Gloves will tear us apart

June 10, 2012 at 12:54 pm (Container gardens, Featured plants, Gardening - Basics)
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I try to propagate my own plants as much as I can. It’s usually cheaper than buying plants and it’s endlessly fascinating to watch the plants develop from seed or cuttings, or watch a grafted bud shoot away in the spring.

But for whatever reason, it’s not always possible, and we do sometimes have to buy plants, even if only to give ourselves some paterial to propagate from. To be accurate, buying seeds is buying plants anyway, just in their most compact and easily stored form!

French Sorrel in a pot: but there’s more than one plant in here.

I bought some herbs from a stall at a garden show some time ago, but I looked for pots that had multiple plants in them, so I got better value. You can see from the photos,the pot of French Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) I bought has more than a single plant in it,  leaves are emerging from more than one point.

French Sorrel divided showing numerous individual plants

I tipped out the pot and split the contents in half just by pulling them apart. I did break a few leaves, but that doesn’t really matter, they can be fed to the worms or thrown in a salad, depending on your preference. The important part is the individual stems, and as long as the roots are intact, the leaves will grow back.

Sorrel plants divided up

It’s a good idea when transplanting nursery grown or potted plants to remove all the potting mix from the roots, it forces the plant to grow roots into the surrounding soil and seek out nutrients and water, rather than staying in the comfortable surrounds of the potting mix with it’s ready supply of food, air and water. In this case I had to remove the potting mix to separate out the individual little plants.

Newly potted sorrel x17

There were more than 20 individual plants in the original pot I bought, but some were tiny, so I put them in the same container, and ended up with 17 pots of Sorrel from my initial purchase.

Sorrel is a perennial herb, which means it will naturally divide and continue to grow year after year. If clumps get too big, I can dig them up and divide them, and after a couple of weeks, I can plant these out in a row, or just share them around. It is quite happy in a container, too, just divide again when it gets too big. Sorrel is used all over the world as a fresh or cooked green, and has a delicious, slightly sour flavour. It is much used in French provincial cooking. Why not give it a try!

While you’re out there, see what joy division can give you. Look for plants with multiple stems emerging from the pot, especially herbaceous perennials like Sorrel, Globe Artichoke, Mint, Lovage and so many more. You are unlikely to harm the plant, just make sure each new section has roots and shoots or buds, and they will come good. Have fun!

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I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden

November 18, 2011 at 2:06 pm (Container gardens, Gardening - Basics, Pests and problems)
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The following post is adapted from a workshop given at the Green Renters Expo in association with the City of Yarra, May 17th, 2011

I was challenged by my friends at Green Renters to put together a short talk about food gardening for people with limited access to an established garden. Trying to squeeze in as much as possible into such a short presentation (I really only had about half an hour) was pretty difficult, so I had to pare down the volumes of information about growing plants to the bare bones. This is what i came up with.

Gardening without a garden

Getting by with what you’ve got

Not everyone has a garden, and in the past, only the extremely wealthy could afford lavish gardens. Landed gentry had teams of gardeners on their estates tending to exotic plants collected from all around the world. As the middle class grew, smaller versions of these elaborate status symbols replaced the purely utilitarian vegie plots and orchards in suburban private gardens, and even in government owned properties. Status is fine, if you actually can afford it as the old fashioned lords could: they had their own productive land as well as the extensive show gardens. The average person does not have that luxury. In some cases, a patch of soil is not even available for any kind of garden.

The front yard of a nearby neighbour, every year it's full of vegies.

So, where can we put a garden? As one version of things goes, before all else: Let there be light! A successful, productive garden needs at least 6 hours a day of direct sunlight. There are plants that can grow in less light, but as our focus is on food for people, the less light there is, the fewer meals you will get from the space. Light is essential for plant growth, plants take energy fromsunlight and convert it into chemical energy which we can eat. The light should be preferably in the morning, as the afternoon sun is generally hotter, and will tend to stress the plants a bit more, but in the end, any light is good, as long as there’s enough of it.

If a garden bed already exists, choose it to start with. It’s easier to dig out old plants you dan’t want, and replace them than start a whole new garden. Sometimes, anyway. There are problems, especially with established woody plants, which can cause problems, but in most cases, an existing garden is a good place to begin. The next best place is a lawn area. Lawns require a lot of sun, so a healthy patch is a good indication that there is enough light and water to grow most other plants, including food!

