Micro-gardening - Inspiration and help needed

[Grog]

While I can't have goats like GLC just yet, I'm itching to start growing a few bits of food this spring. Now here's the catch: it will have to be all-container, and very little direct sunlight. We don't even have a balcony. Some of it will have to stay indoors, in my study room (a few hours of direct sunlight) and the living room (lots of light, but none directly).

I'd like to grow some carrots, some beets, some herbs (mostly basil, maybe parsley) and I'd also like to grow some kind of bean that I could keep to eat in the winter. I'd be happy to grow some tomatoes, but I'm not sure where I could put them.

Any suggestions or insight or pieces of advice are welcome at this point. I'm looking for inspiration, and if you have suggestions for things NOT to do I'll gladly hear them too!!

[jillm]

The only thing that came to my mind is lettuce. I grow mine in a windowbox, outside, but only gets morning sun. I think sunlight (or lack of) is gonna be the hardest part.

You might want to check out the gardening forums at Garden web (i think it's just gardenweb.com). They have a forum for every growing circumstance!

Good luck!

[tulip]

I'll chime in. I love gardening and can't wait to get my garden started! I envy GLC's beautiful greenhouse!

You can do alot with containers. Tomatoes and beans will require alot of sunlight, but you can give it a try. Go with a cherry or patio tomato. The big ones aren't easily done in a pot. Herbs are great in a sunny window or on the balcony. Basil likes alot of light, so give it the best spot. Parsley is related to carrots (below) and so be patient when starting the seeds.

There are a few varieties of carrots that are round like radishes. They grow well in containers. I think one variety is called Thumbelina. Carrot seeds take a long time to germinate, so be patient. Also the seedlings are very fragile and look like very thin grass. You might miss them at first.

I've never grown beets indoors, but why not give it a go? Beet seeds are actually seed pods that contain multiple seeds inside. They are notoriously poor germinators, so seed heavily and be patient. I've not had terrific luck with beets in general for the roots, although I usually get good tops for greens.

You might also want to try lettuces and a variety of salad greens like arugula and chard (related to beets). Lettuces will grow relatively fast and you can start a new pot each month to have a constant supply.

The trick with container gardening is keeping everything well watered. Watering from tray below is not a great idea with pots because the pots are too tall and the water won't get to the roots, so water from the top. Sometimes you might get little flying critters like gnats. I don't know what to do about those except keep the space well-ventilated. I get them when I start seeds under lights in the spring and when I have alot of them going at once. Maybe you won't have this problem.

There are some great books on container gardening. I encourage you to go to the library and peruse the bookshelves in the garden section for inspiration and ideas. Have fun!

[Grog]

Thanks ladies for the advice!

I have never seen those round carrots, will look for them. I have yet to look at my seed catalogue - scared of getting sucked into it and to never return to my dissertation!

I should just add that I will be able to use some indoor space, perhaps even in the sun, on our parking spot. We have a tiny car so I'll be able to put a few pots there. Cherry tomatoes sound good! Would you buy a plant or start one from seedling yourself?

[buddha_bellies]

Is it almost that time of year again?

If you want tomatoes from seeds, you will have to start them now. Otherwise, do what a lot of us gardeners do- go buy the seedlings at VanDusen Plant sale at the last Sunday of April. I go line up at around 9:30am to get in at 10am. It's crazy there I must warn you. But I LOVE IT. You can buy all these heirloom tomatoes that you won't be able to get in a lot of garden centers. Unless you can wait until Farmer's Market in mid-May, you can buy some hard to find varieties there.

One cherry tomatoes I love is Sungold. It taste like pineapple... well, it's that sweet anyway.

But tomatoes need at least 8 hours of sun here. We're relatively cool on the coast here so any sun would help. And you'll need a min. of a 5 gallon pot. I have these black pots you can have if you don't mind the looks of it.

In the shade, arugula, oriental veggies and lettuce would do well. But there really isn't too many veggies you can grow in the shade, I'm afraid. But you can try some snow peas, which you can plant now. Mine gets only about 3 hours of direct sun and it seems to be do well.

The most important part in container gardening is make sure you choose a large pot. There's nothing worst then coming home late in the day to see everything dried up. You don't want to be a water slave.

How much space do you have? If you want veggies all winter inside, you'll need some grow lights. I set up some workshop lights underneath my dinning room table to start tomatoe seeds. But it's also a good way to grow cut-and-come-again baby lettuce, etc. If you go to GardenWeb.com, do a search on grow lights, you'll see a lot of people doing what I'm doing.

