Organic Gardening...Condo Style

I recently saw a statistic that more than 70% of the residents in the Los Angeles metropolitan area are renters. A high proportion of those renters live in condos and apartments. When we moved into our condo in Santa Monica, I thought that my dreams of raising our own organic fruits and vegetables were over because we didn't have a yard.

I also struggled with the notion that it would take a lot of water to grow these fruits and vegetables and I wanted to be green. I didn't want to waste water, but then I realized that by growing our own fruits and vegetables, we will HELP the environment in the following ways:

* growing plants and trees puts oxygen into the air which helps fight global warming
* cutting out the necessity for a truck to deliver produce to the store to be purchased and consumed (which cuts down on pollution, emissions and reliance on gasoline and oil)
* using less water and land than traditional farming
* teaching my children (THE FABRIC OF YOUR FUTURE) the Science of gardening and the importance of organic gardening
* not using chemicals or pesticides, all of which cause irreversible harm to humans, plants, animals. They also leak into our drinking water, into the ocean and pollutes the air.

Yes a light bulb literally clicked on in my head when I realized how incredibly wonderful this is for the environment so...

I went to Armstrong Nursery and made sure that all of the fruits and vegetables that I chose would do well in containers by speaking with one of the gardener's there. The only one that I chose that wouldn't do well in a container was an Avocado tree...so I didn't get one :( I bought organic soil and special acidic soil for the grapes and berries and planted our garden in FULL SUN on the terrace!

Here is a list and pictures of the crops that we are growing together as a family:

Merlot grapes

Raspberries

Blueberries

Washington Dwarf Navel Oranges

Better Boy and Champion Tomatoes

Cucumbers & Jalapeno Peppers

Mammoth SUNFLOWERS


Here are some great ORGANIC GARDENING links to check out:

Organic Container Gardening

Organic Gardening for Kids

Earthbound Farm Organic

Gardening with Kids

Mothers of Organic

The only real pests that I think that we are going to have to deal with are birds, aphids and squirrels. So I plan to order eco-friendly netting to keep the birds out of our goodies from Gardens Alive and ladybugs to eat the aphids. I also plan to get hot pepper wax spray from Clean Air Gardening to make sure the squirrels don't eat our yummy goodness!