Passing something of interest along. I was amazed by what can be done with a tiny plot of land.

http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/

Quote:

I had this problem with squirrels & birds the first year of growing my tomatoes.

i use an EarthBox for my tomatoes. In the pic below I don't use the metal tubes that EarthBox uses. What solved the problem was staking some 1"x2" in an H in my EarthBox, stapling some mesh chicken wire wire plant cages at the brace part of the H and it allows sun, butterflies and bees in but not squirrels or birds. You simply staple 2 pieces of mesh wire at brace so you can lift mesh wire from either side to harvest, water, etc.

BTW, the new EarthBoxes offer wheels for those urban gardeners who need to move their boxes relative to the sun's light in their garden.

what fruits/veggies grows well with partial sun. i have a shady garden but if i grow veggies in pots i could move them with the sun.
Any ideas?

Thanks for the gardening advice Brewster. I am not the handiest but I will look into those trellises.

Quote:

Of course not, do you think those guys with $100k sportfishing boats get their money's worth by the pound of striped bass? We're talking sport AND vengeance here...priceless!

I've been growing stuff on my sundeck for years and the squirrels have made me give up on tomatoes. They infuriatingly nibble on them (and then leave them, mostly uneaten, on the ground) just as they are about to become ripe. Instead of maintaining an armed vigil, I've taken to growing herbs and flowers. Basil is very easy to grow in pots and can be saved and frozen as pesto (I leave the cheese out and add it when ready to unfreeze/eat it). Chives may be the most unkillable herbs as they are perennial and impervious to neglect. Fresh herbs are expensive so it's a good investment with a small space to grow them as well as enjoying the convenience of having them fresh for cooking. Jalapenos also do very well in pots and the squirrels leave them alone. They can also be chopped up, dehydrated in the freezer, and used later.

If one is determined to grow tomatoes one could fence the area in on all sides. It doesn't seem worth it to me but I feel for those with "squirrel rage" and recommend this for those willing to eat them: http://www.gamowhisper.com/ As much as I don't like squirrels and love shooting; it would take a lot of squirrel eating to pay back the $300 investment but money isn't everything...

Quote:

Quote:

You're on the way! I can suggest you try ordering some Ozark Beauty strawberry plants, I thought my troubles with strawberries was me, but these are amazing day neutrals that bear all summer, they're still flowering!

Discover trellises. All you need to do is get some 8' 1x2 pressure treated battens at Lowe's for $1.30 each and screw verticals to your boxes and then at least 2 horizontals, and string wire or cord vertically. The you're set for beans, cukes or climbing zukes. I built a trellised 20" square box of 2x10's for my mom and planted 25 bean vines in it for Mothers Day, they've been eating beans all summer.

I am a novice gardener and have been continually amazed at what I have managed to grow in my jc container boxes.
My organic garden includes three types of heirloom tomatoes, herbs, leeks and tiny strawberries. I even had a tiny pumpkin which I accidentally picked before its time and there was a watermelon vine which my husband acidentally mowed down. I can't wait to plan next year's garden.

http://www.izzyeats.com/2008/07/how-d ... grow-backyard-update.html

Quote:

Yeah, I did the googling when we were swimming in kirbies from the cuke barrel in August. There's no single recipe, mostly salt, garlic spices, but variations abound. Real sours have no vinegar. I never did it though, my wife and son can easily eat a cuke a day each!

I buy the Ba-Tampte half sours too, and let them sit on the counter a day or 2 to get a little riper, but still crispy. I hate dills. Just the other day I noticed BJ's has half sours, I may give them a try, but I can be particular about my pickles, sometimes the villains try and slip some dill into the sour recipe.

This is not about growing anything but I wanna make pickles. How do I do that? I like Batemte half sour pickles, I would like to make those. The ingredients on the jar don't list the spices. I see these little Kirby cucumbers in the Korean veggie place for cheap. So what do I throw in there to turn them into pickles? Do they have to soak for a long time? Is it a pain in the ass? Should I just keep buying the Batemte from ShopRite? I suppose I could Google this but that's a lot of work.

Quote:

The link says no firearms, but nothing about slingshots or arrows! In my youth I once shot a squirrel out of tree with a bow. I was planning on eating it, but when I read about tularemia in the Joy of Cooking section on cleaning squirrel (old edition), I chickened out.

I haven't been harassed by squirrels in a few years, but it may have something to do with having a couple of young, aggressive cats. I've seen the more nimble of my cats actually chase the squirrels through the trees. They used to pull the blossoms off the zucchinis, the only thing I see them take an interest in is the grapes, but there's way too many grapes for them to make a visible dent.

Here are a few ideas - I don't have any my self but this will get the urban farmers going!

http://www.ehow.com/how_4452007_stop- ... rels-eating-tomatoes.html

Quote:

Firearms.

But seriously, I love squirrels. They are actually quite good fricasseed over homemade egg noodles, with a little tomato, basil, and wine in the sauce. If only there were some really good way to catch and clean them. One of my students brought me some one year during hunting season. It was a revelation.

They are rodents, you know, and if their tails were bare like rats you would all abhor them instinctively as much as I do.

That doesn't mean I eat rats. You gotta draw the line somewhere.

I grow herbs and tomatoes. Unfortunately, my little fuzzy neighbors, the squirrels have eaten all the tomatoes. Anyone have a recommendation for keeping the squirrels away?

interest. we grow our own tomatoes, random spices/herbs, have a grape vine and fig tree. it's like a huge farm in my backyard.

