As you may know, I'm a big proponent of local food. I like knowing where my food came from, and having some connection to it. I think that having a strong connection with your food encourages a healthy relationship with food.
You can't get more local than your own yard, so, a couple months ago I decided to start my own patio garden. I'm pleased to report that after some minor bumps in the road, it's doing quite well.
I've got 3 kinds of tomatoes, strawberries, golden wax beans, anaheim peppers, chives, dill, cilantro, oregano and rosemary.
I did learn a couple lessons with my little container garden. For most of the plants I only water them once a week, and give them a good soaking. It's best to let the roots dry out between waterings. The strawberry plant is an exception... its leaves will droop to let you know it needs some water.
Second lesson: insecticidal soap is a must. Get the organic kind -- though I don't see anything but organic in the store anyway. 1-2 days after I got the tomato plants, they were infected with tomato hornworms, these nasty little creatures:
They're difficult to spot - you have to really look for them. But you'll know you have them if you see these symptoms:
Yuck. First I had to find and dispose of the suckers. Then I sprayed my plant with the insecticidal soap, and continue to spray it thoroughly once a week. The bugs migrate to other plants nearby, so take care of them early. One of my mysteries answered was how they got there so fast. Apparently, they fly in as moths? Not sure of the whole story, but it makes sense as we had a moth infestation in San Diego this year and there were a ton by our house.
The victory garden has so far provided me and the honey with some nice ambience to our patio. We also got a little patio set in Mexico, so we enjoy sunsets outside much more often. Nothing beats it. We're adding a hammock this weekend.
A couple months into it, my tomatoes are more than four feet tall (started from a couple inches). I haven't yielded any food yet except for the herbs, but I'm coming close:
I grew some golden wax beans from seed, which was easier than I thought. They grow very fast. Check out my babies:
I may even have a hard time eating them because I'm so proud of them. ....Nah. I'll let you know how everything tastes when I make my first homegrown salad.
I end with an interesting fact - during World War II, victory gardens produced up to 40% of the produce Americans consumed. That saves some cash, transportation cost/pollution, and the picked-when-ripe veggies taste best.
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