Container Garden

I live in Iowa's capital city, Des Moines.  The greater Metro area has around 500,000 residents most homes have a nice green yard of some sort.  I live about three minutes from downtown, where concrete and high rise buildings reside and I was still lucky enough to find a double lot (1/2 acre) in the middle of the city.  That is just the way Des Moines, and most of Iowa, is set up.  We are big but not big enough to have tons of apartments, row homes, lofts, etc.  We have some of course, I lived in an apartment for years, but as a general rule I no longer have to deal with trying to be an urban farmer, urban homesteader, self sufficient with no personal yard space.  However, I know many of you in New York, Boston, and countless other places live in wonderful cities and towns but have far less space with which to build your garden and homestead.  That is where this post, and many others to follow, comes in handy.  If you live in a row home or brownstone and have a small yard or roof space this will work.  If you have a small area in a mobile home park this work.  If you live in a tiny apartment with a balcony or even a window sill this will work!

I'm talking about container gardening.  It is exactly as it sounds, growing your favorite crop in a plant container.  Even if you have a large yard, you can still use what was once wasted space to grow in a container.  You can see from the pictures that we are growing broccoli and peas in our flower pots in front of our porch steps.  The peas grow kind of on a small vine and they even flower before developing the pea pod so they look nice when in full swing.  Right now the fall cold is coming on fast so these are the only containers we have left but we will add more in the spring.  You can plant herbs, peas, green beans, tomatoes, and tasty lettuce, almost any plant that will fit in your space and your flower pot.  If you want to grow root crops like carrots or beets, make sure your container is deep enough.  Also, you can look for shorter varieties.  I know our kids like to grow the little 4-5 inch carrots in a container here at our house.

If you want to grow inside, make sure you water enough, have plenty of fresh air and sunlight.  Many people grow house plants inside, why not a couple of pole beans or
pea pods as well?  You will be surprised at how much food you can get and how great it will taste with just a few small containers.  If you are using plants that have to be pollinated to produce, you will need to have more than one plant and either pollinate by hand (we will talk about that in another post), or set them outside daily for at least a couple of weeks so the bees can do their thing naturally.

Come spring time we are going to use the container garden method for some small blueberry bushes.  This is a perfect solution because blue berries need very acidic soil, which ours is not, so using a large cedar planter in the yard will look beautiful and also allow us to monitor and change the acidity level of the soil.  Besides controlling the soil, container plants need watered more often but normally use less water so if you can remember to water regularly, you will have healthy plants and use less water then if they were in the ground.  You can also use less fertilizer or compost tea and your plants will still  thrive.  It is basically the same concept as raised bed gardening but with smaller containers that will fit into whatever space you have.

Chickens in the City

A lot of people are scared of bringing chickens into the backyard setting but it is becoming more and more common among urban farmers because the benefits are just too great to ignore.  Plus, I know you are worried about your neighbors but it isn't as bad as you think!  For one, it is a myth that you must have a rooster in your flock.  Many, if not most city flocks do not include a Rooster because they don't want to be woken up at all hours by the roosters crow, plus they would like to remain civil with their neighbors!  Hens can chirp and cackle a bit but generally they are not real loud and most neighbors will not mind a small flock, and if you keep the coop clean there is no odor to worry about either.

The benefits of an urban chicken flock are plentiful.  Obviously you will get fresh eggs on a daily basis.  Hens generally lay between 2-4 eggs a week so a flock of four healthy hens will give you roughly a dozen eggs each week.  If you add a couple more hens to the mix you will have some extra eggs for your neighbors which may help in the "transition".  After a couple of years, egg production will slow in your hens and if you got a dual purpose breed you can use the hens for meat.  Learning to butcher a chicken is another post, but suffice to say you may have a local meat locker near by that can do this for you if you prefer.  So you have meat and eggs, what else are they good for?  If you allow them to roam your yard and garden they are very beneficial for your yard.  They scratch around and eat the bugs from the lawn, their scratching can also help aerate your grass.  In addition of course their waste will quickly become fertilizer.  And don't forget that egg shells are a great addition to your compost pile!

Coops are relatively small and chicken runs, tractors, etc. are all easily made by the average DIY person such as you, the new urban farmer!  If you are short on space, you can add a small door on the side of your shed and gate or fence part of it on the inside as the chicken coop.  This makes your shed dual purpose and saves the space and expense of building a chicken coop, although you will want a fenced run for them. 

Another concern is that a chicken coop and pen are ugly, and you live in a nice neighborhood and do not want an unsightly chicken run next to your beautiful raised bed garden.  As we build this blog together you will see that there is a way to make most of our urban farming ideas on the cheap and there is also a way to do it so that it fits in with your design and house style.  Ugly gardens can be built with cedar raised beds and beautiful cedar lattice for vine plants; DIY rain barrels can be painted with copper colored spray paint and planters can be added on top to make them look very nice, herbs can be grown on the front step in a beautiful fired clay pot that may have held annuals last spring, and the same goes for chicken coops.  You can build a simple and cheap DIY out of recycle materials or you can be elaborate and use beautiful cedar wood, or siding that matches your house, even a shingled roof or a living roof with a small garden bed on top, the options are endless!  I'm going to write several posts over the next couple of months that include lots of coop and chicken run designs and ideas so stay tuned for that.

Chickens are a great benefit to the urban farmer for eggs, meat, the lawn, compost, etc.  They have another great benefit if you have children: education.  This is the perfect way to teach your children about the circle of life, how to properly care for chickens, get them outside and enjoying nature.  One thing to note is that if you get your chicks shortly after they hatch and you socialize with them they can grow to be very docile and enjoy the company of humans.

Now that I've got you on board with city dwelling chickens, there are a couple of things that you need to be aware of.  One is your city laws about farm animals and chickens specifically.  For example, here in Des Moines it is perfectly acceptable to have a small flock of chickens in the city limits as long as it is a certain number of feet from your neighbors house.  The size of your flock is determined by how much land you have.  Also be aware of where you buy your chickens.  Make sure they are reputable and they are selling you healthy chicks.  A local feed or farm store may sell them or be able to tell you where to get them.  You can also order online if you meet the sellers minimums.  Safety is an issue for chickens.  You may think your neighborhood doesn't have any predators such as raccoons but if you don't have proper fencing and cover for your chickens you may soon find out you are wrong.  A single raccoon or ground hog can kill your whole flock.

In the spring we are building a new chicken coop and I will take pictures every step of the way so you can read the blog an follow along with our progress.