Table Of ContentMcGEE & STUCKEY’S
The BOUNTIFUL CONTAINER
A Container Garden of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers
________________
ROSE MARIE NICHOLS McGEE and MAGGIE STUCKEY
Illustrations by Michael A. Hill
WORKMAN PUBLISHING • NEW YORK
“Time spent working in your garden will not be deducted from
your life.”
—M. S.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In one sense, every gardener who came before us played a role in this book,
for the knowledge passed down through time from person to person is the
core of every garden book ever written. We acknowledge, with respect, our
debt to them all.
Three specific individuals are owed profound thanks for their help in this
project. Jim Gilbert, owner of both Northwoods Nursery (wholesale) and One
Green World (retail mail order), is a mine of knowledge about fruit trees; it is
our good fortune that he is also generous in sharing what he knows. Two
experienced gardeners and garden writers—Teri Dunn, who lives near Boston,
and Carolyn Clark, of Portland, Oregon—pitched in with valuable and much-
appreciated assistance. Thanks to all for your good information and good cheer.
Thanks, too, to the creative cooks who kindly shared their recipes: Walter
Chandoha, Rosalind Creasy, Thomas DeBaggio, Peter Kopcinski, Jan Roberts-
Dominguez, Bruce Naftaly, Carole Saville, and Renée Shepherd. And to Barbara
Blossom Ashmun of Portland, Oregon, author and garden designer, for her rosy
suggestions.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION: FROM OUR GARDENS TO YOURS
PART ONE:
YOU AND YOUR GARDEN
CHAPTER 1
MANAGING YOUR SPACE
CHAPTER 2
PLANNING FOR GOOD TASTE
CHAPTER 3
MAKING YOUR GARDEN BEAUTIFUL
PART TWO:
DOWN-TO-EARTH BASICS
CHAPTER 4
HARDWARE: CONTAINERS, TRELLISES, TOOLS, AND STORAGE
CHAPTER 5
SOFTWARE: SOIL, SEEDS, AND PLANTS
CHAPTER 6
KEEPING A HEALTHY GARDEN
PART THREE:
PLANTS FOR THE BOUNTIFUL CONTAINER
CHAPTER 7
VEGETABLES
BEANS
BEETS
CARROTS
CUCUMBERS
EGGPLANT
LEAFY GREENS
LETTUCE AND OTHER SALAD GREENS
ONION FAMILY: SCALLIONS, LEEKS, AND GREEN GARLIC
PEAS
PEPPERS
POTATOES
RADISHES
SPINACH AND SPINACH SUBSTITUTES
SQUASH
TOMATOES
CHAPTER 8
HERBS
BASIL
BAY
BORAGE
CHAMOMILE
CHERVIL
CHIVES
CILANTRO
DILL
FENNEL
FEVERFEW
LAVENDER
LEMONGRASS
LEMON VERBENA
MARJORAM
MINT
MONARDA
OREGANO
PARSLEY
ROSEMARY
SAFFRON CROCUS
SAGE
SALAD BURNET
SCENTED GERANIUMS
STEVIA
SWEET WOODRUFF
TARRAGON
THYME
CHAPTER 9
FRUITS
APPLES
BLUEBERRIES
CITRUS
CURRANTS AND GOOSEBERRIES
FIGS
GRAPES
PEACHES AND NECTARINES
STRAWBERRIES
CHAPTER 10
EDIBLE FLOWERS
BEGONIAS
CALENDULAS
CHRYSANTHEMUMS
DAYLILIES
DIANTHUS
MARIGOLDS
NASTURTIUMS
PANSIES, VIOLAS, AND VIOLETS
ROSES
SUNFLOWERS
TULIPS
APPENDIX
U.S.D.A. HARDINESS ZONE MAP
MAIL-ORDER SOURCES
INDEX
PREFACE
Several years ago my mother, Edith Nichols, attended a family wedding in
Greece. She returned home with many happy stories and descriptions of
fruiting gardens and fresh-picked figs served right from the tree. In
particular, she could hardly stop talking about her sister-in-law’s balcony
garden. In the heart of downtown Athens, my Aunt Athena was growing
three vigorous tomato plants, a few cucumbers, a small lemon tree, and
several herbs—all in containers. Whenever the mood struck, she could
simply step out onto the balcony and harvest the makings of a Greek salad,
absolutely fresh. What so amazed my mother was the productivity: “That
little space was feeding all those people!”
Inspired by Aunt Athena’s success, and mindful of the pleasure my mother
derived from it, the next summer we helped her plan a deck garden of her own.
She was a lifelong gardener, but arthritis had increasingly curtailed her activity
level. As a family project, we built a small garden on her deck, using containers
raised to a height that she could manage. Here she grew vegetables, herbs, and
colorful flowers, and even when the famous Oregon weather kept her inside, she
enjoyed the sight of her plants through the windows.
