Dian Farmer Learning To Grow Our Own Food

  • Start Here
  • Home
  • Soil And Mulch Calculators
  • DIY Gardening Sprays
  • Indoor Gardening
  • Container Gardening
  • Hydroponics
  • Raised Bed Gardening
  • Vermicomposting
  • About Me
You are here: Home / Gardening / Growing Vegetables In Potting Soil Bags!

Growing Vegetables In Potting Soil Bags!

in Gardening, Raised Bed Gardening on 02/13/19

Post may contain affiliate links. Click to read Disclosure . Click to read Privacy Policy.
Growing Vegetables In Potting Soil Bags!  It doesn't get much easier!  For a beginner, novice, or pro, this is a great option.  Gardening right out of the potting soil bag saves space, less mess, growing lettuce and other vegetables has never been so simple!

Growing Vegetables In Potting Soil Bags

For the last 2 years I’ve had a really hard time growing vegetables, I can grow herbs like crazy in the garden, but the veggies seem to fall prey to every insect, disease, and anything else that comes along.

You might also like: How To Grow An Herb Garden

How To Grow An Herb Garden

I talked to someone who has been around here for eons and runs a nursery nearby and he said that the land we live on used to be a cow pasture, so, I said “great it should be wonderful.”, He said “no, before they built on it they scraped all the land” and he said “I don’t know what they brought in, but, they did bring in some kind of land filler and put it in on top of what was left after they scraped it”. So, he said he has no idea what my soil is made of, …great.

I now know it’s clay soil… ugh – so growing directly in my “land” is not an option, and amending my “land” is also cost prohibitive. So, that means I need to do container gardening. Whether that means pots, bags, raised beds, or even growing vegetables in bags of soil, that’s what I need to do.

What I do know is I’m frustrated with it this year.  The first year we built a raised bed garden for a brand called Ecoscraps.  They sent us their products to use, and they did okay, still not ok for the vegetables, but, it worked very well for herbs. 

It was not them, it was us, for sure.  Now, I will say the tomatoes grew okay, basically the cherry tomatoes grew like weeds, the other tomatoes didn’t grow so well.

Ecoscraps Garden

Last year I tried planting directly into the ground behind the raised garden. I dug out an area, added potting soil thinking that would make the perfect soil, and planted in-ground but, it ended up the same as the year before.

The veggies did eh… and the herbs grew like wildfire, as did the cherry tomatoes.  I had squash vine borers kill my squash, I had whiteflies and grasshoppers up the wazoo, I had tomato hornworms that would eat whole tomatoes!  I had all sorts of pests, I tried everything and was unsuccessful at controlling it.

So, this year I decided to try a few different things I saw online.  My daughter found a few, my mom found a few, and friends wanted me to try some things they saw.  So, this year I have bought a few garden planters for the front porch and those are doing very well.

I found a couple of out of the box ways of growing things and am trying some of those this year.  I’m happy, so far, with the results, not thrilled, but, I’ll take it.  They’re actually growing, they’re green, they’re happy, but, not producing much fruit.

Growing Vegetables In Potting Soil Bags!  It doesn't get much easier!  For a beginner, novice, or pro, this is a great option.  Gardening right out of the potting soil bag saves space, less mess, growing lettuce and other vegetables has never been so simple!

I want to share what I’m doing so that it might help someone else.  Now I will also say I don’t have a lot of room, so you’ll see that the things that I’m trying don’t take up a lot of space. 

I’ve chosen some cheap ways of doing things to make it easier, because, I can see in a heartbeat how you can really rack up the dollars trying to make a great garden that will produce well.  But, if you go that route it could take a few years for you to make your money back.

You might also like: How to Amend Raised Garden Bed Soil For Growing Successfully

How to Amend Raised Garden Bed Soil For Growing Successfully

Here is one way of planting that someone found online.  It showed how to use a bag of potting soil to plant in.  For soil bag planting, you lay the bag flat, and cut the front off and plant directly into the bag laying flat. 

Planting vegetables in bags of soil sounds perfect… what could go wrong? You’re using nothing but perfect potting soil and water. But, there are a few considerations you need to think about before you start your soil bag garden. Such as what depth your particular vegetables will need for their roots… a bag of potting soil isn’t deep, at all.

What I saw growing in it was lettuce, I wasn’t able to do lettuce this year, the time for planting it had passed.  Where I buy my seedlings didn’t have lettuce until it was too late to plant.  My friend, Ann over at Ann’s Entitled Life tried it, and is growing tons lettuce out of the bags, hers are beautiful!  —>  Take a look!

Growing Vegetables In Potting Soil Bags!  It doesn't get much easier!  For a beginner, novice, or pro, this is a great option.  Gardening right out of the potting soil bag saves space, less mess, growing lettuce and other vegetables has never been so simple!

What I did instead was plant peppers and cucumbers, and now I’ve been told (and I should have researched to begin with), that the peppers and cucumbers need deeper planters for the roots to grow. It’s been a slow start, but, they’re doing okay. So, you’ll definitely want to research what vegetables you can grow in bags before you start.

Growing Vegetables In Potting Soil Bags!  It doesn't get much easier!  For a beginner, novice, or pro, this is a great option.  Gardening right out of the potting soil bag saves space, less mess, growing lettuce and other vegetables has never been so simple!