But what if there’s no soil at all? Any open space can be used as a growing area. In the inner cities, large areas have been paved, conreted or covered with hard surfacing like asphalt to reduce maintenance. These places are perfect, if they get enough sun, we just have to consider options for growing in containers, which I will come back to. In actual fact, the ground may not be the only place to put containers, and anywhere there is close-to-level space, such as balconies, roof tops, or even stairways can be considered, taking safety and access into account, of course.

Containers don't have to be "plant pots"

Another thing to consider is access to water. Is there a tap nearby the area you are going to use? It makes it so much easier to keep things going if you aren’t having to lug heavy watering cans up and down stairs or hoist them on to roofs to alleviate the thirst of your garden, and they are thirsty. In summer you may have to water every other day, in containers, maybe every day. There are automated ways of doing this, but a hose and trigger spray nozzle are the easiest.

There are other advantages of inner city gardens such as a potential lack of frost, due to being off the ground, or surrounding bricks and paving keeping things war at night. There are also often lower populations of weeds and pests, due to the absence of other gardens nearby for them to migrate from.

What can you grow? Anything you like, really, the number of plants that can be grown are limited by climate, but in any location, there are hundreds of species of plant that can be grown productively. the first thing to consider is what do you like to eat? There’s not much point growing things that you don’t like, it takes just as much work to grow them, but you don’t get anything out of it. Everything is seasonal, too. Some things will grow all year, but most plants have an optimum time of year in a particular area. This usually means they are in season when they are also cheapest in the shops, so find unusual or expensive things, or things that don’t transport well for starters. Soft fruits, fresh herbs, tomatoes and salad vegies are my first thoughts, but it’s really up to you.

You can grow whatever you want in your space

So how can we grow a garden without garden beds? The first option is raised beds. These can work on lawns, if you don’t want to dig them up, but they can work on concrete or other paved surfaces, they behave just like large containers. Basically, you build a wall around the area you want to use, and fill it with “soil”, but I will come back to this. Of course you can use plant pots, or any other kind of container, polystyrene fruit boxes are easily obtained, usually for nothing, from local grocers, or markets (if you can find one). But really, you can use anything as a container, with a few important provisions.

Firstly, it has to hold “soil”, and I keep using scare quotes, because bringing in actual soil from somewhere else is expensive, and basically unsustainable in most cases, but we can work around that. Cheap potting mix is a good option. Supermarkets and big variety stores have potting mix for less than $5/25 litres. The one thing to note is the Australian Standrad logo. There are two standards for potting mix, Regular, which does not have to contain any fertiliser, and Premium, which contains enough for a few months. The standard means you are sure the mix contains no toxic chemicals, retains water and nutrients, drains okay, allows air down to the plant roots: all the things you need from a potting mix. The container itself must also have holes at the bottom to allow water to drain away, or roots become waterlogged.

Logo for the Australian standard (regular grade) potting mix. Premium grade is the same in red.

You need to fill up the container almost to the top, but not quite, as there needs to be some space, a “reservoir” for water to collect so it can filter into the potting mix. Don’t squash it down too much, either, it will settle when it’s watered in., and too much pressure will squash out all the air spaces in the mix, and suffocate your plants.

But where do we get our plants? If you’re buying plants, seeds are the cheapest way to do it. You’ll get more plants than you know what to do with from most packets of seeds. It’s best to buy things that are “open pollinated” if you can find them, which means you will be able to save this year’s seeds again for next year. But there are plenty of other ways to get plants. Division is one way, there are a lot of plants, like Mint and Oregano, and Thyme, where you can just dig a little bit of the plant from an existing one, and plant it where you want it to grow. A bit more complicated it taking cuttings, where you cut a small stem from an established plant, strip most of the lower leaves off and stick it in some potting mix. Eventually, if the cuttings are kept moist, and out of direct sun in a warm spot, like the top of the fridge, new roots will grow from the base, and you can plant the cuttings out. Rosemary and Sage work well this way.

Not too little, not too much, this Apple seedling finds things just right. Maybe I'll call it Goldilocks.