At my own home, I also have a deck garden set within a larger garden. On
and around the deck, I have containers of alpine strawberries, small-fruited
tomatoes, spicy peppers, and herbs. I cannot begin to count the meals our family
has enjoyed on that deck over the years, in the shelter of several large
evergreens, but I do remember the many times that we snapped off sprigs of
fresh herbs to add to the chickens on the grill or plucked a few more tomatoes
for the salad.
We also are fortunate to have an oversize yard, with plenty of space for all
kinds of gardening. We grow vegetables in several beds out back, and somehow
that always seemed to be the “serious” gardening. The plants on the deck, while
equally productive and healthy, seemed a more playful and personal expression
of the pleasures of gardening.
Then I met Maggie, a great gardener who was planting her new vegetable
garden in containers. She was determined to incorporate the best plant varieties
and gardening techniques in this endeavor. We had much to discuss.
—ROSE MARIE NICHOLS McGEE
Corvallis, Oregon POSTSCRIPT: In the spring of 1999, as we were beginning the
serious work on this book, my mother passed away, I wish that I could feel
philosophical about it, saying something profound about the cycle of life in all of
nature, but the fact is that I still miss her terribly. The small deck garden we built
for her still stands, and I will tend the plants as long as I can, until 1 pass it and
her house into the care of a new owner. —RMNM
About two years ago, for reasons that made sense at the time, I moved from a
house I had lived in for twenty-some years, with a garden I had nurtured and
loved for almost as long, into a condominium whose only garden space is a
concrete patio about the size of a picnic table. In my old garden I had spent most
of my time with herbs and vegetables, and in my new home I wasn’t about to
give that up, at least not without a fight. If I couldn’t have my “in-the-ground”
garden, I decided, I could do it all with containers.
My first instinct when starting a new venture is to head to the library, and
there I encountered my first difficulty: most books about container gardening
deal with flowers. Vegetables, if they are addressed at all, are accorded a skimpy
page or two, usually given over to tomatoes.
I was not deterred. I felt deep in my bones that much more was possible,
that indeed a full kitchen garden could be created with containers, if only we
gardeners could break free from this limited, tomato-based thinking.
At first, my results were underwhelming. I endured some old problems (the
slugs that are the bane of northwest gardeners managed to find their way from
my old garden to the new place) and made my share of new mistakes. Then, in a
wonderful piece of serendipity, I happened to cross paths with Rose Marie
Nichols McGee.
Rose Marie is president of Nichols Garden Nursery, one of America’s best
specialty seed companies, a business founded by her parents more than 50 years
ago. She is extraordinarily knowledgeable about vegetables and herbs, and
passionate about teaching the world to grow them. The day she agreed to
collaborate with me, two nice things happened: (1) my little patio garden moved
from a stubborn experiment to a reality, and (2) this book was born.
—MAGGIE STUCKEY
Portland, Oregon
INTRODUCTION
FROM OUR GARDENS TO YOURS
Imagine stepping outside in the early evening and filling a basket with the
ingredients of tonight’s salad: bronze-leaf and dark green Simpson lettuce,
arugula, and scallions, along with a few chives to garnish the soup. Picture
an early-summer Sunday picnic in the park. You’ll bring your famous
potato salad, made from tiny new red potatoes and sugar snap peas and
garnished with blaze-orange nasturtiums, and a big jug of lemonade
intensely flavored with lemon balm and spearmint—all from your garden.
Fast-forward in your mind’s eye to late summer, and the gazpacho you will
make from your homegrown vegetables: tomatoes so perfectly ripe they
practically hum, crunchy bell peppers, and sweet-crisp lemon cucumbers.
Wait just a minute, you may be thinking. That’s all well and good for you
country types, but I live in an apartment building. I’d love to have fresh
vegetables and herbs right at my fingertips, but all I have is a balcony so small I
can hardly turn around on it.
Do not despair. Even if your only “garden” space is tiny, we’re betting you
have room for at least one large container. And with that one container and a
little planning, you can do amazing things.
This is a book about growing good things to eat—vegetables, herbs, fruits,
and edible flowers—in containers. It may come as something of a new idea that
you can grow food on your balcony or patio, but stop and think for a moment: if
you can grow pansies in a pot, you can grow peas in a pot. Both need about the
same conditions, but one will give you dinner.
We wrote this book for everyone who aspires to have garden-fresh
foodstuffs but has no yard in which to grow them. If you live in an apartment,
town house, or condominium, or on a houseboat, you may be a container
gardener out of necessity. But we think this book will also be useful for those
whose traditional garden area is not well suited to growing vegetables. We
imagine, too, that even those with an existing vegetable garden might find it
