Share your seed order! For the container/apartment/urban gardeners...

[Pariah]

I need to decide what we're going to (hopefully) grow...I am gathering up pots and containers and I can't wait to start! So, for those who garden in containers, apartments, and/or urban settings...inspire me! What seeds have you ordered? What are you looking forward to growing?

[kitchensqueen]

I'm doing all of my growing this year in containers. I'm doing tomatoes, zucchini, miniature pumpkins, scallions, cucumbers, fingerling potatoes, strawberries, various herbs, and sweet peppers. I'm also going to add a couple of dwarf blueberries and maybe some columnar apple trees or other fruit.

[revolting]

I'd love some help with coming up with some gardening plans. I live in a large apartment complex. I was thinking about doing some window box gardens. The windows have a good southern exposure. The catch is that we are moving at the beginning of August (and I'm not sure if I could convince my husband to move the garden!) and I live in zone 5a (well, some people say 6b because of the lake effect). I'd be up for growing flowers, but my heart is in growing food. Any suggestions on what to grow, good resources to learn about food growing in window boxes? I've never done this.

[kitchensqueen]

There is a ton of stuff you can grow in window box gardens. I've also moved in the middle of a growing season, and I've got to tell you - it's a huge pain. I moved containers with tomatoes, sweet peppers and lettuce one summer. They're heavier than they look and it takes some special packing consideration, but it can be done. We staked the plants and then wrapped them in a tube of flexible cardboard (open at the top) and moved them in a car.

You should grow what you like to eat best. Salad gardens are the easiest and you want to look for container-friendly varieties. You could do several kinds of lettuce, scallions, various greens (arugula, baby bok choi), determine (non-vining) tomatoes, peppers, ball-type carrots - really, you can grow almost anything in containers. I push Pinetree Garden Seeds like nobody's business, but they're just that good. They have a whole section in their catalog dedicated to container-friendly veggies.

There are a lot of great resources out there for container/small space gardening. Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew is a great book and The Bountiful Container is pretty good too. The Chicago Public Library has both of them, and I actually found my copy of SFG at a used bookstore.

[Ldavis24]

Ha I just posted in the other thread about this. Another container gardener not by choice though.

I just placed my seed order and went very conservative this year as we travel a lot and whoever will be watering for us I didn't want them to feel over burdened. 

I ordered from Baker Creek.

2 varieties of Basil. I will do a ton of basil to make pesto and dry it as well.

Chives

Dill

Parlsey

Oregano

Thyme

Several varieties of tomato

2 Varieties of strawberry

Several varieties of hot peppers.

Nothing fancy really. Tomatoes are the number one next to the basil as I make batches of homemade sauce all summer long.

My biggest issue is soil. I am going to have a lot of containers and the thought of having purchase so much soil is not pleasant. This is really the first time I will try full scale container gardening, I always used to just stick with a few herbs because I could actually dig in the ground.

[revolting]

So ladies, I finally figured out what I want to plant: strawberries, pansies, parsley, beets, broccoli, cilantro, chives, spinach, and basil. My four year old insisted that we grow fruit and flowers. The rest I chose. Thanks for all the info, kitchensqueen. I'm thinking about using a brick and mortar for seeds.

[Rani]

Thanks for asking this question OP. I too live in Chicago - well, Evanston actually and would like to try a garden again. We have been moving alot and finally settled down I hope.  I will check out the places PPs suggested. Also, I too am a bit overwhelmed by the soil choices. What is the best to start with for salad veggie type containers.