It All Started with an Interview in a Local Newspaper ...
Somehow a local newspaper got wind that I was gardening in containers on my balcony and asked to learn more. The reporter came by and after the interview, I had the foresight to ask a favour. I requested he put out a call for local homeowners who would consider allowing us to convert their lawn into a market garden. The newspaper came one better ... they wrote an editorial entitled '"Yes in My Back Yard'. Within a few days I received a call and we had our first front lawn.
We met with the home owners who were interested in having their young children experience and have access to veggies growing in their garden. We wanted space to grow food for the local market. We ripped up the lawn, trundled in a truckload of compost, rototilled it in, formed the beds and by mid summer planted in our first batch of seedlings. Kale, swiss chard, spinach, spreen, lettuces for us and carrots, tomatoes, beets and radishes for them. A few weeks later we were supplying the local pocket market with modest quantity of veg and salad greens.
Our next garden was a dream come true. Someone forward a Craig's List link to Arzeena and she followed it up. Two hundred square feet of land, with concrete paths, a greenhouse, multiple taps and hoses, a tool shed and compost bins. Again it was a mutually beneficial situation; the lady of the house wanted the weeds gone from what had been an active vegetable garden when her husband had been alive and we had a good sized bit of land to work with!
With fall looming we got to work weeding lots of fire weed, emptying the compost bin, bringing in many vanloads of cow manure, liming, rototilling and molding beds. By the end of summer we planted in a snap peas, beets, cilantro, lettuce, patchoy, sunflowers and kale. We connected with a vegetarian restaurant that valued buyinging organic and local and supplied them with salad greens. The cow manure had a dubious gift for us. Copious amount of free chickweed and purslane which became the basis of the salad greens.
By Thanksgiving we put out a call for customers interested in a Share of the Harvest. We managed a small first harvest enough to supply five families, ourselves included.
Posted by Susan, Arzeena, Luc at 7:47 PM 0 comments
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2 comments:
Hi there,
I am a community social worker in Calgary and I am very interested to learn more about the " balcony" gardening. I work with low income families in public housing where balcony are everywhere. Could you give in your blog simple explanation on how to start? I mean really simple...What kind of size of pot, what kind of durt, where do you find the vitamines, etc...
Did I mentionned English is not my first langage and I make grammar/orthograph mistakes??
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