Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => The Catholic Bunker => Topic started by: littlerose on December 21, 2009, 11:50:54 AM
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I have a small apartment with a patio. I have a lot of family experience with "kitchen gardens", but now I am looking at the full urban scenario.
So, how much actual food can I produce out of no more than half-a-dozen containers? No bigger than those 18-gal plastic bins you can buy for storage?
What foods should I attempt to grow? Will potatoes or carrots or other root veggies do well in a container?
To start this thread, Let's start figuring out how much of each food we need per year, for one person.
Basic survival foods that I will try to grow:
potatoes
yams
carrots
beets
cabbages
onions
garlics
strawberries
Just a starter list. I won't try them all, but some from this list. Anyone else out there playing with container gardens for food?
Also wondering about the feasibility of keeping a pet hen. Would one lay eggs?
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I have used-on and off-big flower pots, variable success...
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Considering how deep the rubber-maid container is I would think you could grow some root crops in it. But just make sure there's plenty of room for them because they'll compete with eachother for nutrition. You definitely want to throw some redworms in there too.
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Considering how deep the rubber-maid container is I would think you could grow some root crops in it. But just make sure there's plenty of room for them because they'll compete with eachother for nutrition. You definitely want to throw some redworms in there too.
Thank you, sam...
Actually, I referred to those as an indicator of size. I will be using decorative containers because I think I will have to disguise the garden in order to avoid the neighborhood pc-yardies (not that there are many, but this is Austin, after all....)
I think a regular kitchen wastebasket that is tall might be a good candidate for depth. I can decorate the outside of it with papier-mache & poly to make it look like some more expensive jardinieres...
Belloc
what did you grow?
(roscoe, I can see you lurking over there! And I can smell what you are smoking! *lol*)
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Tried cucuмbers for pats 3 yrs-first yr, not too bad sucess, last yr went out of town for week and the sun freind them..this yr, not really sure what happened to them, never really got too big before yellowing and/or dying......used the Organic brown soil they sell at Home depot..for veggies, fruit and plants...
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Cucuмbers! Yes, I forgot to list those. I may grow the pickling kind, for sweet gherkins....
I think I will place a tall container at the outer corner of my garden space that is most visible from the street and put a "Joseph's Coat" climbing rose in it on the street side and some marigolds with it, to make a shrine for Ste Therese to overlook the garden and disguise the utilitarian nature of it all.
The marigolds are useful to my supplies because parakeets need the vitamins in their petals (you find them as an ingredient in some of the more expensive brands of seed) and roses are good for rose-hips tea and jelly (high in vitamin c)
Then another container with the cucuмber vine to shade my dining-area window. Do cucuмbers need very full sun? My exposure is east, with partial light shade starting right around noon because of the height of my building.
oh, BTW: I have begun painting my dried orchid blossoms with the encaustic beeswax paint and it is working beautifully!
I may finally be able to turn my orchid hobby into a resource by making jewelry from the blossoms.
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Tried cucuмbers for pats 3 yrs-first yr, not too bad sucess, last yr went out of town for week and the sun freind them..this yr, not really sure what happened to them, never really got too big before yellowing and/or dying......used the Organic brown soil they sell at Home depot..for veggies, fruit and plants...
Sounds like they got dehydrated. You have to water cucuмbers daily and diligently.
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Thought I did, but guess not-was afraid of over-watering too...
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When summer comes I dont think you can water cucuмbers enough. You should probably increase your soils humus and organic matter content so it will have better water retention.
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my thoughts too, or switch to something less needy and more hardy.....
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Do that if you cant increase the soils organic matter. If your using flower pots, dont throw out the water that seeps out into the bottom trays because it's still good and it's just carrying away nutrients from the soil. Just put it back into the pot.
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I have a small apartment with a patio. I have a lot of family experience with "kitchen gardens", but now I am looking at the full urban scenario.
So, how much actual food can I produce out of no more than half-a-dozen containers? No bigger than those 18-gal plastic bins you can buy for storage?
What foods should I attempt to grow? Will potatoes or carrots or other root veggies do well in a container?
To start this thread, Let's start figuring out how much of each food we need per year, for one person.
Basic survival foods that I will try to grow:
potatoes
yams
carrots
beets
cabbages
onions
garlics
strawberries
Just a starter list. I won't try them all, but some from this list. Anyone else out there playing with container gardens for food?
Also wondering about the feasibility of keeping a pet hen. Would one lay eggs?
