First Planting

NOW THAT YOU have your plants and containers, it's time to get them growing. You'll want to get set up before you begin: make sure you have potting soil, plants, slow-release fertilizer, and containers. You might want a small spade as well, or gardening gloves, though I use neither. It works just as well to dig the potting soil out with a leftover plastic plant cup and dig the dirt from under my nails later!

Before you begin, it's helpful to stick the plants (still in their pots) into your final containers and move everything all around. Do you have beans that will need a tall support? Twining squash vines that might look good in a high place? Chives that need to be kept cool? Group your plants by how much sun they need, especially if you'll be planting multiple plants in a single container. Mix low-growing plants with tall-growing ones to maximize your space. Take your time and have fun with it!

Once you have your plants laid out the way you'll want them to be, it's time to dig in.

Most bags of soil marked 'potting soil' will work for your purposes. Some have slow-release fertilizer already mixed in, and some don't. I prefer to use organic potting soil myself, and large companies like Miracle-Gro now provide organic potting soil at large chain stores such as Home Depot. If you go to a local garden center, however, they will be able to give you better guidance on the best soil for your plant type, container type, and local conditions. 

If your potting soil doesn't have a slow release fertilizer already mixed in, you'll need to add a bit. First, add a few inches of potting soil to your container, tamping it down very gently with the backs of your fingers. Shake in about a tablespoon (for the container size shown here) of slow-release fertilizer granules, such as Osmacote- they have varieties specially formulated for veggies or flowers. For a more organic approach, use a seaweed-based fertilizer instead.

Pop the plants out of their plastic containers by turning them upside-down, pushing on the bottoms, and gently (very gently!) pulling on the base of the roots. Delicately wiggle your fingers around in the tangle of roots at the base of the plant to loosen them from their tight container-like configuration, and place the plant on top of the fertilizer. 

When you have each plant in the container, fill in the gaps around the plants with more potting soil. You'll want to jiggle the container slightly or tamp down the dirt with your hands to fill any air pockets with soil.

Alternatively, you could plant different species in terra cotta pots and then plant those pots in a longer container. This will cut down on the frequency of watering, since the larger container will hold more water, but it will severely limit the size of your plants. That may be a good thing, depending on what you're growing. A highly invasive plant, like mint, can only be trusted not to take over the entire container when it is planted in this way.

To discourage any weed seeds- they are sometimes imported in your potting soil or even lurk at the base of your new plants- reduce watering, and repel predators, cover the raw dirt with some form of mulch. This could be wood chips, gravel, or even tumbled river stones. White rocks look very tidy and as an added bonus reflect light back onto the plants, which can maximize your sunlight in a shady garden. Mulching your plants will give a finished look to your garden and save you work down the line.

Choosing the Plants

THE BEST PART about growing your own container garden is getting to choose what types of plants you'll be growing. Given a large enough container you can grow anything- even trees- so let yourself be guided by the size of your containers, the daily dose of sun your plot gets, and your own imagination. Most of all, grow what you would most like to eat, smell, or see. Maybe you're interested in doing a 'vertical tasting' of cherry tomato varieties (Sungold! Stupice! Early Girl!), or maybe you want to see how many types of vining squashes you can cram onto your patio (Zucchini! Crook-necked yellow! Dwarf pumpkin!). Perhaps you want a little bit of every variety of herb you can think of for your kitchen. Maybe you're mad for berries.

Basically, you'll have to decide if you want a big harvest of a few things, or small crops of lots of things. Don't despair if you can't choose: you can just as easily find a good balance of everything. The charts below have been organized by the minimum amount of sun required for each plant, since I find that's usually the main concern for container gardeners. Remember, every plant can always use more sun and a bigger pot!

Key: Plant Name (Recommended Varieties), Minimum Container Size. Notes.

