With food costs rising these days, it might be worth planting a few vegetables in a garden, the landscape, or possibly in containers. I don’t have much space for a garden in my little yard, so I put a few items in the ground and a few in containers. I can move the containers around the yard to find just the right spot with plenty of sun for the plants to grow best. If I put at least one where I have to see it every day I’ll remember to water them as the heat of the summer arrives.

The problem with putting containers with vegetables in the front yard is that everyone can see what is growing. The positive thing though is by having them out front, it forces me to notice when the plants aren’t looking their best when I come and go, so I do something about it.

One thing that I can do is keep a spare already potted container in the back of the house that I can bring around to freshen up the look from time to time. Succession planting helps as well. Succession planting is planting a new crop every two to three weeks so that when one pot of string beans is petering out, I can bring another container around that is just coming into production. The same can be done with summer squash and determinant tomato crops as well. Some crops like peppers and okra should look good throughout the growing season.