Fertiliser = Plant Food. Plants produce their own energy, but they need certain elements to build the machinery to do it. These come from the nutrients found in fertilisers. The most important are Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium, or “NPK” in their chemical symbols. These can be found in both synthetic chemical fertilisers, or in organic fertilisers. Chemical fertilisers are easy to apply in small amounts to deliver large doses of appropriate nutrients, while organic fertilisers, mostly animal manures, require much larger quantities to be applied for the same result. For this reason, along with the issue of odour, some people choose to use chemical fertilisers. It’s a personal decision, really, it makes little difference to the plants, though organic fertilisers increase soil organic matter and microbial activity, which is a good thing, while chemical fertilisers are much easier to overdose on and produce undesirable effects.

Pests and Diseases are often the cause of much discouragement. Grubs and slugs and bugs can eat away plants literally overnight, but there are simple solutions. Firstly, the best defence is healthy plants, healthy plants seem to be attacked less by pest and disease, so keep them growing strong. Growing many different plants together, mixed up rather than in neat rows, seems to confuse any critters looking for a free feed. Lastly, there are plenty of low toxicity sprays that will knock back the baddies. Just remember they will also knock out any beneficial bugs as well, like ladybugs and hoverflies.

Grow as many different plants as you can in the space you've got, it helps confuse the pests, keep out weeds, and produce more food!

Weeds take up empty space in the garden. If you have weeds, it means you could have more plants you like. Pulling weeds makes more weeds! By ripping them out, you are bringing more weed seeds to the surface, and allowing more sunlight to warm the soil, and more water to germinate more seeds. Mulch reduces weeding and watering, by shielding the soil from the sun, evaporation is reduced, so more water stays in the soil for plant roots. Organic mulches provide some nutrients as they break down, but very woody mulches can use up some nitrogen if you are not careful. Any mulch is better than nothing, even stones or plastic could help stop weeds and hang on to water.

Many plants produce more when harvested, like beans, peas, salad greens, even broccoli, so keep picking! Keep sowing seeds, too, on a regular basis, so plants can be replaced when they are slowing down. Most of all, keep trying, take notes so you can look back on what works and what doesn’t, and don’t get discouraged. No one is good at something the first time they try. Remember learning to cook?

The golden garden rules

  • Light
  • Water
  • Healthy roots = healthy shoots
  • Mulch
  • Plant what you like
  • Keep planting
  • Keep picking
  • Learn from mistakes
  • Have fun!

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Green-age wasteland

May 19, 2011 at 11:09 am (Container gardens, Featured plants, Fruit trees, Gardening - Basics, Seed Saving)
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A lot of people probably don’t realise, or at least don’t stop to consider, that when they buy fresh fruit and vegetables, they are often buying the means to generate more fresh fruit and vegetables. Every time you spit out pips of any fruit you eat, you are probably throwing away the means to grow whatever fruit is your fancy. Of course, most commercial fruit comes from carefully selected varieties, nursery propagated by grafting a well known variety on to disease resistant rootstock to grow in a large plantation which will produce uniform fruit of consistent quality under well known conditions at a predictable time of year. Any seed grown from such fruit will not be exactly the same, due to the wonders of sexual reproduction, and resulting natural genetic recombination. But then, why does that matter?

If you want a well known variety of fruit, and you can grow it in your garden, chances are it will be cheapest in the shops when your tree is laden with fruit. That’s how the market works. But if you have a tree in your garden that has different fruit to any other tree in the world, which is quite conceivable, then nobody else will have it for sale. Sure, it won’t be much different; after all, if you save a seed from an orchard grown fruit which was surrounded by genetically identical trees when it flowered, the gene pool is  small to begin with. But every now and then, random recombination combined with natural variation means something new and unusual will spring forth. It may have a different flavour, or colour, or more disease resistance, or better nutritional content, or prettier flowers, or larger fruit, or any other possible variation. The world renowned Granny Smith apple, for example, came from a seedling out of a compost heap in country New South Wales. And if you do get something worth spreading around, you obviously have the right to immortalise yourself, though I don’t think Maria Anne Smith referred to herself as “Granny”.