HERBS

Sun

• Basil (Greek, Lemon, Pesto Perpetuo, Plenty, Summerlong), Small. Basil will start to wilt quickly if not given enough water. There are a number of different varieties, from the succulent, shiny-leafed type to ones with a tougher, drier looking leaf. The drier-looking varieties (Greek, Lemon, Pesto Perpetuo) are hardier than the more shiny-leafed ones (Genovese, Plenty, Summerlong, Sweet), though I think the shiny varieties are more flavorful. Watch for a black rot at the root of the plant soon after planting. Yank and toss any of those plants and their surrounding soil.



• Lavender (English, Provence Blue), Small. Lavender isn't usually thought of as an herb though it can be used as an ingredient in tea. Plus, it smells so darn good! The French varieties are more odiferous though the English varieties seem to have hardier flowers here in Zone 7.



• Rosemary (Any Variety), Small. To get the best flavor out of your rosemary leaves, pinch out the flowers when they start to come on. However, the flowers are edible and can make an interesting addition to a summer salad. Rosemary is tough and woody; given enough light and space, it will start to get very leggy indeed. Prune often if you'd like to keep it small and plant-like, or soon you'll find yourself with a small shrub.
  

Part Shade

• Lemon Balm (Any Variety), Small. Lemon balm leaves are excellent for tea and have a light citrusy flavor that can also be used in cooking.

• Oregano (Common, Greek), Small. Oregano is a bushy, bright green herb with leaves similar to those of a mint plant. Oregano is used in Italian dishes in particular: pizza, pasta sauces, and fish dishes. It goes very well with tomatoes.

• Sage (Broadleaf, Common), Small - Medium. A versatile herb that works well with all kinds of meat and egg dishes. The plant grows tall with pointed, silvery leaves. Sage also attracts bees, which is helpful if you have any fruit trees that need pollinating.

• Savory (Summer), Small. Savory goes with all types of legumes: beans, lentils, and peas. The stems of savory are thick compared to the delicate leaves and tend to hang over the edge of a container. They are also rather twisty and can get leggy, presenting the appearance of a tangled mass.

• Tarragon (Any Variety), Small - Medium. Tarragon has an anise flavor faintly reminiscent of licorice. It goes well with French dishes, particularly those including eggs, fish, or cream. Tarragon grows high and bushy with yellow flowers; it looks somewhat similar to rosemary in bush shape.

• Thyme (Common, Creeping), Small. Thyme is a highly versatile herb that grows low to the ground on tangled, long stems. It gives good flavor to nearly all savory dishes and can stand up to extensive cooking. Thyme can easily be dried, grows and spreads very quickly, and works well with more upright-growing herbs.

Shade

• Angelica (Don Quai), Medium. Angelica has attractive white or yello pom-pom flowers, similar to the purple floers of chives or the starburst flowers of dill. It grows tall on thick stalks with a low base of bright green leaves. Angelica's taste is somewhat similar to celery; in nordic countries, Angelica is actually known as 'wild celery' and the thick stems are eaten raw with butter. Angelica can be cooked with squashes, pumpkin, and onion where it acts as a foil for the sweetness of each, though it is also good with fish dishes.

• Bergamot (Lemon), Small - Medium. Very similar to lemon balm, bergamot is used mainly in teas and has a lemon scent. The plant is bushy with broad green leaves and grayish flowers on a taller center stalk.

• Borage (Any Variety), Small - Medium. Borage leaves are dark green with a light downy fuzz surrounding both leaf and the dramatic dark-purple flowers. Both flowers and leaves are edible, and are used in salads and lemonade.

• Caraway (Any Variety), Small - Medium. The caraway plant has drooping leaves and white-pink flowers. Seed pods grow on flowering stems and contain two pointy seeds each. Caraway seeds have a pronounced anise (licorice) flavor. They are highly decorative and used to flavor cakes and cookies, goulash, pork dishes, and salads. Caraway root can be eaten as a vegetable, much in the way a parsnip might be prepared.

• Chervil (Curled), Small - Medium. In size and appearance very much like parsley, chervil is often used as a seasoning for salads. Clumped bright green plants stand about four to six inches tall.