I grow root crops in containers and have tried almost everything on your list. We have a large concrete yard which is mostly covered with large plastic plant containers now! Potatoes are perfect for container growing because they thrive in "vertical" conditions- they don't need much floor space, just lots of "layers" of compost to develop in. A tall plastic bin with some holes drilled in the base for drainage is ideal and if you keep topping up the layers of compost/soil for every six inches or so of growth, you can get a bumper crop. After three or four months you just tip the whole bin out and pick up the taters.
Carrots are a bit more tricky because of their need for light soils so it is important to get the right compost. They also need full sun in order to do really well in containers.
I'm not sure what beets are in the US- beetroot here is a smallish dark purple root vegetable which grows like carrots only easier. They grow fast too. I remember something about sugar beet being a bit like spinach though? Leafy veg like spinach and kale do well in containers, and some can look pretty enough to double as ornamental plants (or con the neighbors!).
Onions and garlic are very easy to grow in containers although for onions I would advise a "grow-bag" or a large wide container rather than a deep one. The roots don't go that deep. Also buy "sets" of onions rather than onion seed as they are easier to grow. Garlic is particularly good in containers and can be planted in winter to develop slowly and "harden off" in time for a summer crop. No need to buy special bulbs, just get any full head of garlic from your local grocery store and break into the individual bulbs to plant. A container approx. 12" square will take about six bulbs and produce six full heads of garlic.
Strawberries are fine in pots if you have a lot of sun and a bit of space but are not really efficient if you are looking at "survival" growing rather than just making the occasional cake or batch of jam. If your space is limited you'd be much better going for root crops. One potato will give you more energy than a strawberry!
My favorite crops ever are the peas/beans group- I grew sugar snap peas and mangetout last summer and I couldn't believe the yield I got! From one container (maybe 18" square) and about six seeds I got a huge, very attractive sugar snap pea plant which cropped very heavily week after week. I was able to pick pods sufficient to accompany a family Sunday dinner every week for about a month and a half. The more you harvest, the more the pods grow! While nearly all of the plants need some form of support, they are so pretty they look like ornamental sweet peas, especially if you grow the varieties with unusual coloured pods.
Tomatoes also do very well in pots as long you water them with a vengeance day in, day out over the summer.
You might also think about buying dwarf fruit trees, such as apple, pear, sweet cherry or plum. Blueberry bushes also thrive in containers and the berries are so rich in vitamins they are worth the wait.
Don't forget herbs for taste and/or medicinal purposes (no, not that kind of herb Roscoe! ;)) such as St. John's Wort for headaches. These can grow on your windowsill rather than taking up space outside. We grow bell peppers and baby aubergine (eggplant) on our sills.
There are photos of our container garden here (http://cathinfo-warning-pornography!/Ignis_Ardens/index.php?showtopic=4199) :)
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What lovely pictures! And I love sugar-snaps. I'm afraid my space is very small, but I am looking around the place for spots where plants may be allowed to grow for the whole building (12 apartments, no garden anywhere).
There is a fence that could easily back up a row of sunflowers, and those are good sources of food at the same time as being ornamental. Same for hibiscus: hibiscus tea is wonderful, and a little spearmint added makes the best iced tea with lots of vitamin c besides!
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I forgot to mention.... you can plant dahlias and harvest and eat the roots!
You can also eat the bulb of the Florence Fennel.
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I had seen something somewhere about papier-mache as a building material and I think I am going to work on that for the containers. Here is a link to a papier-mache forum, although I have not yet found the other reference I saw.
BTW, Gene Logsdon is a great author for "personal homesteading" projects. He is a lapsed Catholic and his memoirs of how things were done (inside his completely Catholic childhood) and how he is recapturing that home-made culture is very interesting. He does not seem to realize how much he is witnessing to the wealth of our Catholic heritage.
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The link isnt showing up. :sad:
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It just showed up for me. :scratchchin:
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I grew potatoes successfully in the ground once, but tried to grow it in containers as well. There is a good recipe on how to do so.
I believe it works, even though I made some mistakes when I tried it.
We had a *very* wet summer in 2007 when I tried it, and I didn't drill large enough holes in the bottom of the garbage can. So there was too much moisture, and they rotted.
Now, I would put a lid on the can before major storms, and drill some larger holes (1.5 cm diameter at least)
Matthew
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I've grown two little plots of cilantro in two halved barrels. They survived a whole week of frost and cold, but I think they wouldnt have turned a little purple on the edges if they had gotten more sun light. The next batch I will have to make sure is not planted in a container that's too deep so the sides don't shade them.