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Curly Kale
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It’s that time of year. Kids are getting out of school, Farmer’s Markets are starting up and temperatures are turning toward the smolder of summer. Some of us have put in gardens for summer and some of us are late. This post is targeted at the third group: those that don’t feel they can grow their own produce. Regardless of reason, in gardening I believe ‘where there is a will there is a way’. There has been a trend over the last few years back to gardening. I’m sure the economy and rising gas prices is a major influencer though there is something wholesome and satisfying to growing your own food which can’t be fully described.
Having said that not everyone is in a situation that makes putting in a garden obvious or even possible. This is not intended as a gardening primer but more to offer options that might help get over the hump for any wavering with a desire to give it a go.
Over the past years I’ve experimented with different methods of gardening with great success. I wanted to share those for the sake of any of you wishing you could do it be feeling obstruction in your path for why you can’t.
CONTAINER GARDENING
Any vegetable can be grown in a container (even corn if you plant enough in the right type of container to facilitate pollination). I have grown tomatoes, pumpkins, strawberries, onions, peppers, carrots, lettuce and so much more in pots with great success. It is a great solution for small spaces, apartments, condos, really anywhere. There are many great books about this specific subject. With the internet now all information can be found online by simply searching. You merely need to decide what you want to grow and apply some thought to the plant’s need for light, warmth, water and mature size. Things to consider:
· Depending on what you want to grow you need to consider the pot size. A dainty starter tomato would never let on that it could grow 8 feet tall potentially depending on its type. Look online or talk to your local nursery about your goals to start with an appropriate pot.
· Consider your soil. I’ve been guided when using pots to use half Top Soil and half Compost. It provides a richer medium and good drainage (you don’t want your plant sitting in soggy soil).
· Consider your light exposure. Different plants have different light and temperature needs. They are generally divided between cool and warm weather plants. Warm weather plants which most areas are planting now (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants) like warmth and light. They would be most happy with an exposure affording them a good amount of both heat and light during the day. Saucers with rollers on them can be purchased at most garden supply stores so you can move the plant around as well.
· Some plants will require support when growing larger. Tomatoes generally need to be staked or have a cage put on them (both available at the garden supply store or online), beans will need to be given a pole or trellis to climb. All doable in a pot.
· If you live in an apartment with no access to outdoor space (a porch, front walkway, roof space, deck) but have a sunny exposure you can always have pots of herbs or vegetables indoors. With vegetables it is trickier but still achievable.
SQUARE FOOT GARDENING
Though I live in a house I have limited food gardening space. I have one 4 feet by 12 foot rocked in bed. That was not enough for me but with our clay-laden Colorado soil, the slope of my yard and my dogs (who all have a wide definition of what they consider ‘edible’) I needed a different solution. I did two things last year. I put in an 8 foot by 8 food raised bed (smack dab in the middle of my postage stamp grassy yard area) and I employed a method called Square Food Gardening. This method developed by Mel Bartholomew uses the idea of grouping same plants in a 12 inch by 12 inch grid, allowing the empty space between traditional garden rows to be consumed and not wasted. There is a rule of how many plants can go into one square foot to follow.
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This is my larger bed prepared for spring planting, square foot grid in place
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Everything is grown vertically in Square Foot Gardening. Squash, melons, beans, cucumbers. The room allotted in a regular garden is pointed upwards with tomato cages, trellises, or stakes. I’ve seen commonplace reclaimed items such are wire fence gates employed for climbing or more traditional methods like netting tied between poles.
A key component with Square Foot Gardening is marking your garden space. You need a visual reference to ensure you are planting properly. I purchased the white plastic collapsing grid from the Square Food Gardening website knowing I would use it again and again. There are multiple ways to do this; laying bamboo poles, making a string grid affixed to nails on the raised bed, making a grid with small stones. You just need to mark it.
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This is my 8 foot by 8 foot raised bed at the height of last summer. It might look like organized chaos but all the plants flourished with no issue. In this bed were several tomatoes, eggplant, heirloom beans on the netting on the far side of the bed, watermelons, pumpkins, low growing herbs and edible flowers along the front and more!
