every year our garden seems to expand and I make new favorites with the vegetables. all i want in this life is a huge huge plot of land that I can fill up with tons of growing foods. I swear i would be insanely excited and over the top.
and i would also get some chickens and some jersey cows. 3 cows to be exact. and I would make so much cheese that i would beg you to meet me at the gas station so i could give you some. (unless i know you, then you could come to my house.)
and inside my house i would have a whole room dedicated to fabric and yarn. and I would make my most favorite clothes.
now that you have had a tour of my most favorite day dream, let me show you my real life:
and here is my take on small space gardening:
my top 3 plants to grow in a small space are:
spinach
french breakfast radishes
carrots
SPINACH: I get my spinach seeds from Johnny's Seeds. I buy the renegade organic spinach seeds. click here! spinach is so easy and quick to grow. if you keep it fertilized by using compost, you will be blessed with an abundance of spinach. and it required very little space. spinach can successfully grown in a container, just in case you were wondering. (most lettuces grow well in containers.) I keep my spinach picked. I have some garden scissors that i cut each leaf off with when they look about the right size. the rest just keep on growing. If i cant use all of the spinach at once, I cook it very quickly with a little water in a pot and then drop it in some ice water to blanch it. I put it in a freezer container, and pop it in the freezer. we put spinach in everything but dessert.
FRENCH BREAKFAST RADISHES: i bought my seeds in Asheville at the french broad co-op. you can also buy them at earthfare in Knoxville, TN, or online. click here. Let me say a few words about my french breakfast radishes..... these are tasty little treats. they are not as spicy and hot as a regular red radish. they are mild. great with french bread and butter. (and course sea salt.) I love them i love them i love them. and here is the best benefit. they are fast growing and no nonsense. I planted them in an area that I just dug up this year, the soil was less than fabulous to say the least, but i added a little compost in and mixed it around. I planted these in March. the middle of march to be exact. they are quick little guys! use some good compost mixed in when planting the seeds, and you should be good to go. these guys get planted around 3 inches apart. and that makes them excellent for small spaces. I planted 3 rows of radishes in about a 24in by 15in area. i have 1 word for you: salad.
CARROTS: i have no preference for carrots. the last carrot seeds i bought were from southern seed savers exchange. click here. these seeds are available at the three rivers market here in Knoxville. as long as your soil is deep, you can grow carrots. we have some raised boxes that are about 8 inches deep. I dug up the grass where the boxes would be and dug it a little deeper than normal to set the boxes down in the ground. I mixed in compost, peat moss, and some regular top soil. the carrot seeds are small, so dont try and regulate. just put them in a line. and thin thin thin. I like to start thinning about every week. this is one veggie you do not want to crowd. I make sure the carrots are at least 4 inches apart. as the carrot tops pop up, i compost around the tops.
aaaaannnnddd, i should say a little something about compost. if you do not have a composter or compost area, you can make one. before we were given a compost tumbler, we just made a simple compost area that was shaped like a rectangle that had a partition in the middle that was removable. it was literally just some boards nailed together. after it would get full on one side, we would lift the partition and move it all over to the other side. we would keep doing that over and over until it was ready. and we also would add peat moss to the pile to get it to decompose faster. to keep the bugs and mold away we would keep a bag of kitchen scraps in the freezer. a zip top ziplock bag.
Let me clarify: the only kitchen scraps that are compostable are those that have never touched an oil or a fat and grow in the ground. i.e. apple peels, juiced lemons, carrot peels, coffee grounds, etc. never put meat or dairy in your compost.
we would add our frozen kitchen scraps, leaves, grass clippings, and saw dust until it was full. we would dig a hole in our compost pile, which also had tons of leaves and grass clippings, and dump the scraps inside the hole. we would cover it with more leaves or grass clippings and then mix it up. we never had a problem with rodents or mold. it shouldn't ever smell. it should only ever smell like soil.
if you are not able to compost, buy a bag of compost from a garden store.... they usually have mushroom compost. it will work just fine. or you could buy a worm composter. what fun what fun!
now, you should get creative and grow some food.
