Need advice on growing FOOD without a yard!

I love freecycle.org for great free stuff (craigslist too) if you have one in your area, or bulk trash day which comes 4 times a year here. I'm so amazed at the stuff people throw out sometimes . . . ;-)~

WOW! Neat thread. I was just discussing gardening with a friend and we were talking about what apartment dwellers or small space gardeners could grow.

This past year I was experimenting with space savers. I put up forty hanging baskets of cherry tomatoes. Worked very nice, would have worked better if I started fertilizing earlier although I did try planting some baskets in composted horsemanure.

Which brings me to give kudos to cajuninky for the cucumber idea. I think I will try that this season!

On tomatoes I was lucky to visit a greenhouse this late summer that had a plant that yeilded 2 bushels of fruit and the gal there gave me some tomoatoes of theirs to rot out and garner seed from and so I will be playing with those. The maters are grown in containers and a string is tied to a rafter and the vine is pruned and tied to the string. When you cant go out you go up! And BTW you do not let the vines go out, you cut the side shoots!

Ok. this year was my year also for peppers! I grew 8 sweet bells in large pots and when the frost hit, we brought them inside.

I have garlic growing in a small tire. I thought about putting it in deep pots, but when I found the tire laying around I thought I would use it.

I also am using a large tractor tire for a raised bed for strawberries.

Tried my had at a loofa this year and while this thing gets large, again, go up! I only did one plant, regretably it was started too late for any fruit, but eenjoyed the flowers on the vine emensily!

Well, here's my peppers.. which are now in ly laundry room under lights! And yup! Got pepperS!

Cherry tomatoes - while I admit mine got leggy, I had three plants in each basket. I should have pruned them to make them stool, but all and all I was happy with the outcome. This pic is early on when the fruits started coming...

Oh, forgot to mention, on the peppers, I put some pansys in the pot also! So a little frilly bang for the buck.. you could put possibly herbs in each pot or maybe some leaf lettuce?

I see no reason why you could not try raising some radish in a long windowbox as long as its a short rooted variety or a globe. I have not tried, but am thinking to experiment!

Ok, someone mentioned sprouts.. try alfalfa sprouts, bean sprouts, there are a lot of sprouts you can try! And so easy too!

For fertilizer, I am using Oscomote on my containers. Its a time release pellet, however I have also used chicken manure and horsemanure tea and another shelf product, but by golly I cannot remember its name at the moment, but you add a drop of it to a gallon of water and wham!

You could try also raising a small patch of mushrooms in a wooden box.

Hnaging baskets and nursery cans are great and you try to get recycles at your local greenhouses. Many GH's are looking for people to take them away since they cant burn them and are hard up to get rid of them.

Heres the tall maters in the GH!

Check this out....

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1047253/

This is a great blog - Life on the Balcony - Gardening Tips and Tricks for Apartment and Condo Dwellers:

http://lifeonthebalcony.com/

I "met" the blogger on a site. Some good stuff here.

Thanks SO much!

I'm not sure if this will work for you, but I have a friend that was able to grow some really nice greens in, of all things, a canvas shoe tree. She filled the pockets with compost and added seeds. She then kept it carefully damp, and it grew an entire small wall of greens.

Just a thought.

http://lifehacker.com/5311492/turn-a-shoe-organizer-into-a-vertical-herb-garden The link that got her started. And yes, she grows it indoors, about 18" away from a window, so that she can grow potted stuff on the sill.

Hastur - now THAT's the most creative suggestion I've gotten! I've been wanting one of those fancy wood "walls" they make but can't possibly afford it. I think I might just be able to find a shoe organizer and something to hang it from for cheap at a flea market or dollar store or something. THANK YOU for making the suggestion! Would also be worth a try as an easier way to get vertical in a corner of the basement lit by a grow light.....

Meanwhile, I am having moderate success with some greens in my South window. Oh, not enough to feed myself, but enough to supplement the diet of my house rabbits! I have beet greens, carrot greens, chard, lettuces, parsley, and am waiting for the spinach to sprout. Most of these things bolt on me outside anyway, so I decided to start there. I'm convinced that if I could knock another South window in the wall, I could bet enough to feed all of us. I also dug up a dandelion and 2 clumps of clover and brought them inside for the buns.

