Today is one of those days that makes me think, if I were a seed, today would be my day to sprout! Spring is here and it is time to get into the garden!
I live in the city, which means a few things:
a) space for a garden is quite limited
b) I don't know much about my gardening site's history or soil quality
c) the proximity of buildings makes sunlight a limited resource
For all of these reasons, I keep my home garden in containers, most of them found or free items. I don't need lots of room, I know exactly what the soil quality is, and I can move my containers around to maximize sunlight. Because I don't have/use much room, I grow intensively and amend the soil constantly to support the multiple plantings every season. Growing in containers also means that I can extend the season, starting early and growing later by keeping the soil warm and protecting plants.
What kind of containers are free, you might ask. Most of mine are old shipping or packing materials that have been discarded: damaged bread trays, fruit crates, milk crates (lined with cardboard or perforated plastic sheeting to keep the soil in). Occasionally I will buy a container for specific purposes, but I mostly reuse to keep everything low cost and low impact. Now, if I happened to have a stash of beautiful ceramic or fiberglass containers, I would gladly fill them with trailing nasturtium, swiss chard and cherry tomatoes...But, for now, I use what I have and keep trolling yard sales and nursery dumpsters.
So, what is growing in my pots and trays? Today I seeded Bok Choi, Radishes, onions, shallots, carrots, beets, swiss chard, spinach and peas. TOmorrow, arugula, mache, broccoli rabe and mesclun greens will go in. A few weeks ago I started some lettuce seeds inside, which I'll plant outside soon. I am also working on some containers that I'll be using as demos for the Somerville Garden Club in June--more to come on that later.
In addition to my containers at home, I also have a community garden plot in East Somerville, where I grow some larger crops: tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers. Tomorrow is community clean up day, so I'm off to pick up some snacks and yard waste bags. In the ground or in the pot, it is most certainly time to get growing!
