I plan on doing a lot more indoor gardening this year. One reason is home grown food is healthier and my produce will have no chemicals and the other reason is our summer was pretty much non-existent and my garden was reduces in size to deal with the weather.

photo credit: Handolio

So I am not burned out on gardening this year and there are areas I want to experiment in. One area is small space gardening techniques, growing a variety of plants in a small space to see exactly what I can successfully grow.

Another area is hydroponic gardening.

When I first read about hydroponic gardening I was put off on this style of gardening. The list of chemical made me think the food would be toxic! But as I read more these are chemicals in the soil and are needed to grow. We also need these chemicals in our systems to be healthy.

So this winter I will be experimenting in different styles on hydroponic gardening. Vertical gardening, growing walls and greenhouse hydroponic will all be in the plan.

photo credit: _foam

So if you are a pro in hydroponic gardening join in and offer suggestions.

And if you are a novice, like me, be prepared for an adventure.

In the next few weeks you will see a lot of articles by guest writers who know about this topic than I do. And hopefully in the late winter and spring I will have a wonderful garden to show off.

Technorati Tags: gardening experiments, greenhouse gardening, healthy gardening, hydroponic gardening, indoor gardening, small space gardening

Many town and city dwellers are adding a small space garden retreat to their homes and apartments.
photo credit: Mike Raybourne

They have realized that fresh vegetables, fragrant flowers and savory herbs are possible to grow, even in the smallest of spaces. A tiny urban plot, a balcony, sunny windowsill, or even by using a community garden, they can grow fresh chemical free produce.

Gardening Tips for setting up a small Urban Garden

Evaluate your space. Make the most of the space you have. Sit down and draw up a plan, Grow what you will use the most or have trouble purchasing and set up a program to share produce with you neighbors. They may have more room to grow certain crops than you so.

And if all else fails, sign up for a community garden spot. Many cities and towns are offering space for people to grow plants and vegetables.

Enrich the soil. Having limited space means that your soil will work harder to produce crops in a smaller area. You may also be using succession planting techniques (growing several crops in a row in the same space) so make sure your soil is loamy and full of compost.

you can improve your soil by checking with your local parks department to see if yard waste is composted for community use. You can also collect leaves and grass clipping from neighbors.

Apartment dwellers can start a vermi compost bin in their apartment and make compost using kitchen scraps and earthworms. It’s amazing how much compost you can make in a garbage can.

Keep your garden area clean and tidy. A clean garden area has less insect and bug problems so remove any dead or weak plant leaves. Weeds should be pulled daily and they can be added to a compost bin. If you want to cut back on any weeding add mulch. Mulch also has the added advantage of keeping moisture in the soil making watering easier.

An advantage city gardener has with a smaller garden area is the time it takes to maintain. A small plot can easily be watered and weeded in 20 minutes a day where a large garden can take hours each day. And a container or windowsill garden only takes a few minutes each day.

Grow your crops vertically. If your available gardening area consists of a narrow rectangular space or a small balcony area or patio corner train miniature vegetables, tomatoes and flowering vines to grow up a trellis. Many seed companies have a wide selection of miniature vegetables for small gardens areas.

An entire salad garden can be grown in a window or container planter by selecting ‘Micro-Tom’ tomatoes, mini lettuce varieties, sweet onions or a clump of chives in a container. You may even have room for a cucumber plant.

Many trees can be grown in containers and set out on patios and along property lines in the summer. If you grow small fruit trees you will have the added benefit of fresh fruit.

Protect your clay and stone pots from freezing temperatures by bring them indoors in the winter.  You can also wrap the large pots with plastic bags filled with straw to prevent water penetration, which will crack clay pots in freezing temperatures.

If you don’t have storage space or don’t want the extra work of storing pots, use faux stone or faux terra-cotta pots made from plastic. These pots are light and less prone to frost damage.

With the cost of food skyrocketing and the fact that the world is not producing enough food to feed the people its important to raise what you can to help your budget and help our world.

There are many articles on recession gardening at Recession Gardening garden plan.

Technorati Tags: recession gardening, small space gardening, urban gardening

It may be you don’t have a lot of time or possibly a lot of space but you can grow a tea garden that will provide you with fresh teas and add color and fun to your windowsills, porch or balcony.
photo credit: nessguide

These mini container gardens will take very little time and with a tea garden theme you can have fun with the containers.

Setting small mini gardens will make them portable so that you can move them in the house when cool weather arrives. This garden will provide a year round supply of tea and plant variety to your house.

Select an appropriate container for your tea garden. You may prefer to have everything in one large container, or to have a grouping of container tea gardens. A grouping will allow the plants more room to grow and thrive plus give you more creativity in arrangements and pots.

Clay pots work well for proper drainage but you can use any pots that have a hole for drainage in the bottom and add pebbles or terra cotta pieces in the bottom of the containers for drainage. I use a coffee filter over the drainage holes to prevent soil from leaking out. I also sit my containers on a tray with pebbles to catch any water that drains out and to add humidity around the plant.

You will need a nutrient-rich potting soil or compost. Check to make sure your pot has good drainage in the bottom and fill your pot almost completely full with the soil. Herbs do not use as much water as some plants so water carefully once you plants are growing.

It will be fun to choose the herbal tea plants that please you and will make fine teas. I like many of the thyme herbs. You can check you local health food store to get ideas for herb plants and search online for herbal tea recipes.

Mint and balm family herbs are very popular for tea blends. Other plants suggestions would be different sage plants, pot marigold, cilantro, basil and lavender.

Plant your herbs according to the instructions that come with each plant or on the back of the seed packets. Be careful not to crowd the herb plants. I plant one to two per smaller containers and 5 to 6 for a larger container.
photo credit: themissiah

Herbs thrive in full sun with well-drained soil so choose a sunny room or window. If you use your herbs on a regular basis they will not become overcrowded in the containers.

Enjoy your herbal container garden!

Technorati Tags: growing herbs, herbal tea gardens, herbs, herbs for homemade teas, small space gardening, theme garden