Yeah nilly! I'm glad to hear you have stuff growing! Here's to a successful growing season! You (and the rabbits) will be very happy with all the greens - lol.

Couldn't find the link I was looking for on that last post, the item is "no longer available".

But somebody should pick it up! Wish my carpenter friend lived near here....

http://www.gardeners.com/Living+Wall+Indoor/37-085RS,default,pd.html
http://www.gardeners.com/Living-Wall-Outdoor-Planter/37-001RS,default,pd.html
http://photos.gardeners.com/thumbnails.php?album=179
http://www.gardeners.com/Photos-of-the-Living-Wall/8131,default,pg.html

Yes Kelly! Your seeds have given me many seedlings so far! I planted one of the spinaches, one pot of beets, one pot of carrots, and several pots of the lettuce mix. And I don't remember what else - but half a dozen more pots of your stuff. Plus I ate some carrots and beets from the market and potted their tops. The chard came from a neighbor I had potted it for for the summer. When he returned the pot, some of the plants were still happy, so I troweled them out and potted them for inside. I'm also growing wheat grass for the buns - THAT is easy and reliable, should all else be too slow....

I really look forward to "getting to know" the plants you sent seeds for! Need a little time to get 'em bigger!

Oh nilly you'll love them (and the bunnies too if you decide to share)! I love love love beet greens! If you get a chance, check out this website and search beet greens. This lady has some fabulous recipes and I've made many of them - lol...

www.elise.com/recipes


My spinach is slow to sprout... Of course we've had way above average temps this fall and that is a big reason. Supposed to cool down to "normal" (70s) by the weekend.

I envy your zone....

Thanks for the link!

And I envy yours - lol... I grew up in northern Maine Zone 4 and so miss some things I can no longer grow. It's like having curly hair and wanting straight hair and vice versa I guess - lol.

The grass is always greener.........................

LOL! Oh the thoughts of green grass! LOL!

I was just on the radishs discussion and rentman was talking about raising carrots and radishes in containers.. never tried that before, but I ma going to try that experiment this spring. I can really "dig" the idea of not havig to dig a root crop and just dump a pot of them out. Gonna try doing them in 1600 nursery cans. Those should be sufficiently deep enough and give berth to a fair number in each can that size!

Think for grins I will try some beets in them too.

Here is the link there...

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1049453/


(edited to add link!)




This message was edited Nov 16, 2009 8:57 PM

Peppers from my plants in the laundry room....not a bad lilttle crop for plants that are indoors now and raised in the summer!

Those are really nice.

Yum too!

Had another thought: Radishes are your friend, especially with things that need to be thinned to get a good crop.

Growing up, we would mix radishes with the beets and carrots and lettuce when sowing down a row. As the radish matured, we could pull it out and it would create space for the newly growing carrots and beets. The lettuce just tasted good with the radishes. We even would plant Daikons with the cucumbers because they grew so far down, and would pull water to the surface where the cukes were.

A variant of said setup for your basement: Get a five gallon bucket and plant your radishes and beets or carrots in there. As you pull out the little red radishes, you have greens for you or the bunns and make room for the other roots. Or, put some in the same bucket you put some cukes in and as the cukes climb up, the radishes can grow down, and you double your output for one bucket.

Just a thought.

Good thinking. I was lucky my DGS was with me when I had to thin my carrots this past season. He ate every one. LOL I think every carrot seed I planted grew. DGS came back for the harvest. He's a carrot loving boy!

My father apparently was doing a lot of square foot gardening techniques, without realizing that he was doing so. We planted tons of companions, either because he had read that they worked well or to see rows or to thin or whatever.

You would think that having six acres to garden on would have been enough for him, but nope. He often maximized every row he planted.

Hastur - very cool!

And your dad sounds like a very practical guy!

The old adage "Waste not, Want not" comes to mind.

