Harvest Lunch From Your Patio

Yes, it is possible.

by Michael Smith

As we have discussed in previous articles it is possible to grow vegetables for the table, from salad veggies to potatoes and other crops in a small space and even in containers on a patio or a balcony even.

With the prices of food, for one, increasing by the day, so at least at this present time it would seem, and food miles, that is the amount of miles and energy it takes from pitchfork to dinner fork, being more and more important for those of us that want to have a smaller environmental footprint (as I have said before, I do not use the term “carbon footprint”), growing our own food is something we can do to less the impact; to some degree at least.

That is one of the reasons that I grow my own vegetables and want to increase the amount that I grow per year now and also the space in which I grow them.

While I am no vegetarian and also know that the human body is not actually meant to just live of vegetables I do want to have a more vegetable-based diet, and that not only because of the fact that meat prices have, recently, gone through the roof. However, wood pigeons and squirrels are quite abundant in my location and many of them will find themselves into the freezer from now on, and this not only because of the price rises. They have had a field day in my garden, in the crops this year, and so, hence they have eaten my vegetables I am going to eat them.

And before any of the love the furry critter brigade now come screaming at me I would like to say one that gray squirrels are under the status of vermin in Britain and that there is an official cull order out on them and two I ask all the vegetarians, as I did with regards to those at the Carshalton Green Fair, namely think what would happen to the animals that you think you would protect if every person in the world would change to become a vegetarian tomorrow. With the exception of chickens for eggs and cows for milk and sheep for wool all others would be killed and destroyed for no farmer, and no one else either for that matter, will spend money feeding those animals for no reason. In addition to that, if we really would have to all live of vegetables deer and others animals that “attack” food crops also would soon no longer be amongst us, for if we would not eradicate them to protect our food then we humans would soon all face starvation. It is all fine and good to think of how cute all those animals are and I too like them all as well but, and here comes the big but, they owe their general existence and life, however short it may be, only to the fact that humans like to eat them. But I digressed.

When you turn your patio into a backyard veggie garden you can bring your food miles down to almost zero, at least as regards to those veggies that you can grow there. It goes some way towards reducing your impact on the environment.

By just eating 20% less meat a week, it is reckoned that one could save as as much gas as driving a hybrid car. Obviously, if you grow your own vegetables at home or at an allotment then, by cutting down those food miles you are reducing that impact even further, as the transportation costs for the vegetables that you eat but did not buy in a store are zero in that case.

The Royal Horticultural Society in the United Kingdom has shown that even in a 3x3m square raised bed set up a family can grow – in a rather intensive way, which is to say to plant new stuff as soon as the other stuff comes to an end – fresh vegetables for the table all year round. It will still take me a while before I am even anywhere near that. But, as it can be done, I shall endeavor to do so and I hope that others will do the same.

I have this year, for a trial, grown potatoes in cardboard boxes , and without doing much to them, got quite a good crop for no real input at all, as the potatoes used as seed were just simply supermarket potatoes that had grown some sprouts. So, another proof that it can be done with little material input. It would have been a lot better had the boxes been deeper and had I continued to add soil and such. However, the trial worked and more of this next year.

© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
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Grow your own small vegetable garden

Even the smallest space can produce plenty of vegetables, even a patio can

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

I am no market gardener, that's for sure, and I have varied success with my own small garden in that fashion but that is due to the location and the fact that I get overrun by slugs and snails and also the squirrels and pigeons think that my garden is a feeding station for them. Well, it is not but try telling them that.

Also, I must add that I am not the most consistent home gardener, as I am often too busy with writing material for the many magazines that I own and edit.

However, while I doubt that most families could become entirely self-sufficient (then again, is complete self-sufficiency even possible?) in the suburbs on their patio and/or small part of garden that they are often only willing to sacrifice for food growing, the food thus grown can go someways towards reducing food miles and costs.

Obviously, the bigger the area the more food you can grow. But, having said that, lots can be done in a small space. This was shown at the “Grand Designs Live” exhibition with the small garden that was shown there and also in other places. It is possible.

If you do not want to build raised beds with timber, bricks or whatever, then there are nowadays a couple of companies that produce “clickable” plastic siding that make then up a raised beds. But be warned! They are not cheap but they will last nigh on forever, unlike timber.

However, there are many other options for building a small garden – I mean other than digging up the ground. On a patio you would not and could not do that anyway. So, here comes “container gardening”.

There are containers and there are containers for gardening, obviously, From the old style terracotta put and tub to the plastic ones and everything else. You do not even have to go and buy such containers, as they can often be found thrown away. Old washing-up bowls can be used, the pots that contained trees from nurseries, the barrels that contained cooking oils – cut in half makes two – and many more. In addition to that there are the large bags in which building sands and the likes comes nowadays. Fold over the sides and – voila – one square raised bed of rather some depth.

The tubs presently mentioned all – bar the containers that once will have had trees in them – will require holes for drainage drilled into the bottom. I handle that quite simply and quickly here; a few shots of target practice with a .22 air rifle and, well, drainage holes. Who said they had to be x-amount of millimeter in size and perfectly round?

That is container gardening on the cheap, basically. It beats – in cost at least – any store bought tubs for plastic tub/container gardening.

In addition to that there are other containers that can be employed as well. Know of an old bathtub, whether iron (well, they are worth money...) or fiberglass? They too make great planters for vegetables.

There have been articles around about the advantages of growing your own vegetables and in them it is pointed out that not only do people waste less food by being able to go pick fresh vegetables when they need them, but the cost of having a small garden compared to buying fresh produce from the grocery store can save us all a lot on food.

So, what's stopping you?

© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008