When you plant your seeds or seedlings in soil bags, once you cut the front of the bag off, you also want to punch small holes underneath the bag.  Not so much that the soil falls out, but, where the water can drain and then you want to put that bag on something that will allow for drainage, and hold the weight.

I looked online with a friend of mine and we found some very expensive ways to do that, tables with grates, and other things that were very expensive.  I don’t have patience for waiting to get something like that, and I certainly don’t want to spend that kind of money on an experiment like this.

So, I looked in the shed and I found an old huge, hard plastic dog crate and I thought I could lay the bag on top of the dog crate.  It was the perfect size and could hold the weight, plus the perfect height to keep the bag up off the ground up so, I won’t have to worry that grasshoppers, hopefully, that was a big concern of mine.

It’s not pretty but it got the job done, with the added plus of me not having to bend to tend to it. Those are definitely some of the considerations you’ll need to take into account when you choose this sort of no dig planting. No dig beds for growing produce can work well as long as you do your homework before you start.

Growing Vegetables In Potting Soil Bags!  It doesn't get much easier!  For a beginner, novice, or pro, this is a great option.  Gardening right out of the potting soil bag saves space, less mess, growing lettuce and other vegetables has never been so simple!
It’s not very pretty but, it does the trick!

Then I found an old metal shelving system that my mom had asked me to put in the shed that she wasn’t using anymore.  So I got one of those shelves out and sat it on top of the dog house and that raised the potting soil bag up just a couple of inches which was perfect for the drainage.

Growing Vegetables In Potting Soil Bags!  It doesn't get much easier!  For a beginner, novice, or pro, this is a great option.  Gardening right out of the potting soil bag saves space, less mess, growing lettuce and other vegetables has never been so simple!

So, you see you don’t need to spend a lot of money to do the things that you see online, just look around, think outside the box make it happen. This was the easiest way I found for growing vegetables in bags. I would have to call it quick and easy bag gardening!

Growing Vegetables In Potting Soil Bags!  It doesn't get much easier!  For a beginner, novice, or pro, this is a great option.  Gardening right out of the potting soil bag saves space, less mess, growing lettuce and other vegetables has never been so simple!

Take a look:

Growing Vegetables In Potting Soil Bags! It doesn't get much easier! For a beginner, novice, or pro, this is a great option. Gardening right out of the potting soil bag saves space, less mess, growing lettuce and other vegetables has never been so simple!

You can also find gardening products I use in my videos here <---

I now have an Amazon Influencer’s storefront. I put the products I use, in my posts and Youtube Gardening videos, there. Shopping there is free and the site gets a percentage of sales. Thanks!

You can go to my storefront using this secure link <----

If you need seeds, this is the company I use <--- and if you use code: farmer1 at checkout, you'll get 10% off your order!

Helpful Gardening Tips You Can Use:

  • What Herbs Can Grow Together Well?
  • DIY Bug Spray For Indoor Plants
  • How Much Soil For Potted Plants Is Too Much?
  • How To Keep Critters Out Of Gardens
  • Soil For Raised Beds Can Easily Be Amended
  • These True Low Light Houseplants Are Great For Those Darker Areas
  • How To Grow Food For Your Family
  • Have You Ever Seen Sunburn On Tomato Leaves?
  • DIY Vermicompost Bin
  • Vegetable Gardening Apps

Add a Comment

« How To Grow An Herb Garden! Growing Fresh Herbs Is Simple And Healthy!
7 Homemade Bug Sprays For Indoor Plants! »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Hi! I'm Dian, a wife of 20+ years, Mom to 4 grown kids, and "Nana" to 5. I LOVE reality shows & vegetable gardening & talking about both. I am currently pursuing my Master Gardener Certification.... Read more about Dian & Learning To Grow Your Own Food.

How Much Soil Do I Need?

How Much Mulch Do I Need?

Visit Us On TwitterVisit Us On FacebookVisit Us On YoutubeVisit Us On PinterestCheck Our FeedVisit Us On Instagram

What’s New Here:

Potato Beetle: How To Identify & Chemically Free Control Them

Garden Edging Ideas

How To Get Rid Of Earwigs

Basil Growing & Plant Care From Seed To Harvest & More

Garden Furniture Ideas

Lavender: Propagating, Growing, Harvesting, & Uses

Canna Lily: Everything You Need to Know

Rosemary: Propagating, Growing, Harvesting, & Uses

How To Attract Birds To Your Garden

Leaf Miners: How To Identify & Get Rid Of Them

Featured On

  • AFN
  • All You
  • CBS
  • Holly Homer Live
  • Huffpost
  • LCFG
  • NBC
  • NQS
  • PRNetwork
  • Project You
  • Savings
  • Supermarket News
  • Thread MB
  • UT Arlington
  • ValPak
  • Womens Money
  • CBS DFW
  • NBC5
  • Daily Moss
  • Raised Bed Gardening
  • Container Gardening
  • Hydroponic Gardening
  • Herb Gardening
  • Garden Pests
  • Shop

Copyright © 2021 · glam theme by Restored 316

© 2014 - 2020 Dian Farmer All Rights Reserved. No content on this site may be copied and reused in any form or fashion without express written permission. Privacy Policy

  • Disclosure Policy
  • PR Info And Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Me