By Cindy Naas

Containers are the perfect option for city gardeners since they take up so little room.

Growing vegetables is a good enough reason to container garden, but if you want to make your garden do double duty, here are some ways to make your city garden look as great as the veggies will taste.

These plants and combinations will add a colorful splash to your garden:

1. ‘Bright Lights’ swiss chard - this is a beautiful plant. The stalks of chard come in orange, red, pink, cream and lavender and make a wonderful backdrop for pots of pansies. One of my favorite containers always has ‘Bright Lights’, some purple icicle pansies and some trailing green ivy. By the time we’ve eaten all the chard, it’s time to swap out the pansies for some hot weather flowers.

2. Tomatoes and marigolds - the marigold is a great Read the rest of this entry »

By Cindy Naas

Growing veggies in a container garden is a fun way to bring fresh produce to your table even if you live in the middle of a big city.

Thanks to Urban Garden Casual, you’ve got the secret recipe for mixing perfect container soil.

Here are some tips to make sure that your garden is everything you want it to be.

Size Matters

There are so many pretty pots to choose from when you go to your local nursery or home improvement store. But, are all pots created equal? Well, it depends. Read the rest of this entry »

By Cindy Naas

Even city gardeners with no gardens can grow wonderful fresh vegetables and flowers.

The trick is to collect an attractive assortment of pots and other containers. However, preparing your soil for use in pots is even more important to the success of your urban garden when using containers.

For the container gardener, getting the right mix of soil and amendments can be worth more than the elusive pot of gold- but luckily, also easier to find.

Plain Old Dirt?

The first impulse of someone new to container gardening is to spend a lot on an assortment of decorative pots and then go home, dig up some dirt and fill them.

Trust me, it doesn’t work, at least not well. Read the rest of this entry »