What is a self watering container or planter? FIrst let’s be clear about the terminology. What is normally considered a self watering container doesn’t actually water itself. But it does address the greatest problem usually seen with container plants, and that is maintaining the right moisture level.
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The Earth Box Garden System has been around since 2001. If you are looking for a good way to do container gardening for larger plants like vegetables, including container tomatoes and peppers and the like, you will need a container that holds at least a couple of cubic feet of soil. The EarthBox is just the right size, measuring about 29×13x10.5 in. It’s a totally self contained garden system. It goes together quickly, about 20-25 minutes including the addition of the potting soil.
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Here’s another idea for container growing your tomatoes. The Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter is a very popular planter these days. It’s a simple planter that hangs a single tomato plant upside down in a container. It’s quite effective, and many people consider it to be the ultimate way to grow tomatoes, especially in a balcony or patio. But it does only handle one plant, and it needs somplace to hang. If you are looking for a way to grow even more tomato plants, or don’t have a place to hang a planter, the same folks that invented the Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter have come up with another way to plant your tomatoes.
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We’ve reviewed tomato planters for hanging upside down tomatoes. But those hanging planters tend to take up a lot of space, especially vertically. If you don’t have that kind of room or that’s too much to climb around here is an idea for small patio or balcony hanging planter.
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You’ve seen the Topsy Turvey Upside Down Tomato Planter and wondered if it works. Can you really grow tomatoes this way? We take a look at this planter to see what are its advantages.

There is actually more than one type of these planters available. There is the Topsy Turvey planter, which is really for just one plant. It is the simplest and least expensive of the upside down planters.
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There are a variety of seed starting solutions available today. One of the most popular are peat pots, with their close cousin peat pellets. What are the differences between peat pots and peat pellets, and which will work best for your seed starting and plant propagation needs.
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Roof gardens present an interesting choice for many urban gardeners, but certainly are not a new idea.

One of the earliest roof gardens were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which are thought to date back to 600 BC and the time of Nebuchadnezzar II. Famous as one of the Seven Wonders of the World, there were also gardens at Neneveh about that same time.

With garden space at a premium in urban settings, roof gardens are sometimes the only practical solution, especially in a high rise urban building. To make the best use of that space, often it is necessary to resort to some non traditional gardening techniques like container gardens, raised beds, or hydroponics. The lighter weight of hydroponic systems often makes them more attractive for use in roof gardens. Some forms of vertical gardening, which encourages plants to climb along trellises or walls is attractive for use on roofs as well.
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Here’s a short video from the University of Nebraska (the Backyard Farmer Series). It cover many aspects of choosing the right outdoor containers for your use, including choosing the right size and colors. The focus is on containers used for outdoor landscaping, but the areas touched on apply equally as well to vegetable container gardening.
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The biggest advantage to growing tomatoes in containers is that you can grow them just about anywhere they will get at least 8 hours of sun. You can move them if needed (say an unexpected frost). The biggest problems with container gardening are usually related to watering since they can dry out fairly quickly, so attention to watering or some type of irrigation can be needed. (Try one of the water holding gels or hydrogels if you think this will be a problem.).
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Window planter boxes are a great way to put container gardens outside. They are a great addition to the outdoor landscaping of your home, and can create a pleasing vista from the inside of the home.

There are several styles and materials for window boxes. Purchased window boxes can be made from wrought iron, copper, plastic, vinyl, fiberglass, wood (including cedar), and hayracks.
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In spite of your best efforts, there will be times when your container vegetable garden will have problems. Here is a list of some of the typical indoor container garden problems, the probable cause, and some suggested solutions to try.
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Most vegetables that will grow in your outdoor garden will also do well in your container garden. Of course the size and space are unique to your indoor garden, but given the space and light you can grow most vegetables. But there are obviously going to be some varieties and vegetables that are better suited to most folks space constraints.
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This is a video from Osmocote that features container gardening with edible plants. Covers basic container choice, soil preparation, and focuses on herb and vegetable selection and moisture maintenance for your container garden. This particular sample uses a trellis for support for climbing bean plants.

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Here’s another video on container gardening, this one from Scotts’s Trainging Institute. While it has a couple of shamless plugs for Scotts products like their potting soil, it still has some good information on container gardening, especially container herb gardening. Overall good content and production. Enjoy!
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Here’s a short video from the folks at RecipeCookBook. It suggests a soil recipe for a container garden, what to do to keep the moisture level under control and keep from watering you herb garden daily. Includes several suggestions for herbs, and how to plant them to accommodate the various sizes. About 6 minutes in length, well produced.

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The requirements for plants for indoor container vegetable gardens are somewhat different from the typical outside garden.  Here are a few tips to guide your choices.

Plant Labels

In a container vegetable garden, look for plant or seed labels which say patio, dwarf, or space saver; these all refer to plants which have been bread to grow to maturity and stay small with root systems that accomodate being grown in a pot easily. 

Most vegetables can be grown in a container as long as they are given proper spacing, drainage, nutrition, and attention; many vegetables are hearty and easy to grow, choosing plants which are wells suited to ones climate is important, the same plants do not grow well everywhere.  You can start your search at the local nursery or home improvement store, and eventually you may decide to look online at some of the more specialized nurseries.
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Living in an apartment can put a damper on the fledgling urban gardener, but a vegetable garden for apartment dwellers is not out of the question. You can put a vegetable garden on a balcony, tucked in along a fence, or even in a few containers in your apartment window. It’s not the usual approach so it takes some research, you can enjoy fresh herbs and vegetables even in your own apartment or condo. The key is to understand this unique environment, and select plants and herbs that require less space (and maybe sunlight) to grow. Doing this can provide you own little oasis of natural living in an otherwise urban setting.
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It Starts with the Pot

When starting a container vegetable garden, the choice of a proper pot is key.  If it’s too small it will crowd the roots.  Conversely, very large pots can be difficult to move so they can take best advantage of the available sunlight.  A good pot for container vegetable gardening needs to provide good drainage. Visualize the mature plants, not forgetting the root system, and make sure the pot is large enough to allow the finished plant room.

One rule of thumb for container vegetable gardens is to allow at least 18 inches in diameter or width and 18 inches of depth for most plants; this will vary depending on the exact vegetable that is being grown, carrots for example will need twice the depth they are expected to reach at maturity, while many herbs will get by with considerably less room.
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