyacinths, Dutch hyacinths, tulips, daffodils and snowflakes. They are quite resistant, but not enough to survive outside, when the temperature drops below freezing.

They need a cellar, a cold frame or a shed to keep them safe. Another option is digging a trench and putting the pots in it, while covering them with straws or marsh hay. If the temperature doesn’t go below zero, you can safely keep them outside in a container.

If you want great results, use firm, fresh and large bulbs once fall comes. Make sure the pot has good drainage and add light soil with some bone meal in it. Make sure it doesn’t dry out if you’re using pots made out of clay, as this can injure the roots. If the weather outside allows, keep the containers outdoors and let them flower. Once it blooms, keep the containers in a place where the foliage can ripen.

If you want the great fragrance, the Dutch hyacinths are what you need, great for raised beds or large planter boxes. Daffodils work best when in large shrubs, like forsythias or birches. You can combine tulips with violas, pansies, forget-me-nots, wall flowers, English daisies, annual candytuft or margueritas.

As mentioned already, when you’re in cold regions the Dutch bulbs can’t be planted and left outside, without any protection from the winter cold. But, you can keep them in boxes or large planters, with a lot of soil.

If you use containers, pick one that is two feet wide and the same in depth. Put the bulbs, cover them with six inches of soil, early in the fall, so they have roots by the time the soil freezes. This method has been used successfully before, but it also has some risks. The material that the containers are made of doesn’t really matter, only how much soil they can hold.

The thing that hurts the bulbs isn’t the freezing soil, but the pressure from the frost when it’s against the container walls. That’s how the bulbs are bruised.

Video - Summer Bulbs

Geraniums Gardening Landscaping Caring Tips

Geraniums Gardening Landscaping Caring Tips.

The scented leaved geraniums mix together a group that’s well known for the scent of its crushed leaves.

Even if the flowers are considerably smaller and not that beautiful then the ones from zonal, this aspect is not that important.

We talk here about the peppermint that has hairy, large, velvety leaves; the nutmeg famous for its small white flowers and round leaves; the rose with toothed, deeply-cut leaves; the pine-scented with big finely-cut leaves and the lemon-scented that has small leaves on compact plants.

The Prince Rupert is a lemon-scented with coloured white-and-green leaves. It is very important to know that a well-drained and light loam is perfect for scented-leaved geraniums.

Lady Washington and Ivy-leaved Types

If they grow under the best conditions the ivy-leaved geraniums, despite the fact that are trailing plants, are probably the most generous flowering plants. They love the light and the dry medium and that’s why it’s perfect for them to grow in places like California where the days are worm and the nights are cool.

Many people these days hang on their posts, porches, garages or trees window boxes with vinca and English ivy but from now on they can start decorate their home with ivy-leaved geraniums.

You can choose from lilac-white to pink Alliance, the lavender Santa Paula and the double pint Galilee.

The well-seaming geraniums are the Lady Washington. This is a very difficult to grow plant and they also prefer sunny days and warm night while they must be protected from all-day sun and wind.

If you want various types of flowers in your garden you can choose from Easter Greeting, Lucy Becker, Gay Nineties, and Marie Rober. Only during Easter you can buy Lady Washington geraniums and plant them in your garden.

Cactus and Climbing

If you have a pot plant collection and you’re a person that loves the geraniums then cactus and climbing geraniums are definitely a “must have”. It’s very interesting how they have the most beautiful and bizarre forms and flowers.

You can choose between the knotted, heart-leaved and rue-scented stork-bills, the parsley-leaved Otidia, the prickly-stalked geranium and the climbing square-stalked Jenkinsonia.

Sun is important

There’s no secret that the geraniums dislike shadows and humidity. You can grow them in pots or boxes on terraces with at least 8 hours sun a day or on the south, west or east side of your house. Even so their flowers last only for a little time.


If kept on the north side of the house, your plants will grow beautifully.
If you live in the city you should consider to protect the flowers from the direct sunlight. By doing that, you will cut back a little from the middle-day-heat.

Soil and Potting

Anywhere you put them, in pots, planters and boxes, the geraniums will look great. If drainage is good, they can thrive in any soil mixture. In order for them to blossom you must take good care of them. You should control the nitrogen level or lush foliage and shortly the effects will be seen.

