Food Stamped: Can Food Really Be Grown in an Urban Setting?

Over at The Jew and Carrot — a really wonderful blog about Jewish food issues and ethical, local, organic food in general — guest blogger Sarah Newman brought up an interesting documentary called Food Stamped about food stamps and whether you can really eat healthily on our government’s food program for the poor. In the movie, the documentarians try to live off of $50 for food a week, and supplement their diet with some vegetables and herbs that grow along their driveway.

It seems as though Sarah generally liked the film but had a few critiques, one of which involved the driveway herb garden:

And, what if they don’t have tidy herb gardens lining their driveway, like Shira and Yuval, to add nutritious and tasty ingredients to spice up their somewhat bland foods?

The implication being (I think) that it isn’t possible for poor, urban food stamp users to grow their own herbs, or even better, their own fruits and vegetables. And certainly not on a serious budget. I have to say, I heartily disagree! I thought I would round up some of the posts I written about growing your own food without access to an in-ground garden or even very much room. Even a windowbox provides enough room to produce tomatoes, blueberries, herbs, and more.

Growing Your Own Food:

Frugal Gardening:

December 30, 2008 | Filed Under Frugal Container Gardening, Fruits & Vegetables, Herbs, How To | 3 Comments

Great Herb Window Box Advice

Check out this article about growing herbs in windowboxes from Herb Companion Magazine. While it is technically for outdoor windowboxes, I think you could easily adapt the advice in the article for an indoor windowbox for a sunny window sill. Lots of good stuf, definitely check it out!

October 29, 2008 | Filed Under Container Gardening, Herbs | 2 Comments

Vegetables And Herbs You Can Still Plant Before Winter

Close your eyes and imagine this scenario…Okay, don’t close your eyes, because then you can’t read the scenario…

You just moved in to a new apartment and it has a great balcony with plenty of sun and you are thinking it would be great to beat the rising food costs and grow some of your own vegetables and herbs.

You’ve had a great balcony for some time, but you just haven’t gotten around to planting any fall vegetables and herbs, and now you’re finally feeling motivated.

The only problem, you realize, is that it is late October and you’re not sure if there is anything you can grow at the moment.

If you resemble either scenario, don’t worry! So long as your balcony still has some sunshine and the dirt in your pots hasn’t turned to ice cubes, there are still things you can plant now, and even some seeds that you can sow.

Arugula - Sow seeds or buy transplants
Broccoli - Buy transplants - Look for ‘Premium Crop’, Romanesco, and ‘Violet Queen’
Cauliflower - Buy transplants - Look for ‘Amazing’
Endive - Buy transplants - Look for curly and broad leaf varieties
Kale - Buy transplants - Look for ‘Winterbor’
Spinach - Buy transplants - Look for ‘Tyee’
Garlic - Buy cloves - Look for ‘Chesnok Red’ and ‘Spanish Roja’
Onions - Buy transplants - Look for ‘Buffalo’
Parsley - Sow seeds - For cooking, look for Italian flat leaf varieties
Rosemary - Sow seeds - Look for ‘Arp’ or ‘Sawyer’s Selection’ for cold climates, ‘Tuscan Blue’ elsewhere

One last tip: when choosing a pot, pick something that won’t crack after a light frost.

Sources: Sunset Magazine

October 23, 2008 | Filed Under Fall Gardening, Fruits & Vegetables, Herbs | 4 Comments

Best Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs to Grow for Beginners

Whether you’re an old hand at gardening but have never grown edible plants, or you’re new to gardening all together, here is a list of plants that are well suited to people who are considering growing something they can eat for the first time.

Photo by GNIKRJ

I’ve linked to growing information from Organic Gardening magazine to help you get your container farming off to a good start. Going organic is really important when it comes to plants you are going to eat because eating chemicals (whether in the form of fertilizers or pesticides) is not very appetizing.

Related Posts:

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September 4, 2008 | Filed Under Fruits & Vegetables, Herbs | 14 Comments

Have Your Chives Flowered Yet?

Yes? Check out what Mimi did with her chive blossoms. And if you try the same thing, let me know what you think of the results.

Photo by jek in the box

September 1, 2008 | Filed Under Herbs | 2 Comments

Natural Mosquito Repellent

Recently my youngest brother left for college in Vermont, and my parents’ flew out there with him to send him off. My parents came back without my brother, but with a bunch of itchy mosquito bites.

Photo by loveberry

Here in Southern California, we don’t have very much standing water for mosquitoes to breed in, and the state sprays insecticide a lot because we have such a huge agricultural economy. But I know that in many areas, there are mosquitoes galore this time of year. Luckily, this is a problem you can grow your way out of.

Lemon Balm is a natural mosquito reppellant. It has a very high level of a compound called citronellal in its leaves. Citronella–which is used in many commercial mosquito reppellants–is the essential oil version of citronellal. Some varieties of lemon balm are up to 38 percent citronellal! You can buy seeds of one such variety from Johnny’s Seeds: Lemon Balm ‘Quedlinburger Niederliegende.’

If you don’t want to carry a Lemon Balm plant around with you at all times, simply pinch off a few leaves, crush them in your hand and rub them over your skin. You’ll have a wonderful lemony smell that mosquitoes can’t stand.

Quedlinburger Niederliegende is hardy to zone 4 and prefers afternoon shade. It is somewhat drought tolerant and prefers soil that is one the dry side of moist. Feel free to pinch off leaves regularly as doing so will only encourage more growth.

