Micro-gardening - Inspiration and help needed

[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.

[jillm]

I can't resist!

Here's Fausto with the Mexico Midget Cherry Tomatoes



He likes green beans too

[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!