Some sorely neglected Citrus seedlings. You know how mechanics' cars are always falling apart?

Some fruit produce seeds that are poly-embryonic, meaning they are capable of growing more than one plant from each seed. In the case of Citrus species, one of the embryos is asexual, meaning it’s a clone of the parent plant, along with one or two “normal” embryos. I used to peel the seed coat off citrus pips and stick them in my mum’s indoor plants. They usually grew, but I never took it further than germinating them as a kid. There’s no way of knowing which of the seedlings is the clone, obviously, until they fruit, or you have a genetics lab handy. And seedling trees take longer to fruit than grafted, nursery propagated fruit trees, possibly up to seven years, as compared to two or three. But seedlings are free, and if after a few years waiting the fruit turns out to be not to your liking, you can always graft on something you do like. Even commercial trees have this done as consumer tastes change.

Sprouting Garlic cloves, ready for planting (pic courtesy of shonky photo, inc.)

Okay, so fruits are all good, but what about vegetables? In some cases, they are fruit anyway. Tomato, Pumpkin, Melon, Capsicum and Chilli seeds are easy to identify for example, and Eggplant too, though the seeds are a little harder to extract. But often we actually buy whole or almost whole plants. The onion family is the best example of this. Onion and garlic bulbs are basically dormant plants. Each individual clove of garlic is capable of producing a whole bulb of garlic if you stick it back in the ground. Just look for clove that are already starting to push out a leaf, and bury them pointy end up, just below the soil surface. Onions will regrow if planted, though not as deeply, and they usually just flower, which gives you a seed supply at least. Onions that have divided into separate bulbs may be able to become multiplier onions, this is where Shallots originally came from.

Look ma! Growing Garlic!

Leeks are also a whole plant, though they are usually trimmed of excess leaves and roots before they arrive at the market. But you can use the leek as normal in the kitchen, and then replant just the base, which will re-grow. Again, you may only end up with a flowering stalk, but they do look attractive, like pink pom-poms, and again, you will be able to collect plenty of seeds. Pretty much anything that comes with a root attached, for example bunched herbs, can be replanted and grown again, though the shock of harvest and transport may mean they simply flower quickly and produce seeds. But you may get some foliage, which is what you want from herbs, and at the very least you will get seeds.

Three leeks and a celery. Not pictured: Ted Danson

Whole bunches of celery can also be a source of planting material. I usually pull off the large outside stalks of celery until the pale, tiny leave in the centre are all that’s left attached to the base of the plant. That base can be planted either in the garden or in a pot, and will grow new leaves and roots, which may either be harvested, or left to produce seed for next year.

The pale, sickly looking celery heart. This was indeed a dark day for flash-free photography. Happily, the celery made a miraculous recovery (see above)

These are just a few examples of how your grocery basket can be a way of filling up your food garden as well as your fridge. If something looks like it will grow, give it a try, you never know your luck. I am currently eyeing a pineapple top in my compost bin. I will get back to you…

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Wade in the water

April 29, 2011 at 1:26 pm (Container gardens, Featured plants, Gardening - Basics, Pests and problems, Water Gardens)
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I have often commented that one of the major reasons, if not the single biggest reason, for failure in growing plants is forgetting to water them. There are ways around it, putting in irrigation systems, for example, or having timely reminders from people like me. But ultimately, if plants don’t get water, they don’t grow, but equally, if they get too much water, many plants will die of waterlogged roots.

Of course there are plants quite at home completely submerged in water. Plants originally developed in the oceans of the world, where they had no concern about water supplies, and had a completely different set of problems. Most of the useful water plants you might wish to grow are actually land plants that appear to have re-adapted to the aquatic lifestyle, but they all tolerate, and even thrive, sitting in a body of water.

One of my favourites is Vietnamese or Hot Mint (Persicaria odorata) which I have been growing for years. I originally started growing from a stem I took home wrapped in a moistened serviette from a Vietnamese restaurant. It’s still going, and I have divided and given out dozens of plants from that original stem. But I learnt the trick to keeping it alive is to have its pot sitting in water all the time. I first kept it in pot, in a bucket, then graduated to a “pond” which is actually an old deep shower base I found on the side of the road.

