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What to grow in a city food garden?

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Shanti Marshalla said #1 Jan 26, 2011 at 4:01pm

I live in a studio apartment with my boyfriend and we really want to expand our (currently very small) deck garden to grow more food! We live in Anaheim, CA, where the sun is plentiful and it's rather dry most of the time. We only have enough space for a garden roughly 2' x 3' x 6-8" deep.


Currently we grow one large tomato plant and basil and rosemary in pots and they've all done wonderfully over the last year.


I'm wondering - do any gardeners here have suggestions for what I should grow?


My tentative, on-the-fly if-I-could-have-anything list:


- kale, spinach, lettuce


- leeks, chives, onions, cilantro, parsley


- baby carrots, onions, broccoli, red potatoes, jalepenos, red/orange peppers, maybe cucumber?


I have no idea if this list is completely unrealistic, if I have to chose only a few from each category. Any guidance would be great!


Thank you :)


Light & Love,


Shanti

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Beary said #2 Jan 28, 2011 at 10:01am

Hi Shanti, good for you! I have a traditional garden, so my advice may not be the best, but I imagine you would want to avoid two types of vegetables:


1.) First, I would avoid plants with a deep tap root. Parsley, cilantro, and carrots have tap roots and may struggle in shallow soil. Potatoes and leaks require trenching and may also be difficult to grow in shallow soil - but onions, scallions, and chives would work fine!


2.) I think you might also want to avoid plants with a 'sprawling' habit, simply because you have so little space. The only one on your list that fits that description is cucumber (although with some difficulty, they can be trained to grow upwards). Broccoli is also a very large plant.


In summary, I think you would do very well with the leafy greens, chives, onions (scallions are very space-efficient), peppers (which would love your climate!) Cucumbers and broccoli would thrive, but may take up more space than you want to spare. (Eggplants and bush beans love the heat as well and are quite compact!)


I hope you will check back after your garden is growing and tell us what is working!! Hopefully you will also get advice from someone with more container gardening experience than I have.

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Shanti Marshalla said #3 Jan 28, 2011 at 2:22pm

Thank you so much for your response! I will follow your advice because it is logical to me! <3

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