Grow it Yourself - Gardening without Land

In the previous post about water I mentioned the 3 laws.
You can survive for 3 min without air.
You can survive for 3 days without water.
You can survive for 3 weeks without food.

Now I want to talk about food. It is also awesome. The thought of going hungry beyond a couple meals is not something most of us know about. And... I'd kinda like to keep it that way.
I've talked about food shortages - Here's another link. World Bank: Food prices at "dangerous levels"
I've posted about tomatoes and other produce normally imported from Mexico during the winter are going to be in short supply; how corn and wheat prices are going to drive meat, bread, and dairy products up; how groceries are costing more and more every trip.
Now I want to push that all aside and relax.

3 of the raised beds, 1 dog.

I want to talk about gardening without land.
I planted my first garden last year and it was great. I didn't produce an abundant supply of food* but I learned a lot and this year will be better.
* We couldn't eat the lettuce fast enough. I had a garden fresh salad every day for 3 months. Yum.

But we have an acre land and can garden lots. But you can still garden on a sunny balcony or condo.
A guy I worked with grew 3 tomato plants, in pots, on his balcony and they produced enough so he didn't need to buy tomatoes and could freeze some for winter. And during winter he just brought the pots inside. It cost him around $3 a plant, once. He had them for several years last I talked to him. He recouped his money fast and enjoyed tastier, fresher tomatoes. That's a win, win situation.
They took up about 3 one square foot area's of space.

If you are space limited and want to grow more...

Now you can buy these hanging gardens that you can grow tomatoes or strawberries. So you have these from above and now you can grow 3 different pots below. Say... lettuce. Or herbs.

Voila!
You are growing your basic salad ingredients! Now you have a part of your meal provided by yourself for very little money AND it is healthier than store bought.

You can grow many types of lettuce. For about $5 you can get a variety pack of Romaine, Butter Crunch, Simpson, Asian varieties and more. If you plant 2 plants every 3 weeks you will be able to eat them before they go to seed on you. If one does go to seed, save the seeds for next year. ;)

Peas are another easy grower. They can be grown in pots with a trellis for them to grow up. They need a little training but after they figure it out you can get a a couple inches growth a week. And fresh peas are tasty!
If they are happy they will produce new pods every couple days.
A good companion to grow with peas is carrots. Peas go up and carrots go down. We had a raised bed dedicated to carrots and peas and at the end of the season they produced some good stuff.

Potato plant bag

You can grow radishes and beats too. I heard of a guy who grew hop plants on his balcony.
Potatoes are real easy to grow but you need to use a grow bag.
We planted a few spuds last year in the strawberry bed and they ended up taking over. We had a lot of potatoes. This year they are going to have their own bed and we are going to have fresh fries this fall. Woot!



A lot of this stuff you can make yourself. Google hanging tomato and you will find a dozen instructions and videos. A potato bag is easy to make also. You don't need to shell out $30 for a few plant pots just ask for used 5 gallon containers at a grocery store bakery. Free.
Even dollar stores have a lot of the stuff you'd need.

So I hope this gave ideas how you can grow it yourself. It isn't hard. You might fail or you might not. If you don't try - you will fail.
Just because you can't have a big garden doesn't mean you can't grow a few things and substitute you grocery bill. Even if it doesn't seem like much, it all adds up.
And you get the satisfaction of saying you did this. You are one step closer to independence.

If anyone has any questions or needs help trying this let me know and I'll be glade to help.