The shower-base-pond in my backyard. Vietnamese Mint and Kang Kong are at the back, Taro and Fool's Watercress toward the front. That's Lemongrass on the edge in a pot.

I have grown other things in my shower pond, including Water Chestnuts (Eleocharis dulcis), which I had planted in a large, flat basket so they could be lifted out easily for harvest. At the moment I have Kang Kong (Ipomoea aquatica) a relative of the Morning Glory Vine, which is used for its abundant leaves, Taro (Colocasia esculenta) which is grown for its tubers, stems and leaves, and so-called Fool’s Watercress (Apium nodiflorum) which is a kind of perennial edible plant closely related to Celery (A. graveolens).

I have also thrown in Duckweed (Lemna minor) and the native water fern Azolla (Azolla pinnata) which help soak up excess nutrients in the water, as well as shade it. They float on the surface, grow really fast, and can be scooped out and used as mulch in other parts of the garden to keep the nutrients cycling. The only real drawback in having standing water is that you will attract mosquitoes to your garden, and they will lay eggs in the water, and while I don’t personally seem to get bitten much, it’s not the most pleasant of things if you wish to spend time out there.

Some people recommend putting oil or kerosene on your pond to counter the little wrigglers. I would never use anything like that, especially when growing food plants in the pond. The best thing to do is get a couple of fish who will eat he larvae. Goldfish are not that great, but better than nothing, ask a local aquarium what they suggest, it will depend on where you live. Also, they tend to like stagnant water, so a little fountain or waterfall pump might just do the trick, a solar powered one would be ideal.

While it may be starting to cool down, it might be worth thinking about planning for the spring time, and certainly while plans are dormant is the best time to set them up for next year. And don’t think the plants I have mentioned are the only options, there are a heap more plants that will grow in a small pond, and anything that can hold water is a suitable container. I just pot the plants in ordinary potting mix (regular grade Australian Standard, of course) and plonk them in the water. Simple as that!

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Grow more pot(s)

November 19, 2010 at 12:24 pm (Container gardens, Fruit trees, Garden construction, Gardening - Basics)
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Back in the 1990s, I heard a spoken word piece by Jello Biafra, formerly of the musical combo “Dead Kennedies”. His speech was heartfelt, and pointed out the political agenda behind the legal status of Cannabis sativa in the United States and most of the Western World, especially trading partners of the US. Much of this appears to be influenced by large chemical companies, patented processes, and nepotism. Once the most commonly grown fibre crop in the world, used in making everything from ship sails (“canvas” derives from the plant’s botanical name), and the best rope money could buy, to Levi’s jeans, and high quality paper; it is now barely cultivated (legally) at all. He at no point suggests that smoking copious bowls of the stuff will in any way improve anyone’s life, or help them achieve their goals. I tend to agree, unless those goals are knowing, by title, every episode of M*A*S*H. Or being able to accurately guess the prices on Antiques Roadshow before they come up on the screen.

A container "garden". There are at least a dozen useful and edible plants in here, I can see them from my kitchen window.

But that, my green-thumbed friends, is not what this post is actually about. It was a cunning ruse to attract your attention, and now I can talk about the real topic: Growing plants in containers. I live in the inner city of Melbourne, and at some point, the block of land on which my house is situated had a Mediterranean Makeover. In other words, every bit of bare soil, with only two exceptions, is covered in concrete. This left me with a few options:

a. Move house

b. Get over it

c. Hire a jackhammer

d. Grow things anyway

For numerous reasons, the first option was not viable. I like where I live in general, and I won’t bore you with talk of “the market” at the moment. The second option I tried. I put in an inflatable pool instead. It didn’t satisfy my urge to grow things, as all it grew were millions of mosquito larvae. Sorry neighbours. The third option sounds a lot like really hard manual labour, to which I am certifiably allergic, not to mention being in breach of my lease.

So, I just grow things anyway. A garden in any urban setting is a relatively thin layer of soil that’s conditioned to grow selected plants. In many cases, it’s already a kind of container anyway, bordered by lawn, concrete or fencelines anyway, and with a bottom created by the harder, less fertilised, less aerated soil below. So growing things in a pot, or any other container, is not really all that different to growing in the ground, with a few notable exceptions. One thing it’s really good for is growing root crops, especially those where the top dies back at harvest, like garlic, for example. Just tip out the pot and sift through to find the goodies.

