Cathy Isom has some planting and growing tips for warmer container vegetables. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
Container gardening gives you flexibility in warm climates because it allows you to move tender heat-loving vegetables like peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes indoors during frosty nights, as well as move heat-averse veggies like salad greens to a shadier spot when temperatures rise.
Plant pepper plants after the last frost, but continue growing them outdoors throughout the year. You can also start them from seed after the last frost. Just cover them or bring them inside and put them in a sunny window whenever temperatures dip near freezing.
Growing tomatoes can be a challenge because they require more space and water that many containers can handle. Try only planting three tomato seeds or one plant in a large container. Provide and support such as to keep the plant growing upright.
If it’s leafy greens you want, you can either plant lettuce seeds in seed-starting trays and transplant them to larger pots or scatter them lightly in larger pots so that they cover the surface. For cucumbers it’s all about timing. Your best bet is to plant them in the months of August, September, February, March and April.
Eggplants like heat, so be sure to plant them late, even in hot climates.
I’m Cathy Isom…