Green gardening is a very rewarding activity. It allows gardeners to work with nature rather than against it and can be enjoyed by anyone & everyone. Those lucky enough to have a large garden can really develop their green gardening skills with big compost heaps, crop rotation, water butts & ‘grey water’ irrigation systems. Fortunately, green gardening is also possible for those with small gardens or even no garden. A patio or balcony can easily be turned into a fruit or salad bowl. The answer is to grow green using containers.

The good news is that there are many types of fruit and vegetables which can be grown successfully in containers. These range from salad leaves to miniature fruit trees. Using containers you can even ‘choose’ your soil type by buying compost that is suitable for the plants you wish to grow, rather than putting up with your garden’s natural range. But for beginners, or those who have less time to plan and tend their patios/balconies/window boxes etc, some plants really do take to life in a pot more than others. Here are just a few suggestions to help ensure that you get great big juicy rewards for your efforts!

Before we look at these plants in more detail, there are some basic tasks that are essential for good growth. This is because plants in pots are more reliant on you for food & moisture than those in garden beds. To get good crops you will need to:

o water your containers every day (& possibly twice a day in hot weather)
o use a natural, organic plant food to help your plants keep producing all season

This is vital for producing strong, disease resistant plants.

Watering is best done out of the heat of the day so that less is lost through evaporation & more moisture is available to the plants. Adding a layer of mulch to the surface of your compost can also help it to stay moist. Another good idea for hanging baskets & containers is to add some water retaining crystals to the soil when you plant up, this will help to hold water in the compost. For larger tubs & pots, you could cut the bottom off a small plastic bottle & bury it in the compost with the widest part uppermost & at the surface. This allows water to be directed deeper into the compost & nearer to the roots of the plants. Don’t forget, even if you don’t have room for a water butt, you can still use ‘grey’ water from your washing up bowl or bath to water your plants.

Green gardening generally relies on improving soil condition and structure to add nutrients and encourage strong growth. This is more difficult to achieve with container gardening, so additional nutrients may be required. Organic plant foods are available from a wide variety of online & other garden stores and will come with instructions on how & when to use. Some are liquids which can be watered in giving immediately accessible nutrients. Others are pellets or granules which need to be spread on the soil and release nutrients more slowly.

Now, onto the good bit – which delicious summer fruits and vegetables to choose? My top ten suggestions for a good range of versatile, mouth watering produce are:

1. TOMATOES: not just a key ingredient of salads but an integral part of so many wonderful summer dishes from gazpacho (cold tomato soup) to pizza toppings, pasta sauces & salsa. There is a huge range of tomatoes available from the large ‘beefsteak’ tomatoes which are great sliced & served with a herb vinaigrette or on top of barbequed burgers to tiny cherry tomatoes that are sweet as sugar. For our purposes, the smaller tomatoes that will grow in hanging baskets & strawberry pots, or pot grown cordon tomatoes, are likely to be most successful. Tomatoes do need a minimum temperature (10