Best Container Gardening Kits

Container Gardening has become a very popular hobby recently. Everything you need to make your garden grow comes in a kit. So how well do these gardens grow? How long does it take to build a garden from a box? Well, that depends.

Some of the kits you had to buy the wood," says Kathleen Huddy, Textiles Director, Good Housekeeping Institute. "Some of the kits you had to buy the potting soil. But, other than that, everything was there for you.

So its just a matter of figuring out how all of the parts are put together. Most of the kits were very easy to do. Basically following the directions they werent that difficult," says Huddy.

The Good Housekeeping testers evaluated the ease of use in building the kits and watched to see how well the seeds took root inside the Good Housekeeping Institute. The best product for small spaces turned out to be the vertical, EzGro Outdoor Hydroponic Kit. It was very easy to assemble.

We liked the fact that it was vertical," says Huddy. "It could be used in a small space. On a terrace, lets say, you could get a lot of plants in it. It had an interesting drainage system for watering so that the plants wouldnt drown or rot in the special growing media.

The best vegetable garden was the 4 by 4 foot Gardens Alive! Organic Garden kit.

You could place it anywhere in your yard, even on top of grass, and it had a barrier that prevented the grass or weeds from coming through," says Huddy. "It came with a variety of organic vegetable seeds and it came with compost and fertilizer and the wire grid for your climbing vegetables.

For a fast way to add color to your deck or patio, the Good Housekeeping Institute recommends decorative kits from Jackson & Perkins. They come with a pre-selected flower assortment. You just add the soil. The Jackson & Perkins kits are real deals. If you bought the supplies separately, youd pay over $100. But the Jackson & Perkins kits cost about $60 and $80 each.

For more gardening tips, check out the March issue of Good Housekeeping or visit www.goodhousekeeping.com.