How To Grow Food - Without Land!

[triffid]

This might seem basic but........
For those of us with small (or even those without!) gardens can I suggest your having a go at growing some food. Try growing now even if you intend to BUG out - it will be invaluable experience.
We grow most of our veg this way - until a couple of years ago I didn't think it was financially 'worth it' but with the recent food price inflation, growing your own food is viable. And believe you me, your own home grown veg. tastes so much better than anything you can buy. And from an environmental perspective it's good to measure you food consumption in 'food yards' rather than 'food miles'!


The secret, for growing with minimal land, is to use containers and/or fertiliser sacks. Containers could be anything from old broken buckets to largish flower pots. If you line a bucket with a plastic sack (has to be stronger than a bin liner) you can uncrease the yield by adding soil as the crop grows. I'll explain:


Potatoes are a great start. If you can get hold of a fertiliser sack for free great but a rubble sack will do - most sacks will not be waterproof, if yours is (or you are using a bucket or suchlike) then make a few holes for drainage to prevent the soil becoming waterlogged. Six inches of soil mixed with compost, pop a chitted potato or 2 on top(chit pointing up), add another 2 inches of soil/compost. Fold down the sack to maximise the light that gets to the soil. After a few weeks the chitted potato will have sprouted. When it is a few inches high add more soil/compost and repeat until the sack is full. Remember to water the sack if necessary! You will get better yields with suitable fertiliser. After say 3 months or so the plant will eventually start to die back, this is the time to lift the spuds. Last year we actually got 5kg of spuds from 1 sack (this was an exceptional yield).

Other good crops to grow, using this method include leeks (pick throughout the winter).
Try some container gardening for herbs as well



If you have a go you will learn something, get a bit of exercise and help with the finances. It's fun.
Edited @ 12.20:
Wilko's are a good source for seed potatoes etc. If you have an Aldi near you they are having some 'deals' from this Thursday. http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/of ... sday12.htm
(seed potatoes as well as veg. seeds collapsable greenhouse etc)

[TeeDee]

Good post. How about some photos of how you have it in your life.

cheers

[TwoDo]

This guy has it down to an art form - Check out Vertical Veg

http://www.verticalveg.org.uk/my-growing-diary/

[TeeDee]

Interestingly enough ( for me at least.) I have about 40ft of the neighbours wall ( double storey )which they seem to have no intention of repainting , which is flaking away with paint.
I was toying with growing some herbs up it , but maybe I need to scale it up a bit.

[Alleycat]

This is a brilliant thread! I have been looking at my small patch of garden (7ft by 6ft) and trying to envisage what I could actually grown there without thinking of window boxes and hanging baskets. I have to keep it a bit sensible cos its a front garden and I dont want to look like a total loon...lol. The only issue I really have is that I have 2 parking spaces that back right onto my plot - my neighbours use their car about 4 times a week - but my space gets used by all the neighbours cos I dont have a car and I have never seen an issue of people parking there - I dont stress the small stuff. When it comes to food how much car exhaust is too much??

[Technik]

Greta ideas triffid - thanks for sharing.

[the-gnole]

Used tyres are good for growing lots of spuds in, we started doing it before we got the new veg patches going.

We got 6 low profile tyres and filled one with compost, then put the seed potatoes in and put another tyre on top and filled it with compost, when the green shoots came through we added another tyre and compost and repeated each time the shoots came through, we had spuds in all the tyres and just knocked the stack over to remove the spuds.

[triffid]

Hi Folks,
Glad the post has been of interest.

TeeDee, Unfortunatley I've never thought of photographing the various stages. If I took some photos today they would simply show some sacks filled with soil! Cheapy bookshops/libraries often have books showing container garden how-to's. Your 'neighbours' wall could be a brilliant site, if reasonably South facing, for growing say runner beans ('fix' hotizonlal canes six inches & 8 feet from the ground, link with string & plant runners in growsacks on the ground - then 'train' the shoots onto the string). (have a look at the price of runner beans in the supermarket for real inspiration!) See TwoDo's link for more ideas.
TwoDo: Good link. That guy has exactly the right attitude.
Alleycat: Give it a go. Possibly fertiliser sacks might make your garden resemble Steptoes' yard..... If this is a problem you might have to 'invest' in more attractive containers? I think providing the garden is kept tidy most of your neighbours will appreciate the green. In the 18thC. French stately homes had onrnamental vegatable gardens (for beauty not to eat). Didn't Uncle Monty (Withnail & I) say something along the lines of "I think the cabbage more beautiful than the rose!" I don't think car exhausts will be a problem, unless your neighbours spend ages sitting with their car engines running.
An additional benefit of having flower pots (filled with veg) might be security. A hazard for undesirables?
The Gnole: Out of interest what was the yield? I imagine it should be pretty good. I think most tyre depots/garages would be glad to give you (or even pay you to take away) old tyres because they are charged per item for disposal. And you probably can't get a (groan) " greener" use for old tyres than growing veg. in them.



You can buy sufficient seed potatoes to grow enough to last from June 'til Christmas for £3 or £4.
If you haven't got enough space to grow staples such as spuds why not try a few window boxes of herbs. There really is something rewarding about putting you own home grown food on the table.
And having even some basic knowledge of veg. growing might be invaluable - better to make your mistakes when growing for fun than when growing for necessity!

[the-gnole]

The Gnole: Out of interest what was the yield? I imagine it should be pretty good. I think most tyre depots/garages would be glad to give you (or even pay you to take away) old tyres because they are charged per item for disposal. And you probably can't get a (groan) " greener" use for old tyres than growing veg. in them.

It was pretty good the second time we did it, but the first time we didn't keep them watered enough aas the water travels quickly through the stack.

Second time we had spuds right through, about a bucketful from each pair of tyres, we used half a bucket full the next season as seed-potatoes on the new veg plot, and got 80lbs from that from an 8ft by 5ft area.

Not really worth it if you take time and effort into account as a 112lbs of spuds in under a tenner when bought in bulk, but for sheer enjoyment of growing what you eat then it was OK.

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[preppingsu]

Not really worth it if you take time and effort into account as a 112lbs of spuds in under a tenner when bought in bulk, but for sheer enjoyment of growing what you eat then it was OK.

That's what we've decided this year. We have the skills now, we know what we need to do to grow greats spuds but we cannot produce enough in the space we have to get us through the winter. So this year we are growing new potatoes as there's nothing like digging those first new spuds and eating them - lovely!
And then well by a big sack from the local far shop for the winter.