[jillm]

Last year I started some tomatoes from seed, and bought some seedlings and all of them did well. But these weren't in containers. I have grown tomatoes in containers and they've done OK, but never really flourished. It's hard to keep on top of watering them. (but I'm in IL, zone 5b, they were in full sun...our circumstances are different)

I don't know how they'd do in a container, but I'd like to recommend a cherry tomato I grew last year. Mexico Midget! It grew and produced all summer and had the tastiest little tomatoes!

[Norse]

Tomatoes and basil are sun lovers so you might have trouble with those. But they are so worth it if you can find a somewhat sunny and warm spot. One part of our garden gets a lot more shade and we have found that zucchini and other squash do fairly well there.

Good luck! A garden is so worth the time and effort.

[Norse]

Regarding the tomatoes, I usually wait until the Farmers' Market has them - they will vary from 6 - 12" tall. They arrive here around mid-May. For indoor pots, in addition to cherry you might have good luck with yellow and red grape (I love having the color contrast of the yellow tomatoes in our salads and dishes) and perhaps Roma.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

While I can't have goats like GLC just yet, I'm itching to start growing a few bits of food this spring. Now here's the catch: it will have to be all-container, and very little direct sunlight. We don't even have a balcony. Some of it will have to stay indoors, in my study room (a few hours of direct sunlight) and the living room (lots of light, but none directly).
I'd like to grow some carrots, some beets, some herbs (mostly basil, maybe parsley) and I'd also like to grow some kind of bean that I could keep to eat in the winter. I'd be happy to grow some tomatoes, but I'm not sure where I could put them.


Are you saying you'd like to grow vegetables inside your apartment, in containers, without much sun hitting them from the windows? This might be impossible without some major grow lights. If veggies don't get enough sun and/or strong light, they will rapidly become spindly and not produce much of anything.
Though growing your own veggies might be healthier in terms of no pesticides, etc, you'll still have to weigh the cost factor. For example-
if you wanted to grow a pot of lettuce or carrots...the cost of a large pot/flat plus store bought soil plus the electric cost of running grow lights 8 hours per day over the pot for weeks on end, not to mention fertilizer....might be several times what it it would have cost to buy some organic lettuce or carrots at a market. Just something to consider.
Of the veggies mentioned, I'd guess that radishes, herbs, and leaf lettuce might be the easiest to raise in manageable containers under lights.

[jillm]

I can't resist!

Here's Fausto with the Mexico Midget Cherry Tomatoes

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_srXK2caA8R8/SNpal-ympeI/AAAAAAAAArE/T-EHe5BuuKY/s400/fausto+cherry+tomatoes+033.jpg

He likes green beans too

http://bp2.blogger.com/_srXK2caA8R8/SJScLhNeDoI/AAAAAAAAAqM/zxP56t5w5eA/s400/green+bean.jpg

[Biciclista]

I'm sorry, lol.
that green bean picture is GReAT!

if you try to grow beets and carrots in the house, all you're going to get is greens.
so just grow greens.

good luck.

[Grog]

My first message was quite confusing, sorry!

I have literally no outdoor, sunny space I can use. Although, the more I think about it, I'll be able to use the head of our parking spot for cherry tomatoes in containers (and I'll take you up on the offer for the containers, Buddha_Bellies! I will wait for the VanDusen market though). Otherwise we have no balcony that we can use, and only a bit of shade on our porch (although in the summer there will be 3-4 hours of end-of-day light there).

I think I'll try to maximize the space near the car and grow the carrots there. The basil I think I'll start indoors and see what happens.

Thank you everyone.

And your dog IS cute!

[GLC1968]

I don't really have any advice as we are still pretty much growing novices ourselves! We did a lot of container growing at previous homes, but in every case, we could put BIG pots out on our deck or front stoop to get plenty of sun. We did well with tomatoes (we needed to fertilize), peppers, strawberries and lettuce (in the shade - NC is too hot in the sun).

And even though it may not be cost effective at the moment, I whole heartedly agree that learning to grow is a vital skill, whether or not your harvests are ideal. Yes, it may be easier and cheaper to buy organic at the grocery store - but that's not taking into consideration the knowledge you are building or the skills you are developing. Those things are priceless right now and even moreso someday when those organic grocery stores aren't there any more. And if you do one day aspire to your own little place like we have, those skills will come in VERY handy!

[Grog]

And even though it may not be cost effective at the moment, I whole heartedly agree that learning to grow is a vital skill, whether or not your harvests are ideal. Yes, it may be easier and cheaper to buy organic at the grocery store - but that's not taking into consideration the knowledge you are building or the skills you are developing. Those things are priceless right now and even moreso someday when those organic grocery stores aren't there any more. And if you do one day aspire to your own little place like we have, those skills will come in VERY handy!

