Garden

[mirja99]

A lot of people are saing that they would grow some of the food themselves if they had a garden and that they would store also seeds. Personally I don´t have a traditional garden ( I live in a appartment building) but in my balcany I have a mini garden.

I store basics sees on things that I am able to grow in a pot like tomatos, sallads, herbs, potatos etc. Instead of having a lot of flowers in my balcany like it is typical here I use the space to grow my own food. (Yes you can grow potatos in a pot and after a catastrophy it is a good talent to have to know how to grow your own food).

At the moment I am reseaching for a blueberry plant and thingking of adding that or some other berry plant to my minigarden.

Are you growing sometings in places that other people don´t traditionally grow anythin? What kind of garden do you have or would like to have?

[applepansy]

I love that you've been so creative in finding space to garden.

applepansy

[BenRaines]

That is a great example of making do with what you have.

I wonder how many people are storing seeds but have never planted a garden. It is not as simple as put a seed in the ground and it will grow like the bean in the cup in kindergarten. I would suggest that anyone who is storing seeds for the big emergency should plant a small garden or two and get some experience.

We have had many rather large gardens over the years and have learned some valuable lessons:

1. No matter how many zucchini you plant it is too many. Same with yellow squash, tomatoes.

2. Hybrid seeds will germinate the next year and if you transplant them in to nice corn rows they will grow some beautiful stalks but no corn. Hybrid seeds do not produce when they germinate the next year.

3. New radishes look a lot like weeds.

Those are a few.

Ben Raines

[Guest DeborahC]

Last year I tried some homemade planters for tomatoes on my balcony, but they really didn't produce enough to make it worth the effort. This year, I have thought about just tossing some plants or seeds in the vacant lot near us and seeing what pops up!

[chitchat]

Hybrid seeds will germinate the next year and if you transplant them in to nice corn rows they will grow some beautiful stalks but no corn. Hybrid seeds do not produce when they germinate the next year.

Ben, that's a HOOT!

This would be fun to talk about with neighbors who might notice....

upside down tomato plant

[gabelpa]

We'vebeen taught and admonished to grow a garden, and as an extra, to sprout seeds, like mung beans, lentils,etc. Takes up very little space andadds a lot of nutritional value to the seeds.

[TheyCallMeMom]

we had our first garden last year.. did better than we thought

for those with small spaces I have heard the square foot gardens work great

[BenRaines]

We have eaten home sprouted seeds for years. Love them on sandwiches and salads.

Ben Raines

[Guest DeborahC]

chitchat, I did the upside down tomatoe plant.

It produced, but not nearly as much as "in ground" plants.