Growing food in the city

[SunnyAlberta]

I've only ever had garden thieves go after my raspberries. Children would climb my fence for ripe berries.

 

[jomoncon]

Gardening in the city is a bit of a challenge.  Don't plant corn, tomatoes, or any other identifiable crop.  Stick with root vegetables.  Garden thieves are not big on digging and heavy labor.  To most city people, turnips, carrots and sweet potatoes just look like weeds. Okra is a good crop because most people do not recognize it nor do they know how to eat it.

Rufus

My father had a large garden in inner city New Orleans in a pretty rough neighborhood. He never had any thefts, and he did give away a lot of his produce. He mostly grew tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and okra. And in the winter, it was mostly various greens, mostly mustard and collards.

After he passed away, I took over a small section of his garden. I grew lots of tomatoes, corn, green beans, and squash. It was amazing how many neighbors stopped by to say they remembered my Dad as he worked in the garden. Dad never grew corn or squash so I got plenty of questions about these. I continued my Dad's tradition of giving away a lot of produce. I even had some of the neighbor kids take an interest in what I was doing. It was so very rewarding to see kids who come from a single-parent household, who are living on welfare, who line in a drug filled neighborhood, and they are trying to grow tomatoes in a bucket!!

Mom has now passed away also, and I have a garden of my own. I still share with my neighbors and take a break for a conversation. The kids in my own neighborhood still have no idea that one can actually grow food, rather than just going to the store or a fast food place. Their parents may have more money, but they still haven't tasted a vine-ripened, organically grown tomatoes.

And growing corn still fascinates them!

 

[rufus]

Well, I have one apricot tree that is producing fruit now. It is still green, but I expect it to ripen in the next week or so. Hopefully, this year the ladies that saw fit to pick my trees clean last year will be off doing something else.

I have three apricot trees, but I guess it just didn't get cold enough for the other two to produce.

This last winter, I had a good crop or oranges. I gave most of them away. I cannot eat too many of them because it messes up my blood sugar.

Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to own an orange grove, now that I have one, I can't eat the fruit. I guess that is the way of life.

Rufus

 

[SunnyAlberta]

Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to own an orange grove, now that I have one, I can't eat the fruit. I guess that is the way of life.

Rufus, I'm sorry to read that you have diabetes. My husband does, too, and I know it can be very difficult to manage. Trying to think on the upside, I'm certain that your oranges bring happiness to others you share them with. Bless you.

 

[stone_family3]

If the beds are visible from the front check with the city to make sure vegetable gardens are allowed, I've seen some stink by certain towns about gardens in the front. It would be a shame to put in all that hard work just to be punished for it.

That being said, I would utilize shepherds hooks and hanging baskets for things like herbs and strawberries. I'm getting ready to set up containers (buckets) for some of my produce.

Usually we plant sun flowers in the front of our house, when they are growing we feed the leaves to our bunnies and then when they start to die off we cut them down and feed them to the chickens.