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Container Vegetable Gardens

So it has falled through for us to have our large garden this year at my parents house, what is a girl to do. We go back to the drawing board and figure it out.We live in a townhouse community and there are strict bylaws against having a vegetable garden however it says no where about having a CONTAINER vegetable garden, heck we put in 3 blueberry bushes last year and no one cared. I found this great article HERE from Ohio State University about having a Vegetable Garden in containers.

My current plan is to keep it simple since it is going to be on my back deck. I am going to put up some planter boxes on my ledges and grow some lettuce and radishes, then I am going to plant a container of snap beans, eggplant, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, and winter squash. So I am currently in search of some good containers.

Suggested Vegetable Varieties for Container Growing
The following is a list of suggested varieties for vegetable container growing in the Midwest. This is not an exhaustive compilation. You may find other varieties that will do just as well. The important thing to remember when seeking suitable varieties is to look for those described as "bush" or "compact" in growth habit, and any varieties that have been especially bred or hybridized for container growing.

Vegetables/ Varieties / Container Size
Beans, Lima / Bush Baby, Fordhook Bush Lima, Fordhook 242 / 12" wide, 8-10" deep
Beans, Snap / Bush Romano, Contender, Provider, Tendercrop Stringless, Bush Blue Lake / 8" wide, 8-10" deep
Beets / Baby Canning, Spinel Little Ball, Red Ace Hybrid, Burpee Golden / 6"-12" deep
Broccoli / Any variety but Crusader / 20" deep
Brussels Sprouts / All varieties / 12" wide, 12" deep
Cabbage / Baby Head, Dwarf Morden, Minicole, Fast Ball, Flash / 8"-10" wide, 12" deep
Carrots / Short root or round, Nantes, Gold Nugget, Best of the Bunch, Little Finger, Baby Spike, Short & Sweet, Thumbelina / 10" wide, 10" deep
Chard / Any variety / 8-12" deep
Chinese Cabbage / Bok Choy, Michihli, Wong Bok / 20" deep
Collards / Any variety / 12" deep
Corn / Space saving varieties, F-M Cross, Golden Bantam, Kandy Korn, Precocious / 21" wide, 8" deep. Need 3 plants per container to assure pollination.
Cucumber / Salad Bush, Burpee Hybrid II, Bush Crop, Spacemaster, Burpee Pickler, Bush Champion, Fanfare, Pickalot, Picklebush, Pot Luck / 20" wide, 16" deep
Eggplant / Dusky, Morden Midget, Bambino, Millionaire / 16" deep
Horseradish / Maliner Kren / 5 gallon or larger
Kale / Any variety / 8" wide, 8" deep
Kohlrabi / Grand Duke / 12" deep
Lettuce / Black-seeded Simpson, Red Sails, Salad Bowl, Tom Thumb, Green Ice, Little Gem / 8" wide, 6-8" deep
Onion / Bunching types work best: White Pear, Japanese Bunching, Beltsville Bunching, Crystal Wax Pickling PBR / 10-12" deep
Peas / Little Marvel, Sugar Bon, Sugar Mel, Laxton's Progress, Sugar Rae, Melting Sugar, Burpee's Blue Bantam, Early Patio, Snowbird / 12" deep
Peppers / Any variety / 16" deep
Potatoes / Charlotte, Kennebec, Red Pontiac, Irish Cobbler, Epicure / 1-20 gallon containers
Pumpkins / Autumn Gold Hybrid, Bushkin, Jack Be Little, Small Sugar, Baby Boo / 5 gallon tub
Radish / Cherry Belle, Early Scarlet, French Breakfast, Sparkler, Burpee White, Comet. Avoid winter radishes. / 4-6" deep
Spinach / Any variety / 4-6" deep
Squash, Summer / Early Yellow Summer, Crookneck, Goldbar, Park's Creamy Hybrid, Straightneck, Scallopine, Peter Pan, Gold Rush, Pic-N-Pic Hybrid, Richgreen Hybrid, Sunburst / 24" deep
Squash, Winter / Butterbush, Bush Acorn, Table King, Cream of the Crop / 24" deep
Tomatoes / Patio VF, Pixie, Small Fry VFN, Yellow Pear, Sweet 100, Tumbling Tom, Container Choice, Rutgers, Tiny Tim, Husky Red, Husky Gold, Yellow Canary, Whippersnapper, Basket Pak, Red Cherry, Gardener's Delight, Sundrop / Dwarf--12" deep Standard--24" deep
Turnips / Any variety / 10-12" deep
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