Why to get or use a Community Garden or a Patio Garden?

This year the drought in California is becoming acute.  80% of the water in California is used for agriculture.  That means if the shortages continue, our food prices for produce, almonds, strawberries, citrus and vegetables will continue to increase.  We cannot do anything about some food which we cannot grow easily in the Midwest, but there is no reason we cannot grow vegetables and herbs for our own use and perhaps enough surplus to can and preserve for winter use.

In fact it is possible that even if we are just buying produce from local farmers at the farmer’s market we can extend our food budget and improve the quality of our daily meals.  This blog will give recipes for using and preserving your produce as well as ideas for growing your own food, even if it is only one plant in a pot on the patio.

Let’s start with patio containers

If you want a quick garden use a container.  You can use any size container and just about anything as the container.  Some people with an outdoor patio use a half barrel.

Herbs in a cement container

Others use a wash tub or terracotta pots or other decorative containers one can get at the hardware store or home center. However you can also use coffee cans, milk cartons, salvaged containers that were never originally intended to be used for gardening.

Strawberry Pot

Washtub

One of the best containers to use for herbs if you are short on space is a strawberry planter.  You can find these at your local gardening center. They are usually made of terra cotta and have many small openings around the sides for your smaller herbs. You can plant the larger herbs at the top.

It is possible to keep an entire culinary herb garden conveniently located right outside your door in one strawberry planter. Some good choices of herbs for this would be: oregano, thyme, curly parsley, lemon verbena, chives, and basil.

The key with any container is a good potting soil and great drainage.  Before adding soil to your chosen container, you will need to provide a layer of rocks, gravel or Styrofoam pellets to the bottom quarter of the container to help with the drainage process. Broken chips from terra cotta pots also work nicely for this. If you are planning on bringing an outdoor container of herbs indoors during the winter months, I would suggest the use of the Styrofoam pellets to keep the weight down.

Use a good quality potting soil mix to fill your container to within two inches from the top to allow plenty of space for watering. Few herbs require a large amount of fertilization, but nearly all vegetables will require some fertilizer during the growing season, especially if kept in pots.

Keep your container garden well-watered, as they will dry out more rapidly than those that have been planted directly into the garden.

raised beds

Having a Garden Plot

Many communities have plots available for rental and sometimes even for free or for volunteer service. Near me there are garden plots available from the Elmhurst Park District, which is where I rent mine.  In nearby Berkeley, IL they just started a Community Garden Club in 2013. They rent plots and offer information for beginning gardeners.  I found a listing on the DuPage County website pulled together for the Cool Cities Initiative that lists all the public gardens and the rent-able plots in the county.  You can find it HERE.

The nice thing about a community plot is you have a set space, prepared soil and access to water most of the time. The bad thing about a community garden is that the soil can be depleted and the instance of diseases can be increased. But for those like me, who live in an apartment or a condo it is a great place to grow vegetables when you only have a small patio space.

In some cases community gardens are just prepared soil and in other cases they are raised beds.

Elmhurst Garden Plots

These are the Elmhurst plots, three rows about 300 feet long, each 20 feet wide with two shorter rows at the far end of this picture about  100 feet long, again 20 feet wide. They have grass inbetween the rows and two well attachment areas.

This is a raised bed garden in Sheboygan, WI built into a small corner lot that has a strong slope.  Populated with several raised beds, it takes advantage of the land in ways not much else could.  They have water and a tool box provided.  There are two compost bins making soil from last years leavings  I was amused, rather than numbering the beds, they named them after flowers, like bluebell, lily, etc.

Raised bed garden

 You can tell they are allowed to keep the same plots year after year and unlike Elmhurst, where nothing can remain from one season to another, they have customized them with art and perennial plantings.  These photos were taken in May so not many new plants have been added as it was too early.

Compost bins

water and tool chest and benches

These small bins no more than 8 feet by 4 feet.  Enough for a a dozen plants which can produce produce for a small family easily and not require too much work.  We also found other rented plots in Sheboygan with slightly larger spaces.  Fenced and also including a compost bin.  That is something lacking at our gardens in Elmhurst.