How to grow fruits and vegetables in pots in your own home

Growing fruits and vegetables at home is simple. You just need to choose the right varieties and allocate some time to their care to join the healthy life growing our own urban garden.

There are many benefits of growing your own vegetables, including the fact that, in addition to not requiring very different care from ornamental plants, they can be eaten. But beyond the satisfaction of harvesting and eating what you have cared for with your hands, having an urban garden allows you to eat healthier. It is also an activity suitable for anyone who has a little interest and is that a small space on the terrace or balcony is enough to create a real orchard.

The starting point of any urban garden is the choice of plants to grow. Since the space for their development will be limited, you will have to study well which are the most appropriate varieties. If we are talking about fruits, for example, strawberries, raspberries and fruit trees such as loquats, apple trees or peach trees are prepared for their development in larger pots.

The same is true if you intend to grow vegetables at home. Planting tomatoes is a classic among amateur gardeners, but there are options beyond the incorruptible tomato plants. Peppers, lettuce, eggplants, onions, and even zucchini also have a place in this type of structure.

Getting the right tools is key to growing fruits and vegetables. But there's more. You must also take the utmost care of the pots in which you will make your plantations. Ideally, they should be as large as possible to ensure proper development, although a depth of between 20 and 40 cm may be sufficient.

Although if what you want is to make an urban garden that is also sustainable, nothing like recycling objects as planters. Water bottles, old tires, cans? Each one with its own singularities, can become containers as original as they are useful. In any case you must make sure that they have proper drainage and fertile soil.

Tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, eggplants, strawberries and small fruit trees are just some of the options available to you for growing fruits and vegetables in pots in your own home.

If the space of your terrace or balcony allows it, you can always bet on the so-called growing tables. These solutions allow you to plant different types of vegetables in a small space and, as in the case of pots, you have to fill them with the appropriate mixture of substrates. The key to the correct development of your plants, however, is to select varieties that do not compete for the same nutrients.

Apart from the choice of plants or the containers in which you will grow them, you must take into account other considerations. To begin with you have to pay attention to the orientation of your terrace or the space where you will locate your urban garden. The incidence of the sun can have devastating effects on some species but, in the case of tomatoes and peppers, for example, it is an incentive to increase their productivity. Other species such as lettuces, leeks, strawberries or aromatic herbs, resist well the lack of sunlight.

Irrigation is another of the essential chapters for the successful cultivation of fruits and vegetables. In this regard, it is important to know that the humidity provided by the pots is limited with respect to the soil. A good drip irrigation system can help you to make the maintenance of your urban garden more efficient. In any case, experts recommend daily watering in summer and at least two or three days a week during spring and autumn.

The last of the essential issues for growing fruit and vegetables successfully at home has to do with the soil. For starters, it must be fertile. A mixture of peat and compost will provide your plants with the nutrients they need for a good harvest.

But the limited size of the pots is also important. As a result, you may need to add some compost during the development of your plants. Manure, worm castings and compost are some of the most popular solid organic offerings. However, you can also find liquid fertilizers on the market that have a quicker but less long-lasting effect.