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I did purchase the book about Square Foot Gardening but found an abundant number of videos on You Tube about how to do it (by the founder of the concept and many others), plant spacing and more. Weeds are virtually choked out by the space constraints so it is a much easier method to care for. Lastly you can make your garden any possible size for your needs. The base guideline is not to make a bed wider than 4 feet so you don’t need to step on the garden soil to tend the garden. In my case I made it as big as I could accommodate and left a few squares open so I could enter the garden when needed (mostly I could access it from the outside) but maximized my growing space.
A great resource I found in building my bed was from Gardener’s Supply who sells ‘corners’. Metal corners (can see them on the raised bed photo above) designed to slide wood planks in to make the garden construction easy, fast and very sturdy. They also have a really cool online free tool that allows you to design your garden. You determine the size garden you will have, scroll through the vegetable options, drag a desired vegetable into a square and it will illustrate how many you can plant in a 1 square foot area!
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Ruby Red Chard with some encroaching mint and wild edibles
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COMMUNITY GARDEN
In many urban communities there are now community garden programs where a gardener can rent a plot for the season. Generally the facilitating organization has organized needed water and will specify any obligations for overall maintenance required for the individual plots as well as communal support for any common areas. The rental cost is nominal and it allows you your own garden even if not at your home.
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Here is my gardener tip for you: Never, NEVER plant mint directly in your garden, always put it in pots! It spreads by runners underneath the ground, is very hardy and almost impossible to eradicate once in an area you don’t choose!
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Regardless of your situation I feel convinced there is a way to grow your own food (a bit at least!). There is nothing more rewarding than to amble out to your own plants to pull a sun-warmed tomato from the vine at summer’s peak. The flavor cannot be beat or the satisfaction of having done it yourself.
This is one of my favorite books: Grow Great Grub,Organic Food from Small Spaces by Gayla Trail. It’s well organized, great photos, cool ideas for growing in small spaces, dealing with pests, other ‘green’ garden related practices, recipes, details of different plants and more!
Carrie @ Pure and Yummy says
Your garden looks great! We built a garden this year and I love being able to grow my own food in my own backyard, Thanks for sharing the square foot gardening method, I will have to look into that for next year.
np says
the garden is amzing you should be very happy with it
Anonymous says
I can't even tell you how excited I am about my garden this year. We are lucky to have a big back yard with space for a garden plot, but we also do some container gardening with great success. I have little lettuce shoots poking up and some tomato seedlings that need transferring to the raised bed. YAY!
BTW – this is Carolyn from All Day….having issues with comments on Blogger blogs these days!
Barbara | Creative Culinary says
I used to plant a large raised bed when my kids were younger and we had tomatoes, squash and more squash with some herbs thrown in for good measure. The neighbors tree kept taking up more and more of my garden's sunlight so I haven't been able to use it for sun loving crops for several years but it's enough for herbs and they have become my only crop the past two years.
I tried container gardening for tomatoes but a critter was picking them all off. No…not a deer (but I didn't know what either) until I walked out one day and saw my dog had her front feet on a pot and was eating a green tomato! Little buggar.
So I'm envious for sure of your lovely garden and expect some tomatoes later this summer, OK? 🙂
ping says
I've always admired folks who have green fingers and the great weather for growing their own produce. There were some herbs I tried growing and when they start getting overtaken by weeds and aphids …. I get all frustrated and chop them all off. Sigh … I will stand by the sidelines and admire some more 😀
Boulder Locavore says
For Michele, and any other hopeful mint gardeners: Hi Michele! I really don’t want to be the bearer of bad news but will confess, despite knowing better, I put mint in my rocked in raised bed feeling sure I could manage it. Years later I’m still digging it out but even more notable it has traveled the length of our yard, covert and completely concealed underground, to pop up on the other side of the fence in a rocked in area, covered by weed cloth by the street. Do not underestimate the determination of mint! Toni (Boulder Locavore)
BigFatBaker says
Great post! Last summer was the first time I tried to grow my own food and I did it in pots with some organic soil and coconut husk. I loved it! Hopefully I'll get the chance to do it again in the near future.
Lisa @ Tarte du Jour says
Wow, your garden is spectacular! You never cease to amaze me! I've made the big mint mistake before but it actually grew out of my container and onto the ground.
An Alaskan Cooks | Alaska Food and Wine says
You've provided a wealth of good information as well as abundant encouragement for new gardeners. Tomatoes don't do well outdoors in Alaska due to the temperature and wind.
Perhaps this year I'll try them again, using indoor containers. Now if we could only find the secret work-around for curing dreaded Brown Thumb …