I wholeheartedly agree, and it's part of my motivation to get going. Although it's also being so disappointed with the ridiculous vegetables that we get at the grocery store. Of course there's the farmer's market but it can be complicated. I am the inheritor of a long line of farmers and growers - my parents themselves had greenhouses and oh! how much have I weeded tomatoes in my childhood! - but not a whole lot got passed on to me somehow.

I was raised on sandy land and we grew asparagus, which I would spend many a morning, before school, harvesting with the rest of my family. On a hot day, you could sit there and watch it grow before cutting it again at dusk. Oh! The wonderful taste of fresh asparagus. The other day I almost passed out when my mother-in-law served us - in January - asparagus (from Argentina?) with dinner and everyone was ooohing about how wonderful it was. The poor stems looked so sad, and just didn't have much to do with real asparagus. One could say it's being a snob, I think it's just about respecting food and the people that grow it. (Not the companies that export it.)

Anyway I'll quit ranting and go back to writing my dissertation now!! Thanks for the insight everyone!

[sgtiger]

The first year that I decided to grow tomatoes from seed in a container, it only yielded a half dozen of the fruit. But I had so much fun and I was very proud of my spindly plant. I was amazed with myself that I could grow anything at all especially since I consider myself gardening-challenged. So, I say go for it!

There are so many great resources out there, which I wish I would've consulted that first time, that will help with getting you started.

Here's a few more to add to the ones others have already been mentioned:
http://www.littlegreenhouse.com/guide3.shtml
http://www.altgarden.com/site/library/lights.html
http://www.pseewald.com/2009/02/starting-plants-under-lights.html
Lasagna Gardening for Small Spaces (http://www.amazon.com/Lasagna-Gardening-Small-Spaces-Containers/dp/0875968864/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1235760788&sr=8-3)

And I second the garden web forums. Lot's of information there, but like any forum you have to find the advice that works for you and your style of gardening.

Have fun and best of luck!

~sg "maybe my thumb is not so black after all" tiger

ETA: If you have a closet to spare, you could convert it into a grow room. It seems you do have to be prepared to tell guests that notice the light seeping from the bottom of the door that you are not growing pot in there. Well, unless you are of course!:p:D

Here's a better google search link:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=vegetable+grow+room&btnG=Search&aq=o&oq=

[sgtiger]

Uh... Oops!:o I just took a closer look at the google link I posted. There are a lot of links on that page for growing pot.:eek: I guess there is a reason for people making the assumption about grow rooms.:rolleyes:

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Uh... Oops!:o I just took a closer look at the google link I posted. There are a lot of links on that page for growing pot.:eek:

I'm SHOCKED! Absolutely SHOCKED, I tell you!!!!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

[badger]

I lost out on a spot on a community garden, so I was determined to have something on my patio last year. So I tried grape and heirloom tomato, and zucchini that I got from Capers.

The grape tomatoes were bountiful, I got 2 heirlooms, and 1 small zucchini. I later found out that zucchinis need at least 6 hours of direct sunlight, which I do not get.

So for xmas my boyfriend got me the Bountiful Container (http://www.amazon.ca/McGee-Stuckeys-Bountiful-Container-Vegetables/dp/0761116230/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235896626&sr=8-1) and some seeds (brussel sprouts, weird and wonderful peppers, etc).

I was at Lee Valley today and found this book (http://www.amazon.ca/Incredible-Vegetables-Self-Watering-Containers-Amazing/dp/1580175562/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235896746&sr=1-1) which had tons of useful information on container gardening.

I also bought this propagator (http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page.aspx?c=2&p=51147&cat=2,44713,40757&ap=1) while at Lee Valley to get the seeds germinating. Hopefully by the time they are seedlings, I'll know what that self-watering container thing is about!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Ok, a few months have passed since this thread started, but I can heartily now recommend something for you Grog-
grow some sprouts! You don't need much light at all, no pots, no soil, no fertilizer!
I've just started growing sprouts in my kitchen in jars, trays, and even in cloth bags...and I'm really delighted with the results:
http://strumelia.blogspot.com/2009/07/sprouts.html
The only important key is to diligently rinse them with fresh water twice a day.
It's so fun to see the miniature 'farm crops' growing! :p

[Grog]

Thanks Lisa!!

The "garden" is doing well enough. We've had some lettuce, the cherry tomatoes are on the way (we've eaten 4 of the yellow ones and the red ones I started from seed are impressively full of un-ripe ones), we've had three carrots and there is more to come. We're getting some basil but we'll have to be more patient. Some of the initial soil I used was not very good and totally ruined a few beets. I don't know how the others will do...

I LOVE sprouts so I'll follow your advice on that.