How to Grow Vegetables on Your Deck

Whether you live in an apartment or just have pesky wild animals that like to munch on your garden, you can grow your own vegetables on a deck or terrace.

Large pots

Tall stakes

Good topsoil

Seeds or young plants of the vegetables of your choice

Small garden shovel

Choose which vegetables you want to grow in your deck garden. Good choices include vegetables that grow above the ground and don't need deep earth to expand their roots in. For example, tomatoes and peppers are great deck vegetables while potatoes and carrots will not do well. Remember to consider how much sun your plants will be getting on your deck and choose plants that will thrive in that particular level of sunlight.

Decide whether you are going to start your plants from seeds or buy established plants. Seeds can be started indoors before your last frost to get a head start.

Consider how many pots of vegetables you can comfortably fit on your deck. You don't want to crowd the pots next to each other because when the plants mature they could overshadow each other and be competing for sunlight.

Fill your pots with a good garden soil. Many soils contain plant food that lasts for up to 3 months and will eliminate any need for fertilization.

Put your plants into the soil well after the last frost of the season. Remember to water them as often as they need. While weeds will be much less of a problem in your deck garden, some will still make their way in due to seeds being blown through the air. Be sure to pick out weeds whenever you water your plants.

Add stakes to your vegetable pots when your plants grow to over a foot high. Since your plants can't spread out horizontally you need to give them stakes to climb. Heavy plants can be held loosely onto stakes with garden wire or even twist ties.

Pick your vegetables as soon as they are ready. Picking your vegetables regularly will make way for new ones to grow. Tomatoes can be picked slightly before they are ready and ripened on a window sill.