Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Gardening Without Outdoor Space

I admire and long to emulate people with large gardens who are able to grow some of their own healthy foods. Unfortunately, I live in an apartment with no outdoor space, not even a patio or a balcony. However, I have found that by using bread pans, I can create a small herb or lettuce garden quite inexpensively on my windowsills. It is a great way to reuse bread pans found at yard sales or thrift stores. The rusty ones work just fine too. Bread pans are the perfect width for average windowsills and don't take a tremendous amount of soil, which further reduces the cost of gardening.

To turn a bread pan into a garden container, simply puncture the bottom of the pan with a nail using a hammer so excess water can drain. In the photo above, I put the lid of an plastic kiwi container under the pan to catch water runoff, using a piece of foil works too though.

I found this container abandoned in the basement of my building.



I have sucessfully grown basil, green onions, chives, romaine lettuce, spinach and wheat grass using this method. Windowsill gardening works for me.

5 comments:

  1. I had no idea you could grow lettuce using this method. I don't have much outdoor space so I might be on the hunt for some bread pans. Thanks for the advice!

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  2. I have a little indoor garden as well. I love it so much.

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  3. Awesome! I'd like to try spinach using this..wonder if that would work :)

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  4. Wow, that's a great idea! I wonder if I have a windowsill that might work for this...

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  5. @Keli I grow spinach using this method and have no problem with it. The key is to continually harvest the leaves when they're babies.

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