Back in May when I started this lark, I guessed it would be too late to make a large scale effort to grow my own food in 2008. It was going to be June before I’d be settled in the apartment – a quick Google confirmed my suspicion that that would be too late in the day to set the ball rolling. Well that and I hadn’t a notion what I was doing.

So I decided to create a beta version of the garden this year. By growing a few herbs I hoped to have at least something I could use in cooking and at the same time I could check how rubbish I was at gardening and get a feel for whether the balcony was up to it space, light and temperature wise. That was the plan anyway.

Most of the plants I grew were herbs and were grown from seeds planted around the start of May before we moved in. In retrospect it seems like I might have done better had I started a bit earlier but the results in general are encouraging.

For all the herbs, the key seemed to be finding balance between watering regularly but not waterlogging (not always possible in an Irish summer). The only other care needed was to remove dead vegetation (attracts insects) and to remove flowers. For herbs, flower production means the plant is diverting energy away from its leaf production. I also used an NPK fertilizer (I used a general purpose Miracle Gro) every 3 weeks. This is necessary as the nutrients required are not present in the compost like they might be in soil in the ground.

Here’s a round up of this year’s outdoor crop:

Rosemary

Rosemary is quite a woody one so it’s a slow grower. All my seedlings seemed to grow at a very different rate so when transplanting so I kept trying to just keep the best ones. There is one really good one now (the one on the left) which I may just keep when it gets big enough. Recently in Crete I saw a rosemary bush about the size of the balcony so how hard could it be right?

Thyme

Thyme seems to grow like a bit of a weed. This might be a problem for some people but it’s not a problem when it’s in a box. An honourable mention goes to the thyme plant that recently passed away after my girlfriend accidentally pour acid on it (more on this another time).

Basil

The main characteristics of basil seem to be that it attracts flies, always complains about something and eventually dies. If you water it too much, this encourages the roots to rot, which in turn encourages insects. If you don’t water enough it just looks withered. The important balance is to make sure it is completely dried out by the time you water again.

With all the herbs I kept backups when I transplanted from seed trays into proper containers. I’m currently on my third batch of basil (first two R.I.P. – thirst and flies respectively) and with the winter setting in, my hopes aren’t high. Nonetheless, we had plenty of basil over the summer so a success of sorts!

Tarragon

Tarragon is ridiculously easy to grow. After a few weeks it was 3-4 times the height of everything else and as you can see is still overflowing the container. Unfortunately, it’s not the most versatile and I’m not too sure what to do with it if you don’t want a dish based on cream or butter. I did try to make a Bearnaise sauce for guests once. It was a success until I left it to heat up unsupervised before serving and it separated. Lesson learned – always keep a garlic butter backup.

Chives

Chives grow a bit like grass so really very straightforward. It’s not in a pot with drainage holes on the bottom at the moment. This is definitely not something the girls approve of. Though every time I think of transplanting, it just seems easier to drill holes in the bottom of the current pot. Then I get worried about cracking the pot and vow to come back to it. The chives aren’t complaining anyway.

Garlic

Looking for something quick and dirty in the book when I first got it I came across the idea of growing green garlic. It’s very easy – just pop a clove in dirt and grow. The leaves look a bit like spring onions but taste of garlic. The garlic flavour isn’t as sharp as a raw garlic clove so it’s great for salads and sandwiches and that kind of thing. You can cut it off and it grows again (cutandcomeagain I hear it’s called in the biz) so no need to replant.

Sunflowers

Good fun growing these though I don’t think they pollinated as we had no seeds. No pictures though – bad blogger / slap on the wrist!

Parsley

Parsley is easy though it is beginning to wain now it is getting a little colder. Every time I use it to garnish it makes meals look like something from a 1950’s cookbook.

Lavender

Well I think it looks and smells pretty, even if everyone I’ve said it to looks at me funny (funnier than usual when I’m going on to them about my plants anyway). I
n the garden centre I bought the ugly ducking lavender as it was the last one left. Hopefully it’ll improve.

Salad Leaves

This was a late edition and I have been regularly using it in salads and sandwiches. What’s worrying though is that you need a seriously large amount of leaves for a salad. We have a a full container and it still looks a bit empty when I take one meals worth. At least it’s a cutandcomeagainer.

Cumin (R.I.P.)

In short, cumin is not really made for and Irish climate. It grew a little bit and then gave up. It’s one of those herbs that tastes just as good dried so I think I can manage by continuing to pick up the massive bag of it in the Asian shop for 2 Euro.

