New to This...

[Holly111]

Hi!

I am 14 and live about an hour from Toronto. (Not sure what zone, yet).
I read gardening magazines at my town library and articles online.

I have taken an intrest in container gardening, because I'm too lazy to go all the way to the backyard. Haha. I guess the groundhog problem counts too, their motto appears to be
"Take a bite out of each veggie and leave the rest for the humans"

Anyways.. I'll give you a list of plants I have right now...

A small pot of ivy I hope to transplant into a larger pot, sits on my mom's desk at work

A pot with paperwhites.. I grew them from bulbs and they grew a nice 2 feet tall. The leaves are almost totally dried now, and hopefully the bulbs will grow next year.

A spider plant I rescued. A grade 9 had grown it in science class and didn't want it... I ended up saving it when someone brought it to my attention. Poor thing was so dry, the soil rock solid...

A spider plant I grew in my science class. Still tiny, but growing.

A pink begonia I just bought at Zehers tonight for $4.44. I thought I might as well try, even though we are way past Feb, like the box suggested. Obviously it is still just a bulb.

25-30 green pepper plants. I bought one of those kits for $5.00 from TSC that has the tiny pellet-soil things you add water too. I grew the peppers from seeds, and they are about 2 inches tall. (I'm growing them for my guinea pig and to give away, maybe sell)
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Yeah, so that's it.
My goal is to have my deck covered in pots.. I don't know what I want to grow.. I just love the idea of taking something as small as a seed and turning it into a huge blooming, colorful, yummy, something.

My deck is about 12x12 feet, by the way.

I want to try and stay cheap... =-)
Any suggestions or ideas are appreciated!

Oh, and I was thinking about making a blog so I could have pics and updates, for all my mom's friends at her work. (They have lots of spiders, and have tried cool things like growing paperwhites in vases of water)

So... yeah... =-)

Holly

[Eeyore]

Hi Holly! You can grow almost anything in containers, even potatoes if you are ambitious enough to try them. First of all, containers or pots can be expensive but you can use just about anything for a container so garage sales are a good way to pick up inexpensive containers. Just make sure you can punch holes in the bottoms for drainage. Seeds are an inexpensive way to start and collecting your own seed for next year will cut down on costs too. Or visit the seed exchange forum here and get seeds for free or thecost of postage.
If you are going to buy plants for your containers you don't need to buy full grown plants, in fact for things like tomatoes the smaller plants are just fine. Your growing season is long enough to allow fruit to form and ripen by late August.
Hope this helps you get started.

[malik foreman]

HI!
to help you enjoy your container gardening experience i suggest you an onlineshop that sell only flowerpots and planters made in Europe http://www.cogeadesigns.com They do ship anywhere.i will post pictures of some arrangements i am doing with their products (Michele and Tino) in a few days .Nice colors by the way

good luck

[Countryboy]

Oh, and I was thinking about making a blog so I could have pics and updates, for all my mom's friends at her work. Holly

Well just give them all a link to Canadian Gardening and they can follow yr gardening progress here then eh!

Seriously tho Holly . . . amongst all the questions I can deal with the Paperwhites . . . 'coz I just heard Ed Lawrence talking abt dealing with forced bulbs the other day.

Spring, store bought Hyacinths, Paperwhites and other bulbs should -

#1 - Not be fertilized during blooming. *This surprised me . . but feeding will accelerate and shorten the blossom duration according to the expert.*

#2 - Be watered and fed after blooming until the leaves die off naturally.

Yr already past 1 & 2 so now u can move on to -

#3 - Plant out yr bulbs in the Fall for flowering outdoor next Spring.

Also . . another *of many* other things to consider. Some of yr plants will not tolerate too much sun . . . Begonia and Spiderplant. for example. Others *Green Peppers* need full sun to thrive. U will have to do some do some planning of how to shade part of yr deck while getting enuf sun to other parts of it.

Best of luck.

[shergardens]

Container gardening is one of my favorites........for this be creative. One of the best comments here for doing it on the cheap was going to garage sales for pots. They can be very expensive but thankfully the plants don't care what you put them in. Clay pots are usuallly pretty cheap and with some acrylic paint can be really cute, just water lots. A great combination that is pretty and tasty is tomatoes and petunias, earlier in the season use lettuce as a filler and when the lettuce starts to get too tall or bitter just pull it out. Since you have computer access just google and read read read to get a feel for what you would like. Have fun!

[Lizcordysmum]

Did I hear you say "Cheap" Holly?

The big cans from canned tomatoes, 2 L milk cartons, and 4 L plastic milk jugs, big coffee cans...all of these can have holes punched, or the milk thingies can be cut down to size. If you think this looks too cheap, you can wrap pretty fabric around each container/glue Velcro on fabric strips, to keep closed...or hot glue will also work.

I don't know how many paperwhites you want to keep, but a wastebasket sized container full of garden soil, with some bone meal or bulb feed, will provide nutrients to the bulbs...remember to pot them up again in the Autumn in your individual pots (a few to each!)

I too am growing a Spider baby...in a hanging basket...she is doing very well..poor thing, I left the cutting in water for a full year before I got around to planting.

Good good luck and welcome to a truly enjoyable hobby...you sound as tho you love plants!