 Hello and welcome to little garden on the prairies in this video We're going to talk about container gardening and how anybody can be a gardener No matter what size of containers or what size of garden you want to grow you can start with some herbs some lettuces Or go big and grow potatoes All you need is some kind of a container whether it's some flower pots some Rubbermaid tubs any kind of container you can grow anything in these 30 gallon tubs Here I have potatoes started now and These containers here are from fruit trees that are in small bushes that I have purchased from the greenhouse over the years And these containers are great for planting. I'm going to be using these for squash So if you are going to be using plastic make sure that you check the Symbol on the container and look for these three green numbers to make sure you're using this food safe type plastic Another option you could go is to purchase grow bags. I have a lot of these also in my garden that work great These are five gallon size grow bags that I purchased from Amazon. I'll leave you a link in the description below They're great for bush tomatoes And I have some onions started in this ten gallon bag here And I've also planted all my pea crop in grow bags So I have a variety of peas growing here. You can just stick a tomato cage in there for the peas to crawl up do a little mulching and It's easy to grow peas just like this and the great thing about these grow bags if they have handles So you can move them around if you're on a patio or a deck or a small space You can kind of move them around where you have room for them And even something as small as a an old flower pot works to plant radishes And this is what I have going here right now I use two pots and every three weeks I start another batch of radishes The dollar store has lots of great cheap plastic pots This is a stackable one that I purchased from dollar round of this spring Or if you want to invest a little more money You can pick up one of these towers here that I purchased to put herbs and lettuces in So when you're container gardening you got to make sure that you always have good drainage no matter what size of Pot or plastic tub that you are using I'm just getting my redneck raised bed garden ready and using these large 30 gallon tubs Which take up a lot of dirt So I have been filling them with recycled material that I kind of saved over the Winter time all sorts of cereal boxes containers from milk Any scraps of wood? Tree branches small logs will also work as a good filler for large containers like this even if you have some Soil or you know partially finished compost dirt they make a good filler at the bottom of your containers Then once I've got them Partially filled. I am actually adding some good compost soil now to these containers and getting them ready for planting And if you want to make your own soil, it's very easy I usually use three parts in my soil and that would be compost some peat moss or Coconut core and some pyrrolite So this batch I'm making here is just for a small container. So I have some sifted compost I'm adding a little bit of organic fertilizer just a regular 4-4-4 blend and some pyrrolite and that's all you need for small containers If you don't want to Make your own soil. I recommend that you buy a good potting soil that Is got lots of good nutrients good drainage and all the right materials that you need for container gardening? Never use garden soil or anything too heavy in containers because it will be just too Compacted it won't have all the nutrients that container gardens need So that is something to make sure you keep in mind when you are getting your pot set up for your containers One thing to remember is that containers dry out a lot quicker than a regular garden bed or raised garden bed So you want to make sure that you are watering it regularly regularly and do not let the pots or containers dry out So before planting up some of my root crops here. I am just giving my 30 gallon tubs here a good watering and I'm going to show you how to plant up some carrots So these next three containers are going to be where I'm going to be planting my carrots So I have three varieties here that I picked up from West Coast seed I have a colorful blend here Called the rainbow blend the Neptune and The Nante Corlis so you will see in the description below that I have a link to the West Coast seeds website I am an affiliate of this company because I love their seeds and if you make any purchases from that link below You will help me by earning me a small commission for the channel So be sure to check them out. I Also like that West Coast has made their packaging Compostable so once these are done and seeds are all gone. You can just shred this up and throw it right into your compost bin So something that I learned when I became my very own gardener was that carrots are actually quite tricky to get growing I always thought that they were just like other seeds. You just throw them in the ground and They germinate within seven to ten days and away they go but carrots are quite finicky when it comes to germination They take a lot longer than you think it can be up to 21 days Before you see germination and you need to keep the soil nice and moist and I keep it mulched as well Just to help retain that moisture. So as long as you follow those steps be patient. Don't let that dry out You should see germination in about three weeks So again, I use my seeding square here to space out my holes Carrots you can plant if you want to have them properly spaced out in a square foot. You use the red which is 16 per square foot So with carrots, you know, you can always thin them out after two thick I if they fly out of my hands and land all over the place here while I'm trying to space them out that's okay, I just work them in and you can pick them when they're babies and Use the greens I'll be mulching everything here once I'm done. You can also use shredded leaves works really good Some shredded hardwood just very light can also make a good mulch on here Some people have even if you see in different videos Some people actually use a board to cover their rows if they're planting in rows just to keep it dark and moist Until you see germination. So there are different ways you can do it But with me today, I'm going to use straw to mulch these So growing up as a kid most of the vegetables the root vegetables that we ate They were all cooked, you know, just in the boiling method, which was never too appealing to me I didn't like boiled carrots boiled beets boiled turnips Any of those so now that I've you know learned the beauty of roasting vegetables All of these vegetables can be roasted. I just find that they are so much more flavorful. So that's Kind of broaden my horizon on root vegetables. I enjoy them I enjoy chopping them up cold into salads as well And also the greens that come from pretty much any of these the beets the carrots The turnips you can harvest those tops when they're nice and young and put them in your salad or stir-fry So so I've learned a lot about root crops now and really embracing them and enjoying growing them and Hopefully eating them this fall. So like the beets the turnips in a square foot should be about nine I want to grow them thicker and just thin out the baby ones to begin with and then leave some to grow a little bit bigger That's definitely Optional as well Like I said, anybody can be a gardener whether you just are growing a few herbs on your patio You want to try something like lettuces strawberries Or if you want to go big and do potatoes and corn Anything can grow in a container pretty much So don't be afraid to give it a try if you've never grown any of your own food It's a wonderful hobby All you need to do is find us some containers some good soil and Head off to the garden center pick out a few plants and start growing So I'll be doing a lot more videos on my container gardening here over the next few weeks So if you haven't already done so, please hit the subscribe button and click on the notification bell So you don't miss out on any more of my videos. Thanks for watching