I have become convinced that if you should so desire, you can grow food almost anywhere. My patio garden is proof. Earlier this spring, I shared the start up and also gave an update. Here's the rundown of what I grew and how it did:
Cherry tomatoes- started from seed; used pots; did great and still going
Yellow pear tomatoes- used topsy-turvy; did well
Habanero peppers- quite prolific; tore up plant in early August because I had frozen enough for a year and couldn't get anyone to take them
Sweet green/red peppers- took a long time to turn red, but did well
Lilac peppers- interesting plant; small ones were a deep purple but turned green as they ripened
Tomatillos- used a topsy-turvy; massive plant with hundreds of blooms; very small and minimal fruit until I removed half the plant, now the fruit is growing well
Collard greens- Fed the bearded dragon all summer with these
Salad bowl lettuce- lasted most of the summer when trimmed at baby green size
Swiss chard- just three plants have provided baby greens for several weeks
Mesclun greens mix- easy to plant and harvest as baby greens
Green onions- started these from grocery purchased organic green onions; have trimmed all summer and two plants still going strong
Big boy tomatoes- started from seed; these are the largest tomatoes I've ever grown in a pot
Arkansas Traveller (Heirloom) tomatoes- a very large, potted plant; have had a lot of fruit but no huge tomatoes
Sweet basil- prolific and yummy; continues to provide fresh herbs when trimmed regularly
Chocolate mint- huge plant that I have dried and used a lot of, but still producing
Celery- started from organic, store bought celery; still trying to figure out how to grow this; small stalks are okay for juicing but a little tough and bitter to eat
Annual flowers- these were great for bringing in the much needed pollinators
Zucchini- probably the biggest fail of the season; grew in a topsy-turvy; plant started off great, produced two fruit and then they started to rot before they matured; gave up babying the plant by mid-July and used the top of the planter for celery instead
I'm not done though. I have been keeping Seeds Now in business and have all of the following started for fall:
Collard, Georgia southern
Red salad bowl lettuce
Spinach, bloomsdale
Endive, full heart barbarian
Kale, premier
Parsley, dark green Italian
Cilantro, slow bolt
Rosemary
Pea, sugar snap
Swiss Chard, orange
Beet, Chioggia
Cauliflower, all-year
Swiss Chard, hot pink
Radicchio
All also have more seeds to start soon:
Turnip, purple top
Mustard, tendergreen
Basil, three different varieties
plus loads of herb and lettuce greens seeds to spare!
My hope is to continue outside as long as possible. Last year, I had lettuce greens until December and only stopped because I got tired of watering the plant and let it die. Our patio is protected from most inclement weather, yet receives full sun for the entire winter...that's a pretty good combination for continuing outside.
I also have plans to move things indoors when the weather necessitates. I'm becoming so passionate about growing some of our own food that I'm hoping to move around furniture in our dining area to take advantage of a great window that will extend our harvest even longer. I'm still learning the ropes with my small aquaponics tank too, but I think for now, wheat grass is the best harvest to keep the contained system operating smoothly.
As I hope you can see from the photos, this is nothing fancy and yet it serves a need. Am I feeding our entire family from it? No. With all of the juicing and smoothie making that Abbey and I do, we go through greens too fast to not supplement with purchases from the store. But I have not had to buy a tomato, basil, mint or any form of pepper since May. I have also fed Noah's bearded dragon since May with the greens from our back patio. I think that's pretty good compensation for doing something I love.
**Note: The photos in this post are all from my current garden. For photos from spring and summer, please click on the highlighted links in the first paragraph above**
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