"Growing food is like printing money...."

[Dee18]

Just watched a great, short TED talk about gardening in South central LA. It's at:
http://www.ted.com/talks/ron_finley_a_guerilla_gardener_in_south_central_la.html
A couple other great quotes, "Kids that grow kale eat kale."  and "There's enough city owned vacant land in LA for 26 Central Parks, or to plant 700,000,000 tomato plants."
Great ideas for community projects, or starting your own garden.

[BlueMR2]

I'll be needing some really foolproof plants.  :-)  We planted some various type items around the yard and despite not neglecting them (I'm real particular about following instructions to the letter), most of them died.  Sigh.

[LizzyBee]

I'll be needing some really foolproof plants.  :-)  We planted some various type items around the yard and despite not neglecting them (I'm real particular about following instructions to the letter), most of them died.  Sigh.

Don't give up! I'm also horrible with plants and have been known to kill even cacti, but I'm going to try my second attempt at growing a small garden on my balcony after killing all of my tomato plants the last time I tried. Maybe you could do a working share of a CSA to learn more about gardening or ask someone to mentor you. If you help them in their garden for a year in exchange for the learning opportunity they could share their produce and then you would be ready for your own garden the following year.

[Jamesqf]

"There's enough city owned vacant land in LA for 26 Central Parks, or to plant 700,000,000 tomato plants."

But is there enough water?

[Gerard]

"There's enough city owned vacant land in LA for 26 Central Parks, or to plant 700,000,000 tomato plants."

But is there enough water?

Sure there is! The water Angelenos throw away after they shower or do laundry... or that they currently use to water their lawns or wash their cars.

[norvilion]

Don't give up! I'm also horrible with plants and have been known to kill even cacti, but I'm going to try my second attempt at growing a small garden on my balcony after killing all of my tomato plants the last time I tried. Maybe you could do a working share of a CSA to learn more about gardening or ask someone to mentor you. If you help them in their garden for a year in exchange for the learning opportunity they could share their produce and then you would be ready for your own garden the following year.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one bad with plants. Completely dumbfounded my family when I somehow managed to kill an aloe plant. May end up trying again after the weather becomes a bit more stable around here.

[happy]

+1 to don't give up.
I'm still learning with veges but improving. They say it takes a few years to learn the skills.

Some things have returned their initial cost by many times: Giant Fordhook Silver beet, a free pack of rocket, lettuce, my two first ever potatoes grown from a couple of shooting spuds. Cucumbers did ok too , but zucchinis - apparently legendary producers were a complete flop. Tomatoes, well 50/50, but the wallabies ate a lot.

In my enthusiasm over 2.5kg of "free potatoes" ( from my two kitchen cast-offs), I planted several batches more, ignoring the fundamental that potatoes are a cool climate crop - planting them in full sun in the Australian summer was an error and yielded zippo.

On balance I'm probably just a bit ahead of breaking even, but I'm getting better at it .....huh roll on next season, I'm printing money.

[Dee18]

Love picturing wallabies eating tomatoes!

[LizzyBee]

For those with a green thumb, which types of plants will do best in pots on a balcony that faces north? The narrow side of the balcony faces east so I may huddle my plants in that corner. These are the foods that I like and eat a lot of: zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, basil, and thyme. If I had to pick one, I'd pick the tomato, but I know they need a lot of sunlight so maybe that's not the best choice.

[Rural]

I'd put a tomato or maybe two facing east but focus primarily on the peppers since they're the most expensive thing you list to buy in the produce department. Well, basil and thyme are expensive, but they should be better able to get by on the north side. They also might do fine in a window if you have one that faces a different direction.

[Jill the Pill]

in pots on a balcony that faces north?

As Rural hints, nothing really grows well on a north wall unless you have really good east or west sunshine for at least 4 hours a day.  Greens are somewhat shade-tolerant, potatoes (though you have to use a really big pot like a half-barrel), beans, and mint.   

[happy]

I assume you are in the Northern Hemisphere? So the north is the shady side.

Leafy greens don't need so much direct sunlight: try leaf lettuce, silver beet, Asian greens, rocket,  spinach, kale.. and mint. All these veges you can just pick what you want and leave the rest of the plant to grow, so  its better value for money than buying in a shop. I have a polystyrene box (about 1 foot x 2 foot) and grown about 6-8 leaf lettuces in there. This amount has supplied me with a small leaf salad for one person 3-5X a week for around 4 or 5 months. Just running to seed now, so I'm replanting another box.

My cucumbers did pretty Ok in a not very sunny spot, but some of the vine did try to grow up into the sun. Zucchini planted in the same place failed. Tomatoes do like their sun.

[Jill the Pill]

I assume you are in the Northern Hemisphere? So the north is the shady side.

>< Doh!  Sorry, I usually try to be careful about that bias. 

[LizzyBee]

Thank you all for your help. I am going to try some of your suggestions. I found out that my city offers plots in community gardens (~$35 for 150 s.f.), but the ones near my home are full and have long waiting lists. I want to "garden" in my pots on my balcony and hopefully once a spot opens up I will be ready to tackle a 150 s.f. garden. I know it's going to sound silly, but at this point I would be so embarrassed to join a public garden because I don't even know where to begin. How embarrassing would it be if all of my plants die because of some rookie mistake? On the other hand, I could constantly get free advice from the other gardeners. Hopefully I wouldn't become bothersome. I am determined to figure this gardening thing out because I really want to grow my own organic, fresh produce. Nothing beats an in-season garden fresh tomato and they're so expensive at the farmers market.

[econberkeley]

How easy is it to grow herbs? I am planning to plant rosemary,thyme and dill. Can I grow them easily using seeds? Where can I buy seeds for a good price? I see them online,but they sell so many of them. I do not need that many. By the way, I live in Houston.

[ShavenLlama]

Thyme, dill, basil, and the like you can get at the Depot or Lowes, or I've even seen them at Dollar Tree or 99cents Only stores in seed packets. Can't say I've ever seen rosemary as a seed, but you can get a small plant at Depot for a couple dollars and put it in a terra cotta pot. it will eventually grow into a shrub if you let it.

[Jamesqf]

Basil is easy to start from seed.  I've never seen thyme or rosemary as seeds, only plants.   (They're easy to start from a division, if you know anyone who has plants.)  There are also lots of different varieties of thyme.

[MtnGal]

I know it's going to sound silly, but at this point I would be so embarrassed to join a public garden because I don't even know where to begin. How embarrassing would it be if all of my plants die because of some rookie mistake? On the other hand, I could constantly get free advice from the other gardeners. Hopefully I wouldn't become bothersome.

I'm just starting out too and I have a spectacular ability to kill plants. Everyone I've talked to seems so eager to offer advice, answer questions, just talk gardening and even tell their stories of when something "easy" died on them. Don't be embarrassed all!