We just harvested some celery (we haven't had a freeze yet) and covered the rest with sheets of bubble wrap because it's going down near freezing tonight. Anyway, that made me think there are tones of greens that could be growing almost all winter outside, provided you cover them. Kale is fine to pick even when frozen. Doesn't even need covering. It might not actually grow in the dead of winter, but you can still pick it.

Some other things can be covered really well with something like bales of hay and you can remove the hay and dig them all winter - parsnips and carrots come to mind.

Thanks for that, CompostR.
I'll try that next year, I think it's too late to get them growing now. If you think of other things, please post those, too!

Nilly, have you looked for a community garden in your area? Here's a site where you can look them up. www.communitygarden.org
Or you might contact local gardening groups, shops, or the county extension service to find a community garden? They're getting more and more popular.
When the gardening bug bit me harder than ever in 2008, I actually posted an ad on Caigslist asking if anyone had a little extra garden space they didn't intend to use that summer. Got a response, and I ended up with a 12' by 15' stretch of dirt next to the home-owner's garden. Turned out to be a pretty good experience.
Or maybe a friend of yours would be more than happy to reduce her mowing and let you use a portion of her yard? That happened with me, but unfortunately, her big, beautiful trees created too much shade for it to work.
Good luck to you! I know it's frustrating when you just want to grow something and don't have the right place. And winter - ugh. But I've got some kitchen herbs under shop lights in my apartment, getting ready to start some lettuce as well.

Oh! Also, if you don't have room for a full-sized compost pile, you can use a garbage can with a lid that locks. Drill some holes in it for air, and roll it on its side once a week to mix it up.

And here's another thrifty idea: Instead of spending money on indoor pots, cut the tops off juice containers and poke holes in the bottoms for drainage. (I haven't figured out what would work best for a tray, though. In the photo, I just had something on the shelf below them to catch drips.)

I don't think this would work outside, though. People here mention that when certain plastics heat up in the sun, chemicals leach out. But I think it's okay for indoors, as far as I know.

dividedsky -

Y'know what? I'd like to START some community gardens here! I've been fantasizing about that since I got here. I haven't gotten off my duff and actually looked to see if there are already any (I doubt it but you never know). So thanks a BUNCH for prodding me with the link! I'll go see.

"I actually posted an ad on Caigslist asking if anyone had a little extra garden space they didn't intend to use that summer. Got a response, and I ended up with a 12' by 15' stretch of dirt next to the home-owner's garden." AMAZING! I never would have thought of that! I will try that, too!

I do have room for a compost pile - I have a successful flower garden - just no affordable way of keeping the critters from eating the food crops!

You have some really good suggestions here and I thank you for posting them!

Here I go to try that link...........

Nope - no luck finding one already in existence. I didn't think so because i've never seen or heard of one and i have radar for that kind of thing.

So I posted on Craig's.

There's a perfect lot on my street. I would have already bought it and turned it into one for the block if I had money for such things..... Can't just borrow or even rent - it would need critter-proofing.

But thanks again for the suggestions - we'll see what the ad brings. And I'll do it again in February if this one brings nothing.

I volunteered with a start-up community garden this past year, and it can get a little complicated, depending on the circumstances. It was on a large piece of land that the public school wasn't using, so they got to use it for free. And a woman in the neighborhood had experience with grant writing, so they ended up getting $10,000 in grants. Lots of other hurdles to deal with, though.

There's a guy here in the "city" part of the city (few lawns or very tiny ones, lots of concrete everywhere) who takes abandoned lots, grows fruits and vegetables, and sells them at a CSA. Which I think is very cool. How often have you seen an abandoned lot and thought, something should be growing there! I wonder what he does about a water source, though.

Nilly I can't believe a city the size of Pittsburgh doesn't have several community gardens. If not then they certainly need somebody to step up.
I'd call the parks and recreatiion department first to make inquiries. Public property makes the best candidates for community gardens from the legal standpoint. The city should be able to dump mulch from tree chipping and possibly donate some water. I doubt they have a lot of funds available but by working with them, you'd surely qualify for some media attention to bring in some members and donations.

