I love spring, and gardening. We just got busy in the yard getting planting done, maybe late for many here but in northern canada we are blessed with frost from june to september. with a 90 day growing season and living in an urban environment one needs to be creative.
anyways, just though that id share my setup. we are in the middle of town, front balcony and a small back yard, but we can easily harvest 200lbs of veggies in that short time from our little property every year. its so important nowadays to at least try to grow some of your own food and keep money out of the hands of mega corporations that spray spray spray.
i save my old tires for potatoes. we plant them in the bottom tire then keep a foot of dirt and compost cover. ill check every few days and when the potato plants get close to breaking the surface ill stack another tire and fill with dirt. this keeps the plants rooting all the way up. you can build these as tall as you want. last year i used only 1 stack and we harvested over 50lbs of spuds! anyways this is the start. im going with 3 stacks this year and going to keep a few more tires out of the landfill.
cleaned out the greenhouse and planted. bylaws forbid actual gardens but we prefer potted anyways, we can easily transport, mix compost, etc. also easy to control pests, weeds etc.
last year we got over 50lbs of tomatoes for salsa. started these indoors over winter from the seeds. tomatoes are super easy as they literally self pollinate. just smear seeds on a paper towel and try. they readily sprout when planted and watered. added a couple beefsteak this year because i love slicers!
4 cheery tomatoes in hangers, 3 cayeene pepper, 3 jalapeno, 4 green pepper. all from last years seeds. should make for lots of salads over summer and salsa over winter.
onto the cukes. we planted over 30 gherkins in the boxes. i love pickles!!! of course a few slicers and long english in there somewhere, all of them grown by last years seeds as well.
front deck was a little empty so on top of the usual flower hangers i added a small herb garden for my wife, she is very happy. hoping for the best!! basil, parsley, oregano, cilantro. we get full blast of sun in the back so this is our shady hideaway for the dog days of summer.
also have a strawberry bed, raspberry patch and my beloved rhubarb. last year we ended up making over 40 pints of jam, and we use it to flavor homemade yogurt and ice cream.
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no chemicals, no poisons. no additives. 10 times better quality than store bought, and for pennies on the dollar. we get so many honey bees and birds show up on our property, and we know we are doing good by mother earth.
hopefully this inspires one or two other urban dwellers to make the jump and start doing the little things to take demand from the industrial monopolies that destroy the ecosystem!
cheers!!