• Chives (Common, Garlic), Small. Chives have a very mild oniony flavor with a hint of garlic. An extremely versatile herb, the hollow, round chives leaves can be used wherever garlic or onion would be appropriate and works well as a decorative topping. If allowed to flower, chives will produced attractive purple pom-pom flowers. Flowers can be nipped off with scissors (or fingernails) to increase the potency of the chive leaves.

• Garlic (Early Italian, Elephant), Medium. Garlic is grown down in the soil as a root. When harvested, the entire plant is pulled up by its long green leaves and the clove at the bottom is retrieved. A head of garlic from the supermarket- or, better yet, farmer's market- can be broken into cloves and each clove planted.

• Ginger (Any Non-Ornamental), Medium. As with garlic, the entire ginger plant must be harvested to get at the root-like rhyzome at the base of the plant. The plant itself is tall with spiky, sparse leaves and yellow to pink compact flowers. The rhyzome is peeled with a regular vegetable peeler or knife and then shredded or chopped to flavor cookies, seafood, and lamb dishes. Ginger can also be used to make the nonalcoholic ginger beer or tea, and is popular in Asian cooking.

• Mint (Apple, Coleus Chocolate, Lemon, Peppermint, Spearmint), Small. Mint is retardedly invasive, so whatever else you do, keep it in a pot! Don't be tempted to plant mint with anything else that grows low and thick as it does (say, thyme), or your other plant will quickly be smothered by mint. Tall plants, such as ginger or angelica, would be good companion plants with mint. Mint is used to flavor ice creams, lemonade, tea, and myriad veggie dishes. It also goes well with lamb.

• Parsley (Catalogno, Curled, Italian, Krausa), Small. Parsely is used in myriad ways in the kitchen, and can go into virtually every savory dish. It is most often used as a garnish, but has its own delicate, slightly astringent flavor. The plant offers wide, fragile leaves on delicate stalks. It grows to achieve a rough dome shape as it matures.

• Sorrel (De Belleville), Medium. Sorrel is used as both an herb and a vegetable. The plant has broad, spinach-like leaves and grows in a clump. In the spring, it is one of the earliest salad greens to mature. As an herb, it tastes slightly lemony and sour and is used most often in soups and salads.

VEGETABLES

Sun

• Beans (Pole: Blue Lake, French Dwarf, Kentucky Wonder; Bush: Sequoia, Tenderpick), Small-Medium. Beans take up a small soil footprint in the container garden, but they certainly will need a space to take off vertically- and take off they will. Trellises can be made of almost anything: rebar, netting, string, wire, wood; as long as it keeps the beans off the ground, the vines will curl around it.

• Cucumbers (Lemon, Spacemaster), Medium. Like tomatoes or beans, cucumbers need to be kept off the ground to avoid rot and pests. The vines of hybrids like Spacemaster are short and stocky, making it ideal for container gardening. Dwarf varieties also do well.

• Eggplant (Bambino, Fairy Tale, Rosa Bianca), Medium. Eggplants, like tomatoes or cucumbers, need support to lift their vines and accompanying fruit off the ground. There are beautiful variegated varieties of eggplants available, many of which were hybridized specifically for container growth.

• Peppers (Apple Red (hot), Cubanelle, Frigitello, Gypsy Sweet, Jalapeno, Robustini, Sweet Banana), Medium. Peppers and eggplants are grown in nearly identical ways; both need vertical supports to keep the vegetables off the ground. Peppers come in a wider variety than eggplants; the most difficult part of growing them may just be choosing which ones to grow.

• Squash (Gold Rush, Ronde de Nice, Scallop Sunbeam), Small-Medium. The term 'squash' covers an extremely wide variety of vegetables, from pumpkins to zucchinis, straight-necks to crook-necks, hubbards to butternut. Large hard-shell squashes like pumpkins, butternut, and acorn require quite a bit of growing space and enormous amount of water. Thin-skinned yellow squashes (crook-necked or straight-necked) can be treated exactly like zucchinis, with a vertical support system.

