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.

[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.