(Taylor Logan/CBC)

A few months ago, my roommate Alex and I had a revelation. As we were hauling overfilled bags of trash down the hall to the disposal for the third time that week, it hit us: How were four people producing this much garbage?
Our three-bedroom apartment west of Toronto had no compost bin. Our kitchen blue bins were often overflowing with recycling, but it made little difference to the amount of trash. Single-use plastic made up a large part of our weekly garbage run and a lot of it came from packaging for produce. We decided to begin growing our own food.
Most people think that cultivating a garden in an apartment is impossible, especially being eight floors up. Some buildings have strict rules — ours says you can’t hang things off the balcony. But finding workarounds was one of the easiest things I’ve ever done.
We started by creating our own vermicompost bin, which uses worms to compost food scraps. But we quickly realized how much fertilizer the worms were producing. We considered dumping it in a local forest or the flower beds outside our apartment, but decided instead to create a garden of our own.
We ran out to the store the next day, filling our cart with seeds, small compostable pots and a shovel. We began with 10 seed-filled pots sitting on our kitchen windowsill, which we watered every day with a spray bottle. We killed four within the week, but we replanted and adjusted. From over-watering to too much sun, we had to watch our emerging plants like hawks.
Within three weeks, we had 10 little seedlings, including lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, snap peas, mint, basil, a dwarf sunflower … as well as catnip for our feline friend, Dave.
Never having had much of a green thumb, my roommate and I had plenty of pots from previously owned (and accidentally killed) house plants. This proved beneficial around three weeks later. The plants had become too big and needed to be transferred to new homes.
Soon, we were obsessed. With the leftover pots, we planted more. Some wildflowers for the bees, another sunflower. We even started to plant and regrow the vegetables we were buying from the store.
We moved the plants outdoors the weekend after Victoria Day, putting them in metal and compostable planters hanging on the inside of our balcony. A few weeks later, we bought a wooden ladder and hung pots from it for the flowers. Thirteen weeks after we first had the idea, our once-empty balcony was filled with blooming life.
Soon, the benefits of our garden will be reaped and we will have delicious, fresh food — with no waste in sight.
An apartment garden cheat sheet:
Use the space to your advantage. If you have a balcony, hang planters. If you have a large enough windowsill, keep your plants there. Consider vertical planters to conserve space. Be creative.
If you don’t have enough lighting or lack a balcony, consider using grow lights for minigreenhouses.
If you lack the funds for such equipment, grow veggies that thrive in shady areas (e.g. lettuce, carrots, garlic, potatoes).
For overly sunny apartments, grow tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beans and corn.
Watch how your plants grow. If they’re wilting, water them. If they start to lose their colour, give them more light. To grow a successful garden, you have to pay attention to what your plants are saying to you.  (source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/what-on-earth-newsletter-garden-growing-climate-change-cartoon-1.5192851 )

( https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/finance/grow-garden-little-green/ )

