New to forum and also new to gardening

[green_newbie]

I'm new to this forum but I've been reading over the site for the past few days and thought this would be the best place to help me with my gardening questions.

First, I am not a gardener AT ALL. LOL I have simply grown tired of the high price of food and also the way it is grown as well as the condition it is in when my wife and I go shopping. The only thing is our soil is poor and my thumb is about as green as frosty the snowman's.

I recently began reading about container gardening as well as upside down gardening and organic gardening. I remembered that I had 4 new mop buckets in the garage (I'm guessing they are around 2 gallon, they are 10 inches across and 10 inches deep). I thought that they might work for container gardening and so I bought a couple of bags of Organic Choice potting soil. I want to do this using only organic techniques, kind of like an experiment... just to see if anyone can do it.

A friend of ours mentioned a few tips such as spraying plants with Canola oil for pest control. Also, using our daily coffee grounds and crunched up, cleaned eggs shells in the soil (as well as the tea grounds from the bags we use about once a week). I figured I would add all of the grounds and shells to an empty container and use it regularly. I know it would be good for some plants but not others.

I also thought about adding to the container our used fruit and vegetable leftovers like maybe a banana peel (would you perhaps throw it in a blender first). Or maybe collecting all of the water from when we cook vegetables and using it to water the plants. Would that be good ideas or not?

Do you think 2 gallon buckets will be big enough or should I buy bigger ones? Also, since I only have 4 buckets, which seeds should I use first (I can always buy more buckets later) and would it be better to plant on top or try upside down?

I have gathered all of the seed packets I can find that we have somehow managed to collect over the last year or two but which ones would be best to try in containers? The seeds I have are...

(I'll just type what I'm reading off of the front of each including name and also other info)
1. Contender Garden Bean/Productive Bush Bean
2. Romano Garden Bean/Italian Broad Bean-Pole Type
3. Dark Green Zucchini Squash/High Yielding
4. Early Dawn Hybrid Cauliflower/Early To Harvest
5. Prizehead Lettuce/Bronze Leaf
6. Chantenay Red Cored Carrot/Best For Poor Soil
7. Correnta Hybrid Spinach/Heat-Tolerant Variety
8. Large Delicious Tomato/Large 1-2 Lb (probably too big to use)
9. Italian Roma Tomato
10. Poinsett 76 Cucumber/High Yields
11. Purple Top White Globe Turnip
12. Waltham Butternut Squash
13. Lettuce-Bon Vivant Blend
14. Sweet Italian Basil

Which ones would do best in a 2 gallon container or maybe even upside down (I know tomatoes do)?

I also have some Cantaloupe and Jack O' Lantern that I may try in the yard somewhere.

So, which ones would be best for the size containers I have... or should I buy bigger ones? I hear that if you use a 5 gallon you can do both upside down and regular in the same container.

Or did I wait too late to start, like I said I am new to this.

-Joey

[rainbowgardener]

Re did you wait too long to start? I suspect in North Carolina it is a bit late for starting the cold weather stuff. That would be the cauliflower, lettuces and spinach, though since yours is a heat tolerant variety you could give it a try. Later in the season you could start the cold weather stuff for a fall crop.

Otherwise you should be fine, especially since you have a long season and fall frost comes late.

The two gallon buckets are a bit small for most things, but they should be fine for the basil and other herbs if you want to do some more herbs. 5 gallon buckets like paint comes in would be better for most of what you want. You could plant a zucchini or a cucumber in one of the two gallon ones if you have a way to put it next to a trellis so the the vine can grow vertically.

If you type upside-down tomatoes or topsy turvy tomatoes into the Search the Forum Keyword box, you will find a number of threads here about them. Most people that have written in here about it, have not had much success growing tomatoes that way. I haven't seen much written about trying to grow other things upside down. One person did write in that was growing a pepper plant upside down. The plant was not doing well, but it was not clear whether that was due to the upside down, or to other factors.

You probably know, but just in case, don't forget to put a lot of drainage holes in your buckets!

[Green Mantis]

The bucket you are putting your vegetable waste etc. in, will need some Red Wriggler worms, to get in there and have them work it into soil for you. Having worm bins, and learning about them is lots of fun!!! Lots of posts on the Compost site about worm bins. Have fun, gardening is extremely addictive Welcome to a Great site too.

[SP8]

This is how I used to set up my buckets:
https://veggie-might-sp8.blogspot.com/2009/10/making-self-watering-containers-out-of.html

[GardenNut101]

Hi, I'm from the UK and I'm not sure whether you have a problem with slugs and snails in North Carolina - but if you do, then you might want to try some copper tape around your pots - slugs and snails really like courgette (zucchini) and I've found it's the only way to actually get any courgettes.

One year the slugs and snails ate every single one.

You also need to make sure the leaves don't touch the ground - otherwise the slugs climb up those instead of the pot.

Otherwise, they make great plants - big but productive so it's a good thing to start off with.

They do need lots of watering.