Veggies on the verandah

They are being sold in garden centres in seedling trays or pots and are generally identified as “patio veggies”.

Even where one has the luxury of a garden, growing in containers makes it easier to control the soil, light, water and fertilizer.

A good starter crop for the patio is the “simply salad” mix that takes all the hard work out of growing a mixed salad. Each pot contains a mix of greens that is immediately ready for harvest or will be within a week or two. The leaves can be cut back to 5cm and will re-grow several times during the summer.

There is an “alfresco” mix of red green leaf lettuces with rocket, endive and radicchio, a “city garden” mix consisting of red and green lettuces and a “global gourmet mix” that combines red and green leaf lettuces with spicy Asian greens. A “simply herbs” mix has been added to the range and one has the choice between basil, dill, parsley, sage and thyme. Regular harvesting will keep the plants under control or else one can repot them individually.

Everybody loves tomatoes and for pots the best varieties are the “determinate” (bush type) varieties that grow to a certain size and then stop. If you can, buy seedlings rather than trying to start your tomatoes from seed.

There are three new varieties that can also be grown in large hanging baskets. “Tumbler” has a graceful, cascading habit and is very productive, producing up to 2.7 kg of sweet and tasty, red cherry tomatoes, 3cm in diameter. “Tumbling Tom” is a determinate variety that produces high yields of very sweet, yellow cherry tomatoes and takes 75 days to produce pickable fruit. “Rambling red stripe” has unusual striped tomatoes. It cascades up to 60 cm in baskets and containers and takes 68 days to maturity.

Be sure to offer plenty of light and monitor moisture, because plants in baskets, as well as containers, can dry out faster than those planted in the ground.

Cucumbers are generally not grown in pots, but “patio snacker” is a well branched, short, vine variety for growing in large containers with small trellises. This fast-growing plant produces early, continuous high yields of 20 cm long dark green fruit with good flavour and a nice crunch.

The greatest challenge of growing cucumbers, and any other veggie, in containers is watering, since the soil dries out faster in pots than in the ground.

A larger volume of soil won’t dry out as fast, so choose the biggest pot you can.

Make sure the container has holes so excess water can drain away from the soil.

A lovely new introduction is a mini sweet pepper, with a small apple shape called “cute stuff” and has red or gold fruit. Although it is a mini, it produces up to three times more than other peppers.

Those who like hot stuff can look out for “La Bomba”, a strong, upright growing Jalapeno-type capsicum that has large, dark green fruit with a medium heat. It can be eaten fresh and used for “poppers.”