It will be great if for each bushel you will combine three parts good garden loam and one part leaf peat moss, mold or compost plus a five-inch pot of bone meal. You can always add some sand if the garden loam is a little bit too heavy but in case of an acid soil you will need lime.

The perfect recipe for a good garden soil consists in 5-10-5 fertilizer + bone meal. It is also very important for you to use a low-nitrogen fertilizer in liquid form during the growing season.

The free passage of water must be taken into consideration when potting because too much or not enough water can harm the flower. You must soak the soil and stop watering until the plants requires it.

If there’s too much water, the plant will have yellow leaves but if the soil is dry they will turn wilt and discolour and all this causes legginess.

If you want your plant to grow beautiful, from time to time you should turn the containers.

You must also remove all faded blossoms or dry leaves. If the center florets of the heads are damaged by the rain you should pull them off.

To sum all up, the geraniums are pest free but just in case of danger you must have some malathion or lindane prepared.

Video - Potting Geranium Cuttings

Landscaping Tips - Cuttings Roots

Landscaping Tips - Cuttings Roots.

Before planting you must be sure you’ve cut the lower leaves of the plant.

Considering that the little wings on the stem are inclined to rot, it is very important to pull them off. After that, you must use some lime on the stem ends and insert the root in a pot filled with sand or a mixture of peat moss and sand.

When the roots are about an inch-long, they can be moved in 2 ½ - inch pots filled with ¾ sandy loam and ¼ leaf mold or peat moss.

Once you’ve finished planting it you must also keep it away from direct sunlight. It is recommended that you keep it indoors.

You should shift to 3 ½ - or 4-inch pots and fill them with the same potting mixture but with bone metal when the separated cuttings have their own root system. After that, you must feed them using a phosphorous fertilizer (5-10-5 or 4-15-8).

You must care for them, provide sunny windows and turn the pots from time to time. You should not over-water them and wait for the soil to dry out before repeating the procedure. It’s strictly prohibited to keep the pots in water.

During the day they must be kept under temperatures of 60-70 degrees F and during night 50-60 degrees F. But as you may know, this is not possible in a home.

Your original plants can last perfectly through the winter if you keep them indoors. All you have to do is cut back 6 or 8 inches from the top and put the pots in a sunny house. It is very important for you to know that during winter you must grow old plants at 50 degrees F.

Cool cellars can perfectly host plants if you remember to keep them in little light and cool temperature. If not, the growth will be lanky and the plant won’t be that strong.

If your plant has grown in strong light, when the winter is over you must start rooting using the above mentioned method.

Every once in a while, when the weather permits, it is recommendable for you to take care of the old plants by cutting them back and re pot them in fresh soil before setting them outdoors.

This is probably the best method a gardener can use because it provides big specimens.

Very often people ask if during fall you can store and hang your plants upside down in your basement.

A few years ago in cellars was no central heating and when the floors were dirty this but now, down there is very warm, well insulated and dry.

This is perfect for gardeners because in only a few months the dry and almost dead plants will turn into some beautiful flowers. The plant proves to be very tough if it can be wintered without soil.

Tuberous Begonias

If stored properly during winter months, the tubers can last perfectly year after year. During fall, especially in October, in some warm regions, the plant will turn yellow but won’t frost.

This time of year, you must withhold water. After turning yellow you should use a spading fork and lift plants very carefully.

The next step is to spread the tubers in the sun at least for a few hours to dry. Once the drying period is over, you must cut off the tops.

Be very careful, if a portion of stem remains, you must not break it off. Let it dry and remove it afterwards.

In the end, you must arrange tubers in shallow boxes, shake off the soil and cover them with dry sand or peat moss. The perfect temperature for the storage is between 45 and 50 degrees F.

There are some persons that prefer to use paper bags and clean tubers. The effect is also very good.

Another option is for you to leave the tubers in their pots. You must turn containers on sides and put them in the basement where the temperatures don’t exceed 60 degrees F.

If down there is too warm, the bulbs will shrivel and they won’t ever become beautiful plants for rooms with filtered sunlight.