Spring in Our Urban Garden

The days are getting longer, the soil is warming up: SPRING has arrived (in the southern hemisphere, that is)!

For now all our vegetables are growing in the container garden quite happily, as you can see below.  The reason is that our small veggie patch is still in the shade.

Provided there is a sunny spot in the garden or on the balcony it’s possible to have an edible garden no matter how small the space is.  If you are Down Under, get some pots and start (container) gardening!

The benefits of a container garden:

• grow veggies and other plants on limited space or on balconies
• easily moved to a sunny/shady position or inside/outside
• the earth warms up quicker in spring
• less water and fertilizer needed
• fewer issues with the pests

Here are the latest pictures from our organic urban garden:

Carrots and onions

Carrots and onions are great plant companions.  Onions are believed to deter carrot fly.   Carrots and dill, however, don’t like to be next to each other.

Potatoes in the container

Potatoes can be grown in the containers: the deeper the container the more potatoes you’ll harvest.   Plant potatoes at the base and add more soil as it grows until the whole container is full.   Instead of container, a hessian bag can be used with the same principle:  add more soil and unroll the bag as you go.

Growing potatoes in pots will hardly cover the needs of any family, but it’s heaps of fun and the potatoes are the sweetest I’ve ever tasted!

Lettuce

I would recommend lettuce as the easiest veggie to grow!  A couple of containers provided us with plenty of salad leaves  throughout cool months.

Self sown tomato seedling

This self sown tomato seedling sprouted in between carrots and onions, possibly from the compost or the garden soil I filled the container with.  Hope it survives (and is of good variety) as the frost danger isn’t over until the end of October.

Dill

Dill seems to happily share the pot with spinach.   But keep it away from carrots!

Marigold (Calendula)

Not a vegetable, but a pretty and very beneficial flower to have in the veggie garden. Marigold (French marigold too) deters a number of pest insects.

Azalea

This is definitely not an edible plant, but brightens our urban garden in early spring!

Also in our urban container garden, we have some garlic, a few beetroots, strawberries, snow peas, sunflower and basil seedlings enjoying the spring sun.

Similar Posts:

• Urban garden
• Our Community Vegetable Garden Plot
• Eco-Fun for Kids: Grow Your Veggies and Eat it Too!
• Pictures from my urban garden
• How to Make Hay for Pets