(Katherine) wrote:

I have a small backyard (30' x 8') in my condo. I am in zone 6b
(Vancouver, BC) and get an average 8 hours of sun/day.

The first 10' is covered in patio paver stones, for the bbq and dining
area. For the other 20', I'm planning on either purchasing floor
decking (see http://www.ikea.ca/webapp/wcs/stores...&cattype= sub)
or make the decking myself if its quite a bit cheaper. I'll leave a
few spots open in between the decking squares for planting the odd
thing, and using containers for other things.

Because my area is so tiny I've decided to grow cucumbers using a
trellis, I did this last year and it worked great. My tomatoes I'll
try in tubs this year, possibly with wheels so I can move them around
if they need a more sunnier spot. What other things can I try in such
a small space? Peas perhaps? What about squash?

I'd love to hear from urbanites that have small city gardens such as
myself and photos of what they have done would really be wonderful!

Shaynelle, you can grow a lot of things in tubs if you give them the
right size and the right treatment. I grew about half my stuff in
containers last year. I rent the first floor of a house & have a
patio. THis year I have plenty of ground. I sucessfully grew medium
sized pumpkins (great for inidvidual kid-sized jack-o-lanterns),
peppers, tomatoes, snow peas, snap peas, jalapenos, bell peppers,
cayennes, radishes, lettuces, scallions, & a bunch of herbs. I tried
potatoes but a wilt hit them. I did get two little potatoes. :-) I
also grew six corn stalks, but I messed up the fertilizer on them and
while they were full grown the tassels came out weeks too soon. I did
get half a cob of corn, which I feed to the birds.

This page has links to some pictures--not all are still available.
http://members.aol.com/digitalvinyl66/PatioGarden.html


I've already started my lettuces, spinach, radish, broccoli &
cauliflower in this years containers.

If you want to have some reading material on it, McGee & Stuckey's
Bountiful Container is the best I've read. They focus on those veggies
that are the most successful in containers. Theoretically you could
grow any given a large enough container. However some won't produce as
well. I recal my mom planted some tomato seed in a flower windowbox.
It grew 3-4 feet high and produced cherry-sized tomatoes. The seeds
were from beefsteak-styles, so the crowded spaces stunted them, but
things will grow given the opportunity. McGee & Stuckey discuss beets,
beans, carrots, cucumbers, eggplants, greens & lettuce, onions, Leeks,
garlic, peas, peppers, potatoes, radishes, spinach, squash & tomatoes.


Controlling Moisture consistency is a big thing in containers. I used
a couple of methods. I used self-watering containers which performed
well during heatwaves. However the spring was too wet and mold was an
issue in almost all of them before I released they could keep the dirt
TOO wet. I use Terra-Sorb or Moist-Soil crystals (break down into
potassium in 3-5 years). They soak up excess water and release it when
the ground dries. It helped to keep things evenly watered. I had only
half-dozen tomatoes out of 35 lbs form cracks. Regular watering is
important and soil amendments like those help. I also tried hydro mat,
diapers for the bottom of the pots. I didn't notice them helping as
much--although I think I have only one container with it now. One of
them grew a mushroom out a drainage whole during the all-too-wet
spring.

I won't buy clay pots anymore. They dried out way too quickly. My clay
pots needed to be watered twice a day during summer when plastic ones
needed just once. The soil in the clay ones also didn't have any
terra-sorb in them.



DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
2nd year gardener