• Tomatoes (Cherry: Sungold, Ladybug, Currant; Large: Brandywine, Stupice), Medium-Large. Tomatoes need to be kept up off the dirt and will need a stake or cage. Cheap stakes can be made out of sticks, bamboo shoots, or even recycled rebar, though inexpensive tomato cages are available at all garden stores. Remember to water the base of the plant, not the leaves, to avoid damaging tomatoes.
  

• Zucchini (Varieties), Small-Medium. The actual pot for your zucchini can be rather small, but the plant itself is vining and will soon grow long tendrils that wander all over the place. Not quite as long as bean vines, squash (including zucchini) vines look very good spilling down from a high window box. All squashes do well with a trellis or tomato cage supporting them to keep the vegetables off the ground, though it's less essential for squash than it is for, say, tomatoes or cucumbers.

Part Shade

• Beets (Chioggia, Detroit Dark Red, Little Chicago), Large. Beets are a bonus for vegetable gardenerd as you can eat both the root and the greens that grow above the soil. Baby beet roots are excellent served quite young in salads, and the foliage is served much as raddichio or spinach would be in salads. Burpee recommends sowing radish seeds with the beets, as radishes grow quickly enough that you can see where your rows are early on next to the slower-growing beets.

• Broccoli (Bonanza, Flash, Green Sprouting Calabrese, Purple Sprouting), Large. The large-headed broccoli needs a bit of space to grow, and is susceptible to mildew. Home-grown broccoli is much sweeter than the supermarket variety, and converts sugar to tasteless starch very quickly after being picked. Does well in cool weather.

• Carrots (Red Cored Chantenay, Short n' Sweet, Sweet Rocket, Sweet Treat, Thumbelina, Toudo II), Large. There are many carrot varieties bred to be quite short, only five to six inches in length. This is an enormous boon to the container vegetable garden, where deep containers are few and far between. The Thumbelinas in particular grow the size and shape of golfballs- an excellent and unusual choice for the truly space-challenged! Once seeded, don't transplant your carrots or you'll risk deforming them.

• Cauliflower (Early White, First White), Large. Cauliflower, like broccoli, requires a space commitment for the container gardener. It can, however, be sown twice: the first in time for a late spring/early summer crop, and the second in time for a fall harvest.

• Cabbage (Pak Choi, Toy Choy), Medium-Large. Dwarf cabbage varieties are the best bet for the container gardener. This category is dominated by the Chinese cabbages, particularly bok choy. Cabbages grow well in cool weather, like cauliflower and broccoli, and can be sown for a spring crop and agin as a fall crop.

• Chard (Bright Lights, Orea, Rhubarb), Large. Dwarf varieties of chard are hard to find, though all varieties are grown in the same manner as other green, leafy vegetables (cabbage, kale, spinach). Chard tolerates cooler weather, though for container-appropriate dwarf varieties, you'll probably need to start them from seed at the end of the winter.

• Kale (Dwarf Blue Curled Vates), Medium-Large. Kale tolerates cool weather well, and can be sown in early spring for a spring/summer crop, then again in late spring for a fall crop. It's even possible to harvest it all winter in zones 6 and higher. Kale is served steamed, usually with a butter sauce, or raw in salads.

• Lettuce (Bibb, Buttercrunch, Looseleaf Heatwave, Rocket, Salad Bowl), Medium-Large. Lettuce tends to droop in very hot weather, though like kale and broccoli it can be sown twice a year for two major crops. Unlike spinach, which is pulled up by the roots when harvested, lettuce can be cut back for regular harvests while the main plant remains intact.

• Mustard Greens (Florida Broadleaf, Tendergreen), Medium-Large. Mustard greens can be treated like lettuce and makes an excellent spinach substitute. It germinates quickly and is ready to harvest in only 35 days.

• Turnips (Tokyo Cross), Medium - Large. Quick-harvesting turnips, like mustard greens, are ready to eat in only 35 days. Their greens are edible, and semi-dwarf varieties such as Tokyo Cross can be eaten at only two inches across, or can be allowed to continue growing indefinitely.

