For gardeners with little space to use....

[SheWoff]

Ran across this and thought it might help out someone with very little space to garden in or has HOA rules against tearing up their yards...this could be done on your patio out back without a problem. It tells you how to garden in containers...but by hanging them up and growing things upside down! The tomatoes do grow well this way. I tried one two years ago.

She

http://www.seedsofknowledge.com/tomato2.html

[DreadPirate]

I like that a lot better. This last year we tried 3 holes on the side with 3 tomato plants per bucket. It took way to much water to keep them alive.

[Summerthyme]

I like that a lot better. This last year we tried 3 holes on the side with 3 tomato plants per bucket. It took way to much water to keep them alive.

Unfortunately, container plants just plain take a lot of watering. Their roots can't "travel" deeper to follow the water table, and they are exposed on all sides to the sun and hot air.

A couple of partial solutions... try using some of those "water holder" crystals, added to your potting soil. I use them in practically all my containers and they keep plants alive through my usual crazy haying season and other busy months on the farm. I still have to water the plants, but once or twice a week- not once or twice a day!

Look into some of the great gadgets they've got now for automatic container watering. Lee Valley Tools (their garden catalog or section on the 'net) has some great ideas. Some are ceramic cones which are attached to a thin rubber hose... you drop the end of the hose into a 5 gallon (or whatever you've got- if you could find a way to make a livestock tub work, you probably wouldn't have to do anything else the rest of the summer!), put the cone into the soil of the pot, and it siphons a very slow rate of water continually to the plant.

There are also great self watering pots, which have a decent water reservoir in the bottom which holds up to several days worth of water.

EarthBoxes are great for container growing. But, they're way too expensive for my budget (and adding good potting soil/growing mix adds even more to the cost. However, once you get them set up, you're set for several years. I reuse the soil in mine, simply taking out a gallon or so, and adding that much compost back, mixing it in well.)

But I still can't afford the real EarthBoxes... so I found this site, and currently have made over a dozen of these:
http://www.josho.com/Earthbox.htm

You can innovate and play around with these.. instead of pond baskets, I used cheap colanders from the dollar store.

I have 6 of these lined up in my greenhouse, and they keep us in greens, spinach, beets, carrots all spring and again in the fall. Then they produce cucumbers, peppers and other goodies during the summer. Some are going into their third year, with no sign of UV deterioration yet.

Summerthyme