I unearthed some old trellises here, and am planning to use them along the front porch. But I’m also going to use the old chain link along the sides for some things.

Your advice is most welcome!

For Pole Beans, I took a 6′ x 3-foot self-watering window box, I planted two beans every three inches for a total of 20 bean plants. I stapled twine to the deck every three inches, and ran it up to the wooden overhead, and fixed it there. I placed the window box in front of it, and the beans did all the rest. I did the same thing for cucumbers right next to the Beans. One plant every six inches. They grew and produced like crazy, and made a wonderful, living, privacy screen. three feet above the boxes, on the metal railing, I had two window boxes straddling the rail, filled with greens, onions, herbs, radishes and beets. a little of this and that. Along the long south railing, I had the high window boxes, and all of my tomatoes– three Romas, two Big Boys, a “Mortgage Lifter,” and a Cherry Tomato. All trained up the strings, and ~2-feet apart. Again, perfect screen. I rotated mini crops through the window-boxes just like a farmer with a big field. I would seed in only half a box with Radishes, say, and then the other half two weeks later, so I always had a couple of Radishes to pull for a salad or a fresh bruscetta.

My last Winter/Spring at that apartment, I hung the “bean and cuke” window boxes on the railings a foot below the others on the South side. I used coat hangers to make little rib hoops, and put some clear visqueen over the hoops, and Gaffer’s taped it to the sides of the boxes. I grew all the salad greens and onions and radishes that I needed in those tiny little greenhouses. When we had very cold, or long cold snaps, I had to bring in those six boxes, by by George, they produced a surprising lot of veggies and herbs.

For just me, I always had something to eat out there. Friends and neighbors always gave me compliments as to how it looked. For watering, I ultimately ended up getting a Rubbermade container, a twice a day lighting timer, and a submersible fountain pump, and by using various sized hosing bits, and some reducers, I made a watering system that watered the plants twice a way, and all I had to do was fill up the container twice a week (three times during the hot of Summer. Regular 1/4″ hose connected to 1/4″ soaker hose at the window boxes, and to regular hosing between containers. You can make Organic fertilizer teas, and put them right into the container with the pump, and easily feed your plants. It didn’t end my need to go to the produce section, but, it sure cut down my food bills– enough to help me save the down payment for the house and land.

I’m in the process of scaling up that watering system to do the same thing for my big 4′x16′ garden beds out in the back yard, and out to the cornfield/future orchard.

OK. My fingers are tired.

Cheers! And good luck with those Urban Gardens, folks– we expect lots of reports!

If you have seeds, dirt, water, and care, you can grow food anywhere!

–mf

All I’ve done is get ready to go back to work. Tying up loose ends, making sure the bills are paid and clothes are clean. Errrrrrrgh.

My MusicMatch software refused to install. There are some serious issues with MusicMatch, primarily caused by the fact that Yahoo bought it in 2007 and shut it down, so there is no support or new drivers available. However, MM 7 has enough fans that some geeks figured out the problem — MM was calling some dll drivers from Internet Explorer 6 which do not exist in IE 7 — and wrote code to fix everything. Now my MusicMatch works. Double hooray!

I think that’s the last of the software that needs to be loaded. Now to get busy again.

I’m going to try the tomatoes on the back deck this year. I had planned to put them down in the back, where the two trees came down, but I think that there is a spot on the deck that will get enough sun. We’ll see, and if it doesn’t work, they can go out front again.