• Radishes (Cherry Belle, Icicle, Scarlet Globe), Medium-Large. Radishes come in two shapes: round or icicle (elongated). Either is suitable for containers, and all varieties mature quickly. Some are ready to eat in as little as 21 days, making them a good gap-filling vegetable once you've harvested a section of your garden out during the summer. Radishes are good on top of salads, and very fresh ones can be served in the French style: raw, with a smear of white butter, sea salt and cracked peppercorns.

Shade

• Arugula (Rocket), Medium. Arugula is a tender and peppery form of lettuce which makes a good accent in tossed salads. It matures in a scant 35 days and is generally smaller than most lettuce forms.

• Cress (Any Variety), Medium. Cress is a type of salad green that is grown in the same manner as Arugula. Cress has a more buttery flavor than other lettuces, and is not peppery like arugula.

• Endive (Any Variety), Medium. Endive (not to be confused with Belgian Endives) is a type of salad green grown in the same manner as arugula. Endive is slightly bitter, though not peppery like arugula.

• Rhubarb (Victoria), Medium - Large. Rhubarb is a type of chard. Its tart flavor and ability to stand up to long cooking makes it an excellent partner with fruit. Rhubarb pies, tarts, and jam are refreshing summer treats.

• Sorrel (Any Variety), Medium. Sorrel grows wild in England and in the northern United States. It is a leafy spinach-like plant with a sour, almost fruity flavor. It has historically been used as a laxative, so avoid eating it in very large quantities (unless, of course, that's why you're overdosing on sorrel). It is frown in the same manner as arugula or cress.

• Spinach (Bloomsdale Organic, Reddy Hybrid, Salad Fresh), Large. Spinach grows quickly but is quite large and has a tendency to bolt. Leaves can be snipped off one at a time to create salads or to cook gently in egg dishes. Spinach is highly versatile but does take a great deal of space.

FRUITS:
Sun

• Blackberries (Arapaho Thornless, Darrow, Jewel), Large - Very Large. Without large containers and really ridiculous amounts of sun, blackberries might disappoint you. Plan to devote a very large container to your blackberries and give them the very best sunlight you can. Blackberries grow in tall bushes and come as sad, dry little sticks which miraculously sprout fuzzy caterpillar branches in the late spring. Fruit is unlikely the first year but comes on strong in the second in a well-established blackberry bush.

• Blueberries (Bluecrop, Bluejay, Blueray, Coville), Large - Very Large. Blueberries grow in large bushes five to six feet tall in ideal settings. They need acidic soil and very large containers to give you any fruit.

• Dwarf Apple (Golden Sentinal, Northpole), Very Large. All of the dwarf fruit trees need extremely large containers. The flowers on fruit trees must be pollinated to turn into fruit, so you'll need to make sure you have a male and female tree. You might need to pollinate them by hand, but hopefully a few helpful local bees will do your job for you. Encourage bee presence in a fruit tree garden!

• Dwarf Grapefruit (Rio Red), Very Large.

• Dwarf Kiwi (Arctic Beauty), Very Large.

• Dwarf Lemon (Meyer), Very Large.

• Dwarf Lime (Containerized Thornless Key), Very Large.

• Dwarf Orange (Containerized Everhard, Containerized Marrs, Containerized Satsuma, Dwarf Marrs, Dwarf Miho, Dwarf Owari), Very Large.
  

• Dwarf Stonefruit (Carson Peaches, Fantasia Nectarines, Rainier Cherries, Red Haven Peaches, Tilton Apricots), Very Large.

• Raspberries (Heritage), Very Large - Large. Raspberries and blackberries are very similar; both are tall bushes that need as much sun and space as you can muster to produce fruit sometime in the second year.

Part Shade

• Fig (Brown Turkey, Celeste), Medium-Large. Notes.

