A. A sunny location is essential for growing vegetables. If your patio gets at least six hours of sun, there are a number of vegetables that will do well in containers and provide a small harvest of fresh produce.
You can make an attractive garden by choosing a variety of suitable containers. Containers should be at least 16 to 18 inches deep. Whiskey barrels, terra cotta or plastic pots, wooden boxes or whatever pleases your eye will do. Choosing different shapes, materials, and compatible colors for your containers will add to the attractiveness of your garden.
Tomatoes, bush green beans, cucumbers, peppers, zucchini and eggplant are a few good choices for the summer garden and they generally do well in containers. The small cherry tomatoes adapt very well to container growing. It is advisable to purchase nursery transplants, as they will produce fruit sooner. Just to be safe, try to purchase tomato varieties that are marked to be nematode resistant. If you are unable to purchase transplants, you can sow seeds. Seedlings will need to be thinned after they sprout. In our warm Gulf Coast climate, transplants and seeds can be started in early spring. After you have chosen your plants and seeds, plant each in separate containers in a lightweight, rich, well draining potting soil. Water well and place the containers in a sunny location.
Be creative in the way you arrange your containers as the leaf colors and textures of the plants, as well as the vegetables, can make an interesting grouping. In order to accommodate more plants, you might want to construct shelving by using wooden boards placed on stacked bricks at two or three different heights.
Vegetables grow fairly rapidly so you will need to check the containers daily to make sure your plants are kept moist and healthy. The plants will need to be fertilized every two weeks with a 20-20-20 water-soluble fertilizer. Constant watering of container plants tends to leach the fertilizer from the soil so replenishing nutrients is very important.
It will be necessary to stake peppers, tomatoes and eggplant. If you are growing zucchini or a vining-type cucumber, you can place a small trellis in the container and train the vines on it.
Once your plants start to bear fruit, harvest regularly when the fruit is at its peak and also to keep your plants producing. There is nothing better than a vine-ripened tomato. Good luck and happy eating!