Growing veg in containers - what containers?

[dippica]

I have big plans to create a raised veg plot for next year (by taking down the kids playhouse = they're getting too big for it now ) but for now I want to just try a few things - carrots, radishes, a few lettuces.

I don't really want to faff about with the small round pots I have, as I won't be able to grow much. I have a small garden with no spare bed space, but room for containers on the patio and by the side of the path.

Can anyone reccommend a rectangular container (hopefully plastic- cheaper) which might work - I'm hoping for something at least as big as a growbag, so I can maybe grow two rows of carrots or whatever in it. How deep would it have to be? I guess it would need draining holes, but I could drill those in....?
Any ideas would be gratefully received.

hello I am growing spinich, lettuce , cherry tomatoes and aubergines this year in containers. I went to Squires and got two plastic containers 26" x 11" which were £11.99 for 2. It's also 10" deep but doesn't need to be that deep, if you look at growbags they are usually only about 5" deep.
Not sure you can do carrots in containers tho.

We grow our stuff in anything at all that holds compost - leeks in wellies, strawberries in the old shoes and slippers, lettuce in buckets, cucumber up an old bed frame, peppers in paint tins. It looks a bit Steptoe but the veg grow well.

I lied.
www.vegetable-garden-guide.com/how-to-grow-carrots.html

I also saw a brilliant thing the other day - lettuces planted in old hessian sacks filled with compost. And the lettuces weren't just at the top, but they'd cut holes all the way down, so it was like a strawberry planter.

I know you can do potatoes in a bucket - not sure about carrots, as I don't know how many you'd get in. But a sack might do it!

Rocket and other cut and come again lettuces like that are brilliant - they grow really well in a container (like weeds) and are quick to germinate.

i used to grow carrots in old wine boxes with holes drilled in the bottom. nice and deep and look good too. Whatever you use carrots like fine-grained well drained soil. So make sure there are plenty of holes in the bottom and mix a bit of sand in with the compost.

and slugs LOVE carrot seedlings - the eat them so quick you don't even know they've germinated.

Thanks for the ideas folks, have to go to school, but will look again later...

I put in some link-a-bord raised beds last year - not cheap, esp the ton of topsoil I had to buy to put in them (bought compost not as good). I'm really pleased with them, but before that I had several plastic pots from places like B&M and Instore - about £2-3 each.
The rectangular one-about 3 foot long will take 3 tomato plants. The size depends on the size veg you want to grow - ie don't buy carrots that grow really long! Absolutely any container will do for salad crops like cut-and-come-again, even one on a window-sill inside! Radishes are also v easy.
My local B&M was selling big plastic round containers for toys which you could use - they probaply won't last that long as that type of plastic will eventually crack in sunlight, but should do at least a couple of years. They were about 2 ft diameter, very deep and about £4, as were some rubber trugs.
I use old 60l compost bags or large dog food bags to grow potatoes - really easy and you can use any compost from yr garden - Homebase are selling off potato tubers atm really cheap - ready chitted!

Just had an idea - you mentioned drilling, which means your're handy at that sort of thing...unlike me . How about making containers from old wood pallets and lining them with plastic?? Just a thought.
I have already done a lot of research on potato planters etc and they're all really expensive...hence back to the compost bags which work fine (she says after nipping out into the garden to see the green tips emerging from home-groen compost and gives herself a mental pat on the back!!)

Thanks for the link to growing carrots in containers - never thought it would work so well - now i know what to do with my free carrot seeds!

I use old tyres,but mine are in a polytunnel and not 'on display' as it were.You can fit a lot of plants in an old tractor tyre and the edges are comfy to sit/kneel on too.

Trough type pots are good, well we like them. I just stab the bottom with a knife and twist it round...

Tell myou what is AMAZING. That water reatianing crystals/gel stuff. You shove some in your compost [about a spoonful per tub] and it takes in lots of water and you don't have to water as often.

We have a concrete yard that we now have loads of pots of all differnet sizes and a little reasied bed we cobbled together last year. We grow spuds, carrots, peas, beans, courgette.... herbs, gooseberries and rasps.... bit experimental though!

You can grow carrots in most tubs tha are kind of carrot length in depth..

Ooooooh.... leeks in weelies - cool!

Libras - thanks for that container carrot link - you've inspired me and kiddies carrots are now growing in a pot in my garden! Thankyou.