I really want to pickle the cauliflower!

Only in the last couple of years have I entered the world of gardening. Our first garden was in Seattle and we planted a whole mishmash of herbs and veggies. Over time my interest in cooking affected my investment in growing. Once I learned what herbs I liked most or what veggies were most used, I wanted to focus on those. And now with my food passions at full speed I want to plant everything! I can see the use of so many herbs, veggies and fruits – one day I may just have to start a mini-farm to stock my kitchen with all these desires.

Here in Portland there is a collective buzz around growing one’s own food. It is fairly common to see people intentionally killing their lawns so they can plant food. Personally, I find this inspiring. I want to think that such behaviors can spread across the nation, but the bubble that is Portland may not influence the actions of others. At the same time, once the cost of oil continues to climb and food costs continue to soar, I think folks will have to catch on to the gardening trends.

An important piece of the puzzle is accessibility. By this I mean the ability to grow food – to have the space to grow. For many urban folks, millions and millions of people have minimal room to grow food. And yet, there are still possibilities. I am no expert but I want to share some of the different ways of growing one’s own food. Consider the size of your home or space and maybe some of these options will work:

• Container gardening: If you don’t have a yard but maybe a porch or a large window sill this option may be best. The goal is what you might imagine – to plant flowers, herbs, produce, etc in containers. These containers could be boxes, buckets or boots. The link I provided is just one of many online, but I thought this one provides a good introduction to the art of container gardening.

• Raised-bed gardening: This is my new favorite kind of gardening. When we lived in Minneapolis we had a large backyard, and more than half of it had become a garden. Here in Portland our “backyard” is more a gravel lot that has been converted to a ‘green space’ for us tenants. As far as I understand, this method of gardening is best when your soil is not so great. By building a raised bed you can determine just how much space you want to devote to the planting process – how wide, how long and how deep. As you can see with the picture above and the picture below, we have built some raised beds for ourselves.

Gotta have them salad greens.

In this picture you can see two rows of spinach (on the far left), one row of lettuce and two rows of mixed greens (on the far right.) In this bed, unlike the other picture, we planted the crops from seed instead of starters. Another great aspect to this gardening technique is the control you have over weeds. When your crop base is so contained it is far easier to weed out the unwanted plants. When we lived in Minneapolis with a large standard garden, weeding becomes a huge part of the maintenance. If you are lazy or short on time, I highly recommend building and planting in a raised-bed setup.

• Gardening: For those of you with land this is the most conventional method I know. Again, the link I provided seems like a good resource but I’m sure that millions of other sites too. My thought is that if you have the land and good soil then gardening is your best bet. If you have bad soil and limited land use, then you should consider raised-beds or container gardening.

No matter the circumstance I do believe that growing your own food is the way to go. For most of us, we cannot grow everything we want to eat. But once you identify your favorite plants, why not try to plant just those? The more you cook the more you will want to grow.

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In the case that growing is impossible or its impossible to provide yourself the diversity you want, do consider a CSA share. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. The premise is simple: for ‘x’ amount of dollars you purchase a share of a farm’s product. Most CSAs provide produce, but nowadays you can find some that provide dairy products, meat, flowers and honey. An excellent resource for finding a CSA near you is Local Harvest.

Related posts:

1. Urban farming – a world of possibility
2. Introducing Permaculture
3. Urban Farming in Portland (part 1)
4. Cooking Class Takes New Direction
5. Salad Salad Salad

Tags: CSA, Gardening, seasonal eating, Urban Ag