Having the ability to produce alot of food has become very important to us.  Food prices continue to rise and “healthy” eating becomes fiscally more difficult all the time.  And…there’s just nothing better than that window of a few months where you can go out and pick your own fresh greens, luscious tomatoes (better than the mealy store ones!), etc.  We love variety and I try to plant anywhere from 2-10 varieties of everything we plant just for the fun of it.

We live in town, and have limited space.  Last year we overhauled our backyard and were able to double the amount of garden area we had, which helped alot.   We other garden space outside our yard last year, and do not have it this year, so we were forced to be creative.  We came up with several ideas that I thought were worth sharing and so far they’ve been successful.

Delicata squash in a tomato cage:

Heirloom hidatsa shield beans on netting (we got it at Peaceful Valley Farm Supply):

Lots and lots of cabbages, planted closely.  I gave about a foot distance between them.  Ignore the weeds.

Melons and cucumbers growing up cattle panels.  We asked around and got most of ours for free, but you can get them at farm supply stores too. 🙂

Baby chanterais melon growing up a cattle panel:

Potted spaghetti squash with a tomato cage:

Raised beds with strawberry plants (again, ignore the weeds):

Herb pots are great – here is some spearmint:

Sage:

Thyme:

Potato bags (I bought these from a friend at a rummage sale, but I think she got them at Gardener’s Supply originally.  You could also check eBay.):

Raised beds (we have 32 pepper plants of all varieties in 2 4×4 beds…and they are all doing great!):

Our very tiny Country Gentleman heirloom organic corn planted in some area by the alley that we tilled up late this spring.  We are hopeful. 🙂

Pie pumpkins on cattle panels out near the alley.  Planted late, but again…we’re hopeful.

This has been the most productive garden we’ve had, and I attribute alot of that to growing more things vertically than we ever have.   Be warned, it’s a process.  Every year we tweak it (keeping records is very helpful) and try to add on in some way.  I’m happy with our little plot in the alley, and even if nothing produces this year we’ll have it ready for next year.  Hope these ideas were helpful!

Last weekend, we got the bulk of our seeds planted.  Our daughter’s awesome preschool teachers saved milk cartons for us for a few weeks – a great big THANK YOU to them!

We used the milk cartons and the seed starting mixture from Walmart.  We fill the cartons with the seed starting dirt, make a whole and put in roughly 3 seeds.  Fill the hole loosely with dirt, water (not too much) and cover with plastic wrap.  Last year I started using big tin foil lasagna pans (also from Walmart) and they work great to keep all the plants contained and generally under our grow lights.   I am not sure how many plants we started yet, but I would estimate it is around 200.

Aerial view of some of the seeds we started:

 

Planting:

More planting:

One week later…signs of life! 🙂

This year we ordered our seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and Seed Savers Exchange.  This is in addition to seed that we saved from last year.   I am also ordering seeds from Turtle Tree Seeds, Bountiful Gardens and Horizon Herbs.  We have ordered from them in the past and have been very happy with quality.

I also thought I’d share a few of the varieties that I’m the most excited about:  Black from Tula tomato, Ivory Pear Tomato, Syrian 3 Sided Pepper, Cour di Bue cabbages and Genovese Basil.