Not everybody is blessed with a house and garden plot or lives in the country with access to farming land, so the option for a garden leave alone a kitchen garden, is a fairly remote one. But, if you put on your thinking cap, you can have a fresh and economical option of growing your own veggies in the privacy of your home – by using cost-effective gardening containers for growing vegetables from seeds and seedlings bought from the local nursery or even ordered from a mail-order or online catalogue.

For those that live in flats and hostels, the need to grow their own vegetables may be limited due to space constraints, but the readily available gardening containers in many different sizes and materials make having a kitchen garden less of a dream and more of a possibility for people with the smallest budget. There are also a variety of indoor gardening plants and vegetables you can bring for your home cooking needs, which only require a few hours of sunlight that they can have access to while hung in the balcony or even in your window-sill planter box. These include herbs, peppers, bush beans, salad greens, bush and cherry tomatoes and baby carrots.

Of course, depending on the vegetable variety you do purchase and the size they grow to, you will need to purchase a planter pot that is ready for holding the full-sized plant, so choose with care. For example, tomatoes are grown one per pot while a big size pot can hold 3-4 pepper plants besides basil herb around it in small quantity. This is typical of 5 gallon pots.

Other containers you can use for your gardening needs include tubs, buckets and barrels cut in half (distillery ones) ranging from 5 to 15 liters. However, you need to keep in mind that if you are also intending to plant herbs in addition to the vegetables in the pots, you need to ascertain that the ones you buy are at least 10 inches in diameter so spring onions, for example, planted in the pot, also hold space for rosemary or thyme.

You need to also invest in a drainage tray (even plastic ones will do) that will allow for proper leaching from time to time so the pots get enough water, sunlight and there is a measure for extra water to leak out too. Do remember to line the bottom of the pot with some pieces of rocks or broken crockery besides a few layers of newspaper before putting in potting soil to prevent the fine soil from seeping out from the drainage holes.

Use well-rotted compost, adequate potting soil till an inch or two below the rim, water plants regularly and also give plant food twice as often as outdoor plants would need as dehydration occurs more rapidly for indoor plants.

Many of us would like to grow our own herbs and vegetables but have a limited amount of space. I am here to tell you that it can be easily done with the right equipment. Growing vegetables in containers is not as strange as it seems and there are many people doing it successfully. Many of the vegetables we buy from our local store can be grown in pots or containers as long as they are large enough for the right plant. Larger containers are needed for items like carrots or cabbages. While the smaller sized pots will grow herbs and baby vegetables.

If your space is limited then you could grow your herbs and vegetables amongst your flowers, use a small patch in your garden, a corner of the patio or your window sill would make an ideal location. So there is no excuse to not at least try to grow your own.

Below is a list of some herbs and vegetables that can be easily grown in pots or containers and there is a lot more.

Spinach Runner Beans Baby beetroot Cherry Tomatoes Onions Chard Turnips Asparagus Dwarf beans Carrots Celery Artichokes Squash Courgettes Cucumber

You can use almost any container to grow your vegetables as long as they are cleaned properly. If they contain any chemicals like paint use the appropriate cleaner. The idea sized containers should have troughs as deep as 20cm/8", if space is not too limited. While pots with an average diameter size of 15cm/6" are particularly good for small vegetables like spring onions, radish or Cherry Tomatoes. To grow herbs you only need small pots with a diameter that can be as small as 8cm/3". These are ideally suited to the window sill.

Here is a list of suitable containers that you can get you hands on for free and a few you may have to purchase.

Glass/ Plastic Jars Paint Pots Old Fruit and vegetables containers Old Household Bins Cooking Oil Drums (Catering size) Hanging baskets Terracotta pots Wooden pots/boxes Grow bags

Grow-bags are ideal for growing plants such as squash, courgettes and cucumber, you know the trailing kind. There are special grow bag supports for tomatoes and/or peppers if the cordon variety is being used.

Any container maybe used as long as it has drainage holes at the bottom so that the soil/compost can breathe and does not get waterlogged. A good mix soil and compost will keep everything as light as possible and help with aeration.

Your window sill is an idea place to grow and it will give the necessary sunlight for most vegetables and herbs. Some may need a break in the amount of sunlight as it may damage them. For more information check out the link below and go green.