• Strawberry (Earliglow, Festival, Ozark Beauty, Surecrop), Small-Medium. Strawberries are excellent container plants and do particularly well in hanging baskets. Strawberry fruit must be kept off the dirt to produce well; hay or straw, mulch, or even stones placed on the bare dirt of a hanging basket will keep the fruit from dragging in the mud. Most varieties grow over the edges of a hanging basket, making it even easier to pick the berries. Strawberries are extremely satisfying to grow in container gardens, as you can usually get fruit the first season, they require smaller containers than other berries, and can produce fruit in far less sun.

Shade

• -None recommended-

Choosing Your Containers

YOUR NEXT TASK as a fearless small garden grower is perhaps the most expensive. Before you can begin to dig into your plants, you'll have to have somewhere to stow them. Recycled material is a container gardener's best friend for doing it on the cheap; be certain, though, that your pirated treasure wasn't used to hold oil, paint, or any other type of hazardous chemical before you plant your squashes in it (unless you want to grow that extra hand, of course). You have a number of options where containers are concerned. As usual, your main concern will probably be maximizing your sun and space.

FREE-STANDING CONTAINERS: Free-standing containers is what pops into my mind, at least, when I hear the words 'container garden', even though I don't use any of them myself! These containers rest on their own bottoms and have the excellent bonus that they may be moved easily without any messy drilling or major plant surgery.
The cheapest option here is the found free-stander: the elderly bucket, the make-your-own wooden container, the aging water butt. We'll come to a few caveats about free containers in a moment.
Next are the purchased variety of container. This includes unglazed terra cotta pots, lightweight styrofoam or plastic containers made to look like stone or terra cotta, wooden containers, and then those pots that aren't created for gardening but can be used that way nonetheless! The converted pots could be unused paint cans (sold at most hardware stores), buckets- whatever strikes your imagination.
The most expensive free-standing containers are large and heavy or else possess some type of advanced technology (I know, I know- advanced technology gardening! It's life on the edge!). Examples of each would include ceramic pots with some sort of decorative glazing (the glaze prevents water from evaporating through the sides of the terra cotta as quickly as an unglazed pot), or the self-watering planters from Gardener's Supply Company. Glazed pots can be purchased from larger outlets such as Home Depot or Lowe's, but really lovely ones can be had at local nurseries, such as Stringer's here in Memphis.

RAIL PLANTERS: This category is dominated by windowboxes, though there exist several types of containers specifically designed to 'straddle' a railing. They look pretty weird, but they seem to work! Windowboxes can be solid pots or can be merely a sturdy frame that is filled with a coconut mat or moss liner. My own are excellent lightweight frames with evergreen boughs wrapped around the frame inside and out- only $8 for each 24" box at Home Depot, though they don't seem to be for sale on the website.

HANGING PLANTERS: Hanging planters, like windowboxes, can be either solid material or a wire frame with a coconut mat or moss insert. Mine again came from Home Depot (don't judge me- it's in my back yard) for a decent $6, standard wire frame with a coconut mat interior. In order to get these down to a position that watering them doesn't take Stretchman-like superpowers, I also have short chains (Home Depot again, sorry!) that keep them at a more reasonable watering distance. Gardener's Supply Company also sells the ominously named 'Revolution'; the soil goes into a bag on the top and the plants grow through a hole in the bottom. It's supposed to be ideal for tomatoes and might be a good option for anyone interested in squeezing just one more veggie plant out of a narrow hanging space.

Ultimately, whatever container you choose needs to have:
- at least one 1/2 inch drainage hole at the base
- a wide opening
- a depth appropriate to hold any root vegetables
- (with exceptions) at least 4 inches across and 4 inches deep for herbs, and at least 5 inches across and 6 inches deep for veggies

Don't forget that wood can rot; redwood and cedar are most rot-resistant. Plastic can leach harmful chemicals into soil when left in the sun. And you're going to have to replace those coconut mats or moss interiors once a year (at least), so don't get too attached to them.

Once you have your containers, the fun of choosing your first harvest can begin!