Initial investment in gardening is, however, worth the price in the long term
By Catherine Whitnall
As part of a three-part series on food security, reporter Catherine Whitnall wrote last week about the cost of eating when using the new Canada Food Guide. This week, she looks at the cost of growing your own food.
Before the advent of grocery stores and markets, people really had no choice but to grow their own food.
In the past decade, though, a growing number of people have been turning back to the land to supplement their grocery shopping.
For some, it gives them peace of mind knowing where and how their produce is grown. For some, it’s a way of reducing their grocery bill. For many, it’s a combination of both.
In the grand scheme of things, it makes sense.
“The big difference is that we know what’s in that plant and where it comes from,” said ecosteward Robbie Preston.
For those looking to garden at home, it’s a good idea to do a bit of math and research before committing, say Preston and fellow ecosteward Judy Kennedy.
The first thing is to check what is “readily available.”
“You need to look where the sun is going to be for the best part of the day,” said Preston, citing logic. “Plants don’t grow very well in the shade.”
The next step is to “stick a shovel in the ground and see what’s there.”
Soil that has a high clay or sand component isn’t terribly conducive to growing.
“If you don’t have good soil, nothing will grow,” he said, logically.
The best idea, adds Kennedy, is to construct garden beds instead.
This is where the math comes into play.
“A four-by-eight (foot) area is totally serviceable,” said Kennedy, noting it’s not so wide that the plants can’t be reached by hand.
Many people make the mistake of constructing gardens that are too wide, resulting in having to physically walk into the growing area — which can be detrimental unless pathways are included — which is a waste of growing area.
Frame and raised bed gardens also offer the advantage of heating up faster than the ground, boosting grow time, added Kennedy.
Ideally, the frames should be constructed by rough cedar. Most lumber supply businesses sell the boards, but people can save a few dollars by purchasing from area sawmills. Not only does cedar last longer — up to 10 years versus three years with pine or spruce, according to Preston — but slugs won’t crawl up the wood.
Cedar is a little more expensive than pine or spruce, though. Constructing one very basic cedar garden bed — not including screws — would cost and average of roughly $60 versus $35. Never use pressure treated wood, as the chemicals will leach into the garden.
The big cost comes in filling the beds.
Buying a good triple-mix soil from a local retailer to fill one garden bed could cost as much as $170. A bag of coir (coconut fibre) or peat moss would add roughly $8. Some of this cost can be reduced if the natural soil is decent for growing, as it can be partly blended with the triple mix.
The upside is that once the bed is filled, it only needs to be topped up in subsequent years.
“Every two years you will have to add about 15 per cent more,” said Kennedy.
Both Preston and Kennedy agree that natural products are the way to go.
“They can be a little more costly, but they work so much better and are better for the environment,” said Kennedy, who uses coir, which is better than peat moss for its slow-release properties and is renewable.
While it is more convenient to visit a greenhouse or retailer to buy plants, Kennedy prefers to use seeds.
“They may take longer, but they’re cheaper and they’re not sprayed with neonics that are hazardous to bees,” said Preston, noting Ontario Seed Company products are best as they have already been climatized. “You also know what you’re getting.”
Kennedy adds a few dollars in seeds can potentially yield 100 plants. She generally starts her seeds in containers in her home, using recycled fruit containers since they have openings for oxygen and work like greenhouses when closed. The only thing she adds, other than water, is a little vermiculite for extra nutrient support.
Those looking to start gardens can also access area Seed Savers Collectives such as the seed library operated by the Nourish and Development Foundation in Cannington.
The seed library provides “free and easy access to viable seeds so that as many people as possible are growing their own organic food and to encourage and enable people to save seeds through awareness, education, and community celebrations aimed at reviving seed saving culture.” Seeds are available at all three Brock Township public libraries.
Anyone with a Brock library card can take seeds for free to plant in their garden and, in return, save some seeds to bring back to the library for other community members to use. Seed libraries focus on lending organic, native, heirloom and open-pollinated seeds. Seeds returned from successful plants help grow Nourish’s collection and help cultivate seed stocks best suited to the local climate and promote seed sovereignty.
When it comes to planting, Kennedy recommends creating one-foot square “patches” that can be plotted out using chalk line or heavy string, available at most dollar stores. People should keep a diagram of what they’ve planted so they can “rotate” their crops as not all plants use the same nutrients from the soil and actually give something back.
“So one essentially makes food for the other,” said Kennedy.
She is also a big fan of companion planting, which can help with pest control, pollination, provide a habitat for beneficial creatures, maximize use of space and increase crop productivity.
For example, onions grow well beside beets, carrots, Swiss chard and lettuce, but not beans or peas. Peas grow well with carrots, cucumbers and radishes, but not garlic or onions. Potatoes like beans, corn and peas, but not tomatoes.
While it’s nice to be able to “walk outside and five minutes later it’s in the pot,” Kennedy notes her four garden beds produce more fruits and vegetables than she actually needs, saving her hundreds of dollars each year. Her basement still holds a variety of canned and preserved items from last year’s harvest.
“I’d have to say it cuts our grocery bill by at least 50 per cent, if not more,” said Kennedy.
All she needs is a few chickens and a cow … but that’s a whole other story.

(source: https://www.mykawartha.com/community-story/9272791-the-cost-of-growing-your-own-food/ )

Daniel Carson Fremont News-Messenger
Published 5:01 PM EDT Sep 25, 2018

FREMONT – From the May Street Community Garden’s 14 raised wooden garden boxes built on a small, previously abandoned lot, neighborhood residents can take their pick of free broccoli, green beans, eggplant, red potatoes and nine varieties of peppers.

It’s the brainchild of Roger Hart, director of the nonprofit Micah House, on the opposite side of May Street.

As Hart talked about the community garden Monday, May Street resident Ezekiel Jones walked up and asked if there were any banana peppers left.

When Hart began working on his community project earlier this year, Jones acknowledged he wasn’t sure if the garden would be a hit with residents or survive the foraging of wild animals.

“But it’s working out,” Jones said, as he filled a white container with a couple handfuls of banana peppers.

Hart purchased the 120-by-30-foot May Street lot, located at 520 May Street, from the Sandusky County Land Bank last year.

A deadly fire occurred in 2013 in a house on the lot where the garden is now located.

Brenda Shorty, 42, and her 2-year-old daughter, Vinesha Darden, died in the November 2013 May Street house fire.

In 2016, the city tore down the abandoned, fire-damaged house.

Hart said the lot had been up for sheriff’s sale, but it didn’t sell. He said he approached the county land bank about the property and purchased it last fall.

This spring, Hart began work on building the community garden.

Seven different sponsors donated $150 apiece for soil and wood used for the 4-by-8-foot garden boxes.

After building the boxes at home, Hart brought them to May Street in April and began filling them with soil.

He received a donation of 10 yards of horse manure and combined it with 10 yards of compost to make soil for the garden boxes.

More: It’s ready, set, grow for Vanguard Community Garden

More: Community garden being built in Fremont

Hart planted various vegetables, fruits, and herbs in the boxes.

Through word-of-mouth, neighborhood residents learned about the garden and initially went to Micah House to pick out food to take home.

In the last month or so, neighbors have come to the garden and started picking their own herbs, fruits and vegetables, Hart said, including basil, cucumbers, tomatoes, and red-hot ghost peppers.

“The response in the neighborhood has been very good,” Hart said.

Some neighbors have already asked Hart to plant collard greens.

Hart said he’s open to suggestions on what to plant and plans to add between six and eight additional garden boxes to the May Street garden.

He said he wants to poll neighbors next year before he plants to find out what worked and what new fruits and vegetables residents would like to see growing in 2019.

dacarson@gannett.com

419-334-1046

Twitter: @DanielCarson7
(Source: https://eu.thenews-messenger.com/story/news/local/2018/09/25/may-street-community-garden-grows-free-healthy-food-neighborhood/1410655002/ )