Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary...How does my garden grow?

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Today, this 7th day of May I harvested the first minor handful of snap beans from my garden.

Carrots have already been on the pulling cycle.... but I was happy to see that beans are a wee bit earlier this year, usually its the end of may when they are ready for picking.

Cheers

[Counselor]

Maybe this year raspberries will be early, too...

*Homer drool*

[partisan]

Those damn frisky carrots

[jimcrackcorn]

Here's a picture of my little tomato garden...

[partisan]

I know if i had a garden, id be out there, but i havent, just some metal steps overlooking a pub, i envy people who have the land. It seems the way for the future is to cram as many people into small a place as possible (i would be more happy to have a garden than a flat) just a bit of land, is there enough for all of us?

Lovely little garden jim

[jimcrackcorn]

I know if i had a garden, id be out there, but i havent, just some metal steps overlooking a pub, i envy people who have the land. It seems the way for the future is to cram as many people into small a place as possible (i would be more happy to have a garden than a flat) just a bit of land, is there enough for all of us?

Lovely little garden jim

Due to my increasing age, coupled with arthritis,,,, a yard of any size is a problem for me to take care of lately.

When you have a yard, your constantly bending over pulling up weeds. Plus you have to deal with bugs in the garden, watering, fertilizing, pruning, etc.... Yesterday I was out in the back yard picking up the limbs that fell off the trees during the previous days strong winds. Then had to get out the overpriced ant killer powder and walk around the yard killing any ant mounds that seemingly appear overnight!!. The windows on the west side of the house needed to be re-calked - so that required me to go up and down a ladder several times to get the job done. Luckily I'm retired and have plenty of time to get these things done on a daily bases,,, if I was still working, it would take up my whole weekend just to maintain this place!!!

To me, home ownership is not all that it's cut out to be. Every year I pour out thousands of dollars to maintain the home & yard. There's always something breaking down (smile)..

So,,, look on the bright side, you don't have to deal with all the maintenance and upkeep that comes with having a single family home with a yard.

I guess I better close for now, I've got the get the mower out and mow the darned back yard before it rains (smile)..

Sincerely,
Jim

[HomeagainNYC]

I know if i had a garden, id be out there, but i havent, just some metal steps overlooking a pub, i envy people who have the land. It seems the way for the future is to cram as many people into small a place as possible (i would be more happy to have a garden than a flat) just a bit of land, is there enough for all of us?

Have you tried gardening in pot's? You would be surprised at what they will yield, and they can transform those metal steps into outside garden.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Maybe this year raspberries will be early, too...

*Homer drool*

Raspberries... I never planted those, I have a few blackberry 'vines', however I cut out the main patch last year and replanted. It takes two years for the 'vine' thingies to produce berries. Next year there shall be berries.



I have Mulberries... Lots and lots of mulberries. Its my understanding that one can eat them, its just that the tree is so tall I have no idea how to collect them without picking them up off the ground.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

I know if i had a garden, id be out there, but i havent, just some metal steps overlooking a pub, i envy people who have the land. It seems the way for the future is to cram as many people into small a place as possible (i would be more happy to have a garden than a flat) just a bit of land, is there enough for all of us?

Lovely little garden jim

The whole land mass of earth is around 36.8 billion acres. Given 7 billion people on earth approximately, that means that there is currently about 5.25 acres per person on earth.

An square acre is 208.7 feet by 208.7 feet. 43,500 square feet.

But there is a catch, that 36.8 billion acres is all of the land, that includes those sandy patches we call deserts and those rocky parts we call mountains. It also includes tundra and other less than arable land like swamps, the out back of Australia (which I understand is hell), the frozen wastes of that continent we call Antarctica.

When it comes to arable land, meaning land that has the right conditions to raise crops on there is only 7.68 billion acres - currently about one acre of land per human being with a touch left over for the future.

Which isn't a long future, since people tend to be producing more people each day and fewer people are shuffling off this planet to make room.

Currently there is room for each person to have an acre of land. However that would be a life of total isolation, since that wouldn't leave room for things like roads, highways, airports, ship yards...

I would suggest trying a container garden. While I doubt you could raise much in the way of maize/corn, wheat, tomatoes and other large plants, you could raise things like greens (lettuce, spinach and similar leafy greens).

There are now ways to hang tomato vines. I have seen it done with 2 liter bottles with fascinating results: topsy turvy technology: https://www.topsyturvy.com/

One can successfully espalier tomato vines. I have done that a number of years on a flat wire fence - ]spreading the tomatoes across a 2 dimensional area instead of having it grow into a 3d round bush.

Pole beans can be planted in a regular sized flower pot, as long as the vine is given something to climb up it is happy. A single vine can give lots of beans.

My garden is only 25 x 18 feet, I use compact methods of gardening, succession planting, companion planting and of course I use nearly pure compost to raise plants in.

It could easily fit in a suburbanites back yard. I also have the advantage of a three season growing period, starting early spring through late fall. Some years I do not even get a light frost and can grow some cold weather crops like potato, carrot, radish.

Victory Gardens in the UK used little space and produced abundantly, a few of the methods I use in my garden here were developed during WWII in the Victory Garden.

I understand that some Londonites took to container gardening as a way to supplement their diet, along with planting in craters, having a decent chunk of Hyde Park and other parks converted to community gardens...

I don't know about the UK, but Community gardens in cities here in the USA are successful and there are more and more of them being zoned into existence. If you really, really want a garden, you may want to include neighbors and find a patch of ground to get the town counsel to designate as a community garden.

[partisan]

Have you tried gardening in pot's? You would be surprised at what they will yield, and they can transform those metal steps into outside garden.

I have thought on that, but being a sometimes painfully self aware person, i live directly opposite a pub. Also at the bottom of steps, it backs into a hairdresser, whom the staff use to sit on. They sit on my steps! lol i can hardly complain as the hairdresser manager is also my landlord, sorry bowyn for making this thread about something other than lettuces and the like, as it should be.