Carrots and Parnsips grown in pots? Sure, why not? I did.

You can use anything as a container for growing plants, if it can hold “soil” (more accurately known as potting media), it can be used as a container to grow plants. Here’s where I start to qualify things. The best kind of containers are deep, with solid sides, and drainage at the bottom. The deeper the pot is, the more water it can hold, and the less often you will need to water it. By solid sides, I mean non-porous. Untreated terracotta pots are porous, which means they absorb water from the inside of the pot, and it evaporates off the outside surface, this means the pots can dry out more quickly. And drainage at the bottom allows for excess water to run off, because most plants don’t like waterlogged roots, and gravity generally makes water move in a downward direction. I do put saucers of some description under all my pots, though, as it helps indicate when they have been watered enough, and helps stop wasting any excess, as it will get drawn back up as plants use the water in the potting medium.

So, what is potting medium? It is any substance used to grow plants in containers that basically does what the soil does. It gives a physical framework for roots to grow in, it holds nutrients, it holds water, and it has large spaces in it for air to move through. Surprisingly enough, plant roots require air just as the shoots do, without it, they die, which can kill the whole plant, quite quickly in some cases. There is a balance between all these properties that form the ideal root environment for most plants, and a number of experiments that need to be carried out in order to assess various potting media. Luckily for non-boffins, there is an Australian Standard for potting mix. Actually there are two. Regular and Premium standard mixes are basically the same, the Premium containing a certain level of slow release fertiliser, while the Regular does not, though in both cases extra ingredients, such as “water saving” materials may be included. Look for the Standards Australia ticks on the bags, any other writing means very little, and price means even less!

So, what can you grow in containers? Anything. I have successfully grown Asparagus, Beans, Carrots, Dill, Eggplant, Fennel, Gherkins, Horseradish, Indian Bean Tree, Jicama, Kale, Lettuce, Marrow, Nasturtium, Onions, Parsnips, Queensland Blue Pumpkin (phew), Radishes, Sunflowers, Tomatoes, Um… Violets, Waxberry, X-tra hot chillies, Yam Daisies and Zebra Beans. Almost A-Z, and all edible. Some things, like the larger pumpkins, might struggle in really hot weather, but there’s no reason not to give it a go. Just find the biggest pot you can and start from there. Most of my pots have been discarded by others and I picked them up for nothing, even the big 50+ litre ones. You could also use other things, I have seen many an old bathtub or laundry trough recalled into active duty as a planter. Even old toilet pedestals  get a run, sometimes. And the old black recycling tubs that councils used to give out were excellent. But I am not encouraging anyone to steal them.

These two potted Citrus I have had for years, the Aloe vera, not as long, but this is the extent of my actual "garden" behind them. Other fruit trees can go in pots, too

Watering is a big issue. The bigger the pots, the less you will have to water, but the more you can grow in them, too. If you have lots of pots, it might be better to install a watering system, so you can water them all evenly with a turn of the tap, rather than carting a watering can back and forth, or using the hose (with trigger nozzle) to water them individually for as long as your patience lasts. Drip watering heads can be used, though they may create channeling in the pot, where water forms a course and runs straight through and out the bottom. This can happen anyway, especially if the pot dries out and the potting mix shrinks away from the side of the container. The best thing in that situation is to soak the whole pot in a bucket of water for a few hours, then water as normal the next day. There are also special downward spraying heads especially designed for containers, and these are best to use with a watering system, as they spread the application of water, and reduce the risk of channeling.

If you are really keen, and don’t mind clearing it up when you leave, you can even build garden beds on top of the concrete. Any kind of solid box shape will do, as long as it can handle the weather, and keeps your “soil” in place, it will do the job, a depth of half a metre of space for roots to grow should produce results. You can often spy old terracotta pipes turned on their end being enjoyed as sort of bottomless pots in landscapes all over the place. The thing is, don’t be discouraged by your concrete wasteland. There are ways to make it work for you. And the best part of container growing? You get to take it all when you leave. All the work you put in at one location, can still bring in returns if you move.  So, come on renters, go for a walk, find some pots, and get growing.

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