Grow Your Own ... Self-Serve Produce Market

I try to garden as much as I can, but I live on the third floor of an apartment.
I'm pretty much limited to pots and stuff, but I do grow some veggies.

This is a long shot, but it just gives you an idea of what I have to work with.




I do grow some flowers and tropicals, but you can see some bean plants in the pots.




Most of these pictures were taken just before sunrise, so I hope they're not too dark.

This is some more of my tropicals, but there's vegetables behind them.




This is some of the stuff I have in one corner. It's beans, tomatoes, and garlic.



And we're actually getting some tomatoes.




On the other side I planted peppers.




I even grow beans and stuff wherever we can screw down a pot.




I put all the house plants out for the summer, it's hard to believe how fast they grow.
You can see one of my security cameras up in the corner. (Hey, I'm paranoid)





Even though I'm on the third floor, we do get a lot of wildlife coming up to hang out. We put out one of those plastic owls to scare the pigeons, but now they just sit on it's head. All I did was give the flying rats another place to sit. :shk:




So far the best thing we found for keeping out unwanted cats, racoons, pigeons, etc........
We installed a garden gnome that works just great.



I recommend the gnome, they're a lot more effective than a scarecrow, but you do need to feed them.

Hats off to ya Anx. That's beautiful, and I love the way you've mixed the veges and such in with the various florals and all. An excellent means by which to utilize limited space.

Oh, and I think your "garden gnome" is too darn funny. Cute l'il critter, too. How often do you have to change the diaper batteries?

@ the "effectiveness" of your owl. Those things never did seem to "work" much after the first few days.


 

Anytime you've got a scarecrow (be it stuffed with straw of molded outta plastic), tie tin cans to it (like a wind chime). The random noise and the shiny-ness will scare off most plant-nibblin'-critters.

Bless grandparents with their old-timey 'back-in-the-day-when-we-walked-uphill-both-ways' advice!

reply to post by 12m8keall2c


This is the nicest, biggest vegetable garden I've ever seen.


I now know what to strive for, and what's possible. Thank you very much for sharing, it looks fantastic!

Thanks thelibra. I'll be starting this year's thread once things get going a bit more. I'm working on a sizeable expansion effort this year, guess we'll see how it goes.

 

We'll be starting the garden pretty soon, first the garlics come up, but we usually do Tomatoes, beans, peas, zucchinis, green peppers, 3 varieties of hot peppers, and cucumbers its busy busy busy, my grandfather always said plant the peas in April and they will be ready buy June, but its hard to keep a solid schedule.

It's crazy how we can miss such good threads in this place :shk: shame on me.

12m, how's your garden growing this year?

anxiety.. that is the darn cutest gnome I've ever seen. Beautiful container garden too. What variety peas are you using?

I'm having bad luck with the peas I planted, they produced one pod each when they were only after 12-15 inches tall and then died

Originally posted by worldwatcher

anxiety.. that is the darn cutest gnome I've ever seen. Beautiful container garden too. What variety peas are you using?

Thanks worldwatcher,

Sadly my little garden gnome and her mother moved out of their apartment a few months ago, so no gnome to guard the garden this year.

Container gardening isn't always easy because the pots dry out very fast and you always have to stay on top of watering in the hot weather. So far I've had no luck with peas, even though I've tried a few varieties. What little did grow seemed to disappear as they started to mature. I think the squirrels might have been taking them.

Beans have always done well on my deck though. I plant scarlet runners because they trail down or climb strings depending where I put them. I also have great success with green or wax bush beans when I plant them in window boxes. The beans are prolific and keep producing for several months if I keep picking the ripe ones.
As you see from the pictures, my peppers do really well because we get a lot of sun on the deck.

Finally the long weekend is here, Victoria Day in Canada. It's now that all danger of frost has past and I can finally get back out and start planting again.

I'll post some pictures as things start to grow.

Originally posted by worldwatcher

anxiety.. that is the darn cutest gnome I've ever seen. Beautiful container garden too. What variety peas are you using?

I'm having bad luck with the peas I planted, they produced one pod each when they were only after 12-15 inches tall and then died

I'll chime in on the peas, ww.......

The best luck I've had was with Laxton's Progress......but here ( GA) we just get too much heat too soon for peas to work out well most years. I've even planted them in Feb, only to have them burn up before getting very many peas. A friend who used to live in Canada always had tales of huge pea yields.....I love peas, but that's a bit far to go just to raise them!

I did have a bit better luck with them when I planted them in a shady spot like the back side of a fence, or on the east side of a barn....they got only morning sun and were shaded from the afternoon heat.

Also they get a better start if you use a soil inoculant ( a black dust containing nitrogen fixing bacteria ) when they are planted.....the only way I've found that stuff is to order it from a garden supply like Parks or Burpee......

reply to post by frayed1


thanks frayed since I'm further south than you, peas are going to have to go into my winter crops list, probably plant in Nov or Dec. So far my best summer stuff seems to be limited to peppers, tomatoes and okra..
My eggplants are stunted for some reason, they haven't grown more than 5 inches And being that i'm not using pesticides or insectides other than insectidal soap..I lost a cucumber and summer squash plant to aphids and other insects... I did get 4 good size cukes before the plant got attacked though.

oh and my drip irrigation system I set up is working out excellently for my container garden.

reply to post by worldwatcher


I've thought about planting some in the fall.....but our cold weather can jump right into the 20's even here. I'd hate to go to the expense and effort of planting, just to see them freeze solid!

You might try some field peas, like purple hull or pink eye....they are more heat tolerant, but it's not the same taste.

We've had good luck with pole beans.....here's a shot of my Rattlesnake beans this year.....I think they are an old variety, more heat tolerant than blue lake and they taste great as well as look beautiful!





[edit on 4-6-2008 by frayed1]

Seems like a lot more people are following this line of thinking.....A spot on CNN about urban gardening mentioned that the Burpee Seed company has had a 40% increase in seed sales this year!! That's huge!

And not a moment too soon, considering the problems with commercial tomato growers this year. I'll bet seed sales will be even higher next year.......