Hopkins speaks with BDN about container gardening
The Bangor Daily News interviewed Kathryn Hopkins, a University of Maine Cooperative Extension educator and professor, for the article, “A beginner’s guide to container gardening.” Growing crops and flowers in containers instead of in a traditional garden plot is easy to start, relatively inexpensive and space efficient, according to the article. It also provides more control over growing conditions. “In a container garden, you can more easily regulate the kind of soil you have and the amount of water it gets, and you can move them around so they can get sun,” Hopkins said. “Containers give you more flexibility in gardening.” Almost anything will grow in a container if it is given adequate room for its roots and leaves, but some plants will grow better than others, such as herbs, salad greens, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, beans, chard, beets, radishes, squash and cucumbers, the article states. “Some things just adapt better to container gardening,” Hopkins said. She also gave recommendations on how to start a container garden, including how to pick the right size container and provide adequate drainage. “There’s so many container options, and there are so many good plants that you can put in containers,” Hopkins said. “Everybody should have success.”