#27. Growing Vegetables in Grow-Bags
You may have the desire to grow vegetables, but feel that you can't for any number of reasons. One or more of these may sound familiar to you: the ground is paved, too much shade or there is no yard! Well there's always a way to grow vegetables, in containers, old buckets, discarded crates, kiddie pool, wooden box, the list is endless.
You may not have heard of this method of growing your vegetables – grow bags. Yes! The very bag you buy your compost or potting soil in can be turned into a receptacle for a vegetable plant. No building or effort needed to find a container. Simply leave the potting mix in the bag, cut some holes in the bottom and plant. Actually, you need to empty out all the potting mix, cut the holes and line them with small pieces of burlap (to prevent the soil from draining out of the holes), then put the soil back in the bag and get on with the planting.
Gardeners frequently use grow-bags, your basic plastic bag, filled with potting soil, to grow vegetables in. This solves the soil-borne pest problem quite well.
One grow bag measuring 13 by 37 inches will comfortably accommodate up to three vegetable plants in it. Each spring, break out the bags, fill up with potting soil and plant two or three vegetable plants in each one. You will have ample food for many summer meals from just your grow bags.
In earlier times, bags were used for planting, and alternative to planting directly into the greenhouse soil. Because the bags are not fixed into the soil, they can be moved and the problem of soil-borne diseases and pests is eliminated.
In gardening, to quote that old cliché, where there's a will there really is a way! Bags are still being used for growing plants in greenhouses, but you can use them to grow your vegetables in. Place the bags in a nice sunny spot and watch your veggies grow!
Let us take an example of a vegetable you can grow in a bag.
Everybody's favorite – the potato. Buy one bag of organic potting soil, cut the drainage holes in the underneath of the bag as discussed earlier. Put the bag in a tray and put the tray in the spot where you plan to grow the potatoes. You can leave the bag outside for as long as the weather is warm.
Cut open the top of the bag and put in two small potatoes. Push them about four inches into the soil. Fertilize the bag every few weeks and make sure the soil is moist but not soggy. You can harvest your potatoes once the flowers bloom.