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August 20, 2008 | Filed Under Herbs, How To | 17 Comments

Vegetable and Herb Companion Planting

It’s the time of year when you should start thinking about planting your fall vegetables. Actually, we might be a week behind for some vegetables, but if your neck of the woods is anything like mine, summer came late, so hopefully we’re okay.

A great way to get a good harvest is to “companion plant.” That is, plant two different types of vegetables in close proximity to one another to create a symbiotic cultural environment. Just as there are beneficial insects that eat destructive insects or improve pollination, there are beneficial combinations of plants that help fight pests or increase yields.

Image by lalalaa Dolce Vita

Sometimes companion plants are used to draw pests away from the “good crop.” Sometimes companion plants are used because one plant adds something to the soil that the other plant needs. For example, legumes add nitrogen to the soil which can then benefit neighboring plants. Other plants literally exude natural chemicals that deter pests. Still other, taller companion plants can be used to shade more fragile or shade loving plants. If this sort of thing really fascinates you, definitely click on the sources below, as there is more detailed information as to how and why companion planting works.

Needless to say, there are lots of good reasons to companion plant, and they all apply to container gardens and other small space vegetable gardens. While companion planting is good for the vegetables and herbs involved, it is worth noting, that companion planting often looks better than a single vegetable plunked down in the middle of a pot with a lot of exposed dirt surrounding the base.

Here are some suggestions for fall companion plantings:

Cabbage, Broccoli and Cauliflower - Plant with aromatic herbs (mint is a traditional companion plant for cabbage), beets or chard, but not dill, strawberries, pole beans, or tomatoes.
Lettuce - Plant with radishes or carrots
Spinach - Plant with fava beans
Globe Onions - Plant with beets, carrots, lettuce and cabbage but not with beans or English peas
Turnips - Plant with English peas but not with Irish potatoes
Beets - Plant with lettuce, kohlrabi, onions, garlic, mint, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower but not with beans
Carrots - Plant with onions, chives, lettuce, leeks, shallots, rosemary, sage, and beans but not with dill, parsnip, tomatoes and radish
Leeks - Plant with carrots but not with beans or peas

NOTE: Sometimes one plant can help another to its own detriment, which explains why tomatoes should be planted with carrots if the tomato is the primary plant, but carrots should not be planted with tomatoes if the carrots are the primary plant (carrots help tomatoes but will have stunted growth because of it).

Do you have a time-tested vegetable or herb combination that works? I’d love to hear about it! Check out Mary’s companion vegetable list and see how it compares to your experience.

Sources: National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, Wikipedia and Ed Hume Seeds

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July 29, 2008 | Filed Under Fall Gardening, Fruits & Vegetables, Herbs | 10 Comments

Flickr Flower Photos

Another batch of beautiful flowers found on Flickr. They’re all basil flowers, which you really shouldn’t allow, because the plant will spend too much energy producing the flowers and the flavor of the leaves will suffer for it. But they are pretty:

Photo by Chaval Brasil

Photo by Javier Volcan

Photo by Steve C.

July 26, 2008 | Filed Under Herbs | Leave a Comment

Grow Your Own Herbal Tea

Herbal Teas taste great and can often be used to treat minor maladies or improve your mood. What’s really neat, is that many of the common ingredients in herbal teas are easy to grow in containers, which means you can have fresher than fresh herbs on hand when you’d like to make a cup or two to sooth a tummy ache or treat the symptoms of a cold, or to help you relax before bedtime.

Photo by EasyPickle

Making an herbal tea is pretty easy. All you need is the herbs, a teapot and a tea ball infuser (see the photo above, you can find them at coffee & tea shops or you can buy one online). You could get a teapot with a special infuser compartment, but it’s not required. Simply put the herbs in the infuser, put the infuser in the tea pot, pour hot water into the teapot, and let the herbs steep for a few minutes.

There are tons of herbal tea recipes on the internet, but this Apple-Chamomile Tea recipe is a good one to get started with because it only has a few, easy to acquire ingredients and who couldn’t use a mug full of relaxing chamomile?

These herbs can all be grown in containers and used for herbal tea infusions:

Flowers
Alliums (flowers and young shoots), bee balm, carnations, hibiscus blossoms, hollyhock, honeysuckle flowers (the berries are highly poisonous), Johnny-jump-ups (flowers and leaves), lavender (blossoms and leaves), nasturtiums (flowers, buds, leaves, seedpods), pansies (flowers and leaves), roses (petals, leaves, and rose hips), violets (flowers and leaves)

Kitchen herbs
Basil, chamomile flowers, chives, dill, lemon balm, marjoram, oregano, parsley, peppermint and other mints, rosemary, sage, thyme, verbena.

Bushes and trees
Citrus blossoms, gardenia, hibiscus flowers, honeysuckle flowers, scented geraniums.

“Weeds”
Chicory (flowers and buds), goldenrod, good King Henry, lamb’s quarters, purslane.

Sources: Gardeners Path, and WebMD.

July 24, 2008 | Filed Under Container Gardening, Herbs, How To, Recipe | Leave a Comment

Another Natural Pest Control Method–Diatomaceous Earth

Last week I posted about posted about organic and natural pest control methods; everything from ladybugs to homemade bug spray. But I didn’t discuss one safe and natural pest control method that works really well: diatomaceous earth (DE). DE is a chalk-like dust made from the fossilized remains of algae. It is totally safe for humans, animals and plants, but it is very bad for bugs.

Check out this video about how to use DE made by Garden Girl Patti Moreno:

July 23, 2008 | Filed Under Fruits & Vegetables, Herbs, Pests | Leave a Comment