If you cannot get a community garden going, do what I do plant a row. Plant a row is where you plant those extra rows and donate your excess food to local food pantries. I suggest contactig several local places starting with these:

1) Your local churches
2) Salvation Army
3) Red Cross
4) Fire or Police Department.. they often do food drives and go hand in hand with the churches, Red Cross etc
5)human resources office in your town
6) the mayor of your town
7) Legion halls like Lions clubs, Kiwanis, American vetrans etc.
8) Retirement homes
9) Meals on Wheels...(many communities have this where meals are delivered to disabled and ederly...)

Red Cross can usually provide a list of food pantires in your neighborhood or local, state etc.

I am sure there are other places to contact, but those are a good start!

You need to becareful and be sure to ask what if any they will accept because not all will take everything due to storage restraints and health Department issues in handling certain food produces including produce and eggs.

Getting a garden going is not necessarily a size of town issue.. it also might be an insurance resource eater for a town.. and they may not have enough public property to do it. But you can certainly plant that extra row and always find a source to give the food away even if it ends up to be a needy family member or a neighbor.

Many people though are unemployed and need food. So ok, there is another resource, the unemployment office., Welfare office or what ever it might be called in your town.

All good points - all have been through my head. I did investigate much of this before I turned to the forums.

I am disabled and couldn't possibly take on the project myself. I don't have what it takes to even be reliable at such a thing.

"I can't believe a city the size of Pittsburgh doesn't have several community gardens. If not then they certainly need somebody to step up."

Amen. I'm going to take your nice concise wordings, anonymize them, and send them to the food bank, where I already have been trying to get something to happen. They have a TINY program that accepts food stamps at ONLY THEIR farmers' markets and those markets don't have very much or very good stuff. I think that at the least they should allow ANY farmers' market vendor anywhere in the city to phone in food stamps purchases.

You just can't live on what you can get on food stamps even if you supplement it with the food bank. It's just not possible to get nutritious food on $20 a week.

That is why they do not give anyone enough to feed themselves as it supposed to HELP to try to get those on welfare off welfare. It prompts people to find another way and is supposed to quit peiople from leaching off the system.

The programs were designed to help those in desperate need that were sick or disabled and those who could not work, not those who could and WOULD NOT work. There are a lot of elderly in the lines. Most are suffering sickness, cannot work and need the assistance.

I find it terrible that there are a lot of families on welfare programs that should not be. Then they get their children in the same cycle.

I live in a very depressed area. We were declared a FEMA disaster area not to long ago due to flooding and there are a lot of people needing help. Before the floods, the area also had high unemployment as it does now. There are no jobs in the area and poeple are having to move to new places just for work. Or travel great distances to go to work. The situation has worsened and is not getting better.

The welfare and food programs are supposed to be a hand up, not a hand out.

What people need is jobs. And even working people need to garden.

Sorry to hear that. If you have trouble getting around, it would probably be best for you if you could do this in your own yard. I don't know how much temporary fencing material is - probably not cheap. :o(

Nilly, dont say cant! You have the idea and could be a director, you just need the volunteers to get with you and you to guide them.

Have you thought maybe also trying to just sell flowers for fundraising?
You have to work with an organization. The programs work much like selling GirlScout cookies. You take orders, send the orders in then later the stock arrives and gets delivered. Perhaps a local garden club? Or if not form one! Surely there are others? You just have to keep at it.

Nilly now that I'm disabled/retired it's very easy for me to sit here and think up all kinds of things that I could have/should have/would have done in the past if I'd understood the need and importance. Now the physical world almost stops at my property lines and the internet has replaced the rest. So please forgive me if I seem off the mark. I live in a rural area where most people only grow lawns and I can only set an example.

There are several DG members that are active participants in community gardens and they might could be a good resource for guidance. Churches, social clubs, city firehouses, community activist groups, senior citizen groups, etc., are all candidates that might be interested in taking up the cause.

Your long winter offers a good opportunity to stir the pot. After the holidays, cabin fever will set in and gardeners really get to dreaming about the possibilities of spring. Maybe a letter to the editor would bring some results. Maybe the county extension office. If you could just get anyone to open the door...it's a win/win for everyone.