Container Ideas:
Martha Stewart: Milk Pails
Martha Stewart: Surprising Garden Pots
Martha Stewart: Window Box Alternative

Assessing the Space

THE FIRST DAY of Spring has sprung here in Zone 8, and it's time to take one bare, blank patio of twenty square feet and turn it into something special.

The first task of any downsized gardener is to assess the damage- er, I mean assets, of course.

1. Measure: Take a small sketch pad and measuring tape out to your porch, balcony, or two square feet of roof and commence to measuring. Map out the floor plan of your space first, then go back and fill in the heights of the walls (if any) and dimensions of any special features, like doors, windows, or railings.

2. Draw A Plan: You'll want to have one sheet of paper with your garden floor plan on it. It's helpful if this paper contains measurements- then you can stick it in your pocket and take it to the garden center with you- but steer clear of making too many notes on it. The clutter will make it hard to think clearly. When you're ready to play around with inserting and moving around containers, though, do what architects do: get a roll of tracing paper, lay a piece over the master plan and let your imagination run wild.

3. Assess Conditions: This includes observing and writing down how much direct sunlight each area gets (I divided mine into zones 1, 2, and 3 for the north, east, and south railings and wrote it how much sun each gets on the plan- what a dork!), how much rain or gutter runoff each area is exposed to (I taped construction paper onto each railing during a thunderstorm to see how wet it got; maybe not so scientific, but helpful), and if there are any surrounding trees or plants that, when in bloom, might create shade for your containers. Is it really windy up there? Any specific conditions you'll have to work around? Jot those down, as well.

When I finished all of this, I found that the East Rail gets five to seven hours of sun a day, the South Rail got only one to two hours of full sun a day, and that the North Rail got no direct sunlight. This works out well for me; there are plenty of plants- ferns, chives, and parsley, for example- that do well in total shade. My North Rail can support that. The sun-loving vegetables and fruits are going onto the East Rail, and some part-shade/part-sun plants can dominate the South Rail. Luckily the sunny East Rail is the longest.

It's so important for those of us engaged in a fight for sun and space to look outside the typical to get more of both for our container gardens. I can get even more veg up front on the East Rail by utilizing hanging baskets. There are enormous brick posts at each corner of the porch; could those somehow be made to support a basket or two on their faces?

When looking at your space, think about growing up. Think backwards. Think forwards. Think vertical and horizontal. Could you grow anything upside-down? There are special hanging planters designed for just that purpose that are supposed to work wonders with tomatoes.

With so little space, you're going to have to use your imagination. Just think, though, how much more impressive the final result will be because of it!

Twenty Square Feet

I WOKE UP this morning and found myself standing at the front window, coffee in hand. The view falls on my tiny front porch which was, on this particular morning, covered with snow.

It's been a long time since I grubbed around in the dirt. Though I love this new apartment, it comes with one major drawback: no garden. To make matters worse, it's on the second floor of a restored 1920's apartment building. For even more of a challenge, the house boasts only one tiny, mostly shaded east-facing balcony that looks down onto a smoggy, busy street. I don't mind saying I despaired.

But no more! In every free moment I've been thinking of ways to turn these negatives into assets: to get a garden started. A garden would act as a screen from the hustle and bustle of the street below; it would make the porch look like a million bucks; and best of all, a garden would provide organic veg, herbs- and maybe even a few fruits- free for the picking. I've watched the porch at all hours and have decided that it gets at best five hours of direct sunlight on one puny railing- not exactly encouraging!

But we live in Memphis. We're located in Zone 8, the Mississippi Delta region of Tennessee, and I'm hoping that maybe the shade will be an asset in our hot, dry summers, preventing the scorching that's killed so many of my plant experiments in the past. At any rate, after being bucked-up tremendously be reading The River Cottage Cookbook by Englishman, downsizer, and all-around good guy Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, I'm going to (as he would say) give it a go.

I'm hoping to turn this patch of urban concrete into something that will provide olfactory and culinary joy all year 'round... provided that everything goes according to plan.