My web research into the soil is issue revealed that plants primarily deposit contaminants into their leaves rather their fruit. So tomatoes in the ground are okay, lettuce not so much. Actually, the only leaf crops I grow is herbs like basil, mint and parsley, in pots. In other pots and barrels and raised beds I grow green beans, sugar snap peas, heirloom climbing zucchini, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, strawberries and bell peppers. In the ground I have grapes, arctic Kiwis, raspberries, and a recently planted fig I grew from a cutting liberated from an overhanging tree in Hoboken. The great thing about the vines is that they're rooted way down in the water table, I never water them. You can grow enough green beans in a barrel for a family of 4 to eat beans 2 or 3 times a week. Here's a photo of my zucchini barrel, looking more like a zucchini tree. This was a few years ago, if you look behind the left side of the zukes, you can see my failed experiment with sweet corn in a barrel. It was pretty poetic and fun to look at, but apparently you need a large patch for them to pollinate properly.

I too have been growing more food in my tiny DTJC backyard... but only in containers. I am quite hesitant to eat anything that comes out of the ground in a city with so many chromium dumps and other brownfields. I second the notion of getting soil tested or sticking to containers.

I've been growing tomatoes, (cherry, plum & medium/large ), several varieties of basil, rosemary, thyme and several varities of bell peppers (purple, red, green) for some time now in my back yard. Only herb I have problem with is growing Dill but then all of the above are grown in containers on my [redacted ].

Squirrels are my only real problem and sometimes the birds nipping off early blooms of tomatoes. Will start planting veggies in back yard once I get a soil analysis of any toxic metals in soil that may be there. For now I stick to container gardens particularly my EarthBox which are terrific planting systems and idiot-prrof for any urban gardener!

Grovepath, thanks for that positive and uplifting article that will improve JC's quality of life. I just moved here, but am an old hand at the kitchen garden, and will check my back alley area for a water hose outlet. Who knows--my tomatillos might flourish in the Northeast.

Clive Thompson on Why Urban Farming Isn't Just for Foodies

By Clive Thompson
08.18.08
Wired Magazine

This year, Carol Nissen's crops include mesclun, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, and assorted herbs. When she sits down to dine, she's often eating food grown with her own two hands.

But Nissen isn't tilling the soil on a farm. She's a Web designer who lives in Jersey City, New Jersey ? one of the most cramped, concrete-laden landscapes in the nation. Nissen's vegetables thrive in pots and boxes crammed into her house and in wee plots in her yard. "I'm a micro-gardener," she says. "It's a pretty small townhouse. But it's amazing what you can do without much space."

The term for this is urban farming ? the art of growing vegetables in cities that otherwise resemble the Baltimore of The Wire.It has become increasingly trendy in recent years, led by health-conscious foodies coveting just-picked produce, as well as hipsters who dig the roll-your-own vibe.

But I think it's time to kick it up a notch. Our world faces many food-resource problems, and a massive increase in edible gardening could help solve them. The next president should throw down the gauntlet and demand Americans sow victory gardens once again.

Remember the victory garden? During World Wars I and II, the government urged city dwellers and suburbanites to plant food in their yards. It worked: The effort grew roughly 40 percent of the fresh veggies consumed in the US in 1942 and 1943.

These days, we're fighting different battles. Developing nations are facing wrenching shortages of staples like rice. Here at home, we're struggling with a wave of obesity, fueled by too much crappy fast food and too little fresh produce, particularly in poorer areas. Our globalized food stream poses environmental hazards, too: The blueberries I had for lunch came from halfway around the world, in the process burning tons of CO2.

Urban farming tackles all three issues. It could relieve strain on the worldwide food supply, potentially driving down prices. The influx of fresh vegetables would help combat obesity. And when you "shop" for dinner ingredients in and around your home, the carbon footprint nearly disappears. Screw the 100-mile diet ? consuming only what's grown within your immediate foodshed ? this is the 100-yard diet.

Want to cool cities cheaply? Plant crops on rooftops. This isn't just liberal hippie fantasy, either. Defense hawks ought to love urban farming, because it would enormously increase our food independence ? and achieve it without the market distortions of the benighted farm bill. You don't need tomatoes from Mexico if you can pluck them from containers on your office roof.

Better yet, urban farming is an excuse to geek out with some awesome tech. Innovations from NASA and garage tinkerers have made food-growing radically more efficient and compact than the victory gardens of yore. "Aeroponics" planters grow vegetables using mist, slashing water requirements; hackers are building home-suitable "aquaponics" rigs that use fish to create a cradle-to-grave ecosystem, generating its own fertilizer (and delicious tilapia, too). Experts have found that cultivating a mere half-acre of urban land with such techniques can yield more than $50,000 worth of crops annually.

But what I love most here is the potential for cultural transformation. Growing our own food again would reconnect us to this country's languishing frontier spirit.

Once you realize how easy it is to make the concrete jungle bloom, it changes the way you see the world. Urban environments suddenly appear weirdly dead and wasteful. When I walk around New York City now, I see the usual empty lots and balconies and I think, Wait a minute. Why aren't we growing food here? And here? And here?

In fact, that's precisely what occurred to me when I came home and looked at the window of my apartment. So now it holds three pots balanced on the ledge: One with herbs, one with lettuce, one with tomatoes.

I should have my first crop in about a month. And I expect my victory salad to taste very sweet indeed.

Email clive@clivethompson.net.

http://www.mycitygarden.net/