Coriander

Coriander is an interesting one – I grows leaves that look like coriander leaves and then it grows leaves that don’t look like coriander leaves followed by flowers and seeds. This second stage is called bolting apparently and some go to all lengths to avoid it. For the amount of leaves and seeds you get I don’t think I can recommend it for home growing. I think the main way the coriander served us was just to confirm how little we actually like fresh coriander.

The next thing to do is figure out what is going to survive and what isn’t going to survive the winter and how. I’m encouraged by this summer’s experience – it actually turned out better than I was expecting. A few of the results did highlight the huge variety in yield for different plants in the same area. It’s going to take careful planning to get the most out of it next year

After extensive searching, I eventually settled on The Bountiful Container as my bible of sorts. The Internet is good for obscure information or some quick fixes but for this I figured that a more authoritative source was required. As usual, I cross-referenced the amazon.co.uk reviews with the amazon.com reviews, and, once I was happy, bought it on play.com. In particular, I was encouraged by the reviews which said that, although the book reflected a slight North American bias, the authors were sure to cater for varying climates and spacial logistics.

And they do. There is advice for everything from people with very low levels of sunlight to what do if all you have is a fire escape or a window sill. After reading about people with only a fire escape, I felt particularly well-endowed / fortunate / spoilt for choice with just over eight square metres.

I was a little apprehensive upon seeing the photograph of Rose Mare Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey on the front cover as they didn’t seem to come from any demographic that I had related to extensively in the past. Perhaps our shared interest in non-garden gardening would get us through. After the first chapter though my fears were allayed as they demonstrated a very level-headed and friendly approach to explaining basic principles and intricacies of container growing alike. They have no problem with delving out some frank truths and are definitely not short of imagination or creativity in pushing what is possible. Throughout the book they state realistic expectations of yield, sun and space requirements and time to harvest. Oh, and they don’t mind justifying what they say using science. Good good.

Having said all that, I did skip bits of the book about colour co-ordination and edible flowers. Well I can’t change that much can I?

So the first thing to learn seems to be the principle differences between container gardening and “traditional gardens” (Rose Marie and Maggie’s term for in-the-ground gardening). A few of the main ones seem to be:

1) With container gardening, pests, weeds and disease are less of a problem. This is most definitely a good thing.
2) It is easier to control what comprises the soil mixture in a container. Tradition gardens require “hours of extremely difficult physical labour” to achieve this according to our two experts. Exaggeration or not, it sounds like something I can gladly do without.
3) Watering containers is more awkward as in hot weather plants may need to be watered at least daily. This obviously doesn’t apply to Ireland.
4) Some plants just aren’t really suitable for containers. Watermelons and marrows will have to wait. Apples are possible, but not likely.
5) Space considerations force you to consider carefully your planting decisions. No room for the hit and hope variety of gardening here where you try everything and see what works, it seems this will call for something more careful and methodical.

Something tells me that me and the girls are going to get along just fine and that the meticulous bout of planning ahead should be fairly manageable given my obsessive tendencies.

Who knows what the correct term is! I just came across this on Wired.

As this is Wired, I guess you have to learn to expect such techie references as “aeroponics” and “aquaponics”. Nonetheless, it seems indicative of an ongoing trend towards more and more people utilizing allotments and container gardens for genuine sources of food. To me, it seems that there are a number of reasons for this:

1) Hubbub about food miles, CO2 emissions from food production.
2) Cooking trends towards simpler and more local food produce. Also, anyone who has watched Ramsay/Oliver/Fearnley-Whittingstall will know, sticking to local seasonal produce is very much healthy, fashionable, OK, nice-tasting, good for economy… all those kinds of things.
3) People are becoming more liberal visually in what they perceive as good food.
4) Thriftiness in context of recession this and economic downturn the other

Having talked to a number of people about this recently, it is interesting to hear how many people like the idea of unnaturally shiny apples or straight carrots. I have never given it much thought before, but I guess it makes sense for our instincts to kick in when we see a familiar food type which looks a little deformed compared to what we are used to, making us just a little reluctant to stray from the homogeneous large-scale produce we see in supermarkets.

For me, the main reason I wanted to grow food, was to enjoy fresh and flavoursome ingredients for cooking and maybe save some money along the way. Being an engineer-cum-scientist by trade, the logistic challenges and theory behind it attract me too. Being confined to an urban apartment ensures significantly more obstacles than having half an acre out back. I am however confident that over the next season and beyond I can demonstrate what is possible with a couple of window sills and an eight square metre balcony.