About Me, And Why I Chose to Make This Website...

Firstly, let me say welcome, and thank you for choosing to visit. The site has lots of hidden useful and informative pages, so don't be afraid to use the "Search This Site" button at the bottom of the menu bar.

My name is Rick, and this website is the ongoing story of how I am trying to grow my own food and become as self-sufficient as I can, with only my tiny urban patio garden to work with.

I live in the suburbs of a large town in central southern England.
My garden consists of a very small patio area, just 13 feet by 14 feet, with a small area to the rear where I keep a tiny potting shed and a workshop.

My only blessing is that I'm fortunate enough to have a south-facing garden, and in the summer, parts of it can become quite a sun trap. container gardening

Recession
I first conceived the idea of growing my own food when the recession hit my printing business quite hard, and inspired me to start looking into ways of cutting down on spending, and becoming more self-sufficient.

Preparedness
Like a grown-up boy scout, I am, and have always been, a fan of general preparedness, and with what looks like hard times ahead for everyone, I figured now was a very good time to expand my preparedness repertoire, and learn how to grow food.

I found myself asking this question;
"With such a small garden, could I generate enough fresh food to the extent that I wouldn't need to go out and buy it?"

I guess there was only one way to find out, so I decided to take the plunge and go for it.

This website?
The Container-Gardening-For-Food.com website has become the focal point for my challenge and will act like a journal as I set about trying to prove to myself and to others that you don't need acres of land in the countryside to grow your own food, and what better way to take-on that challenge, by engaging it with no garden at all, just a tiny patio area.

During the 2010 growing season, I will be putting to the test the different theories and methods of growing foods, as preached by the advocates of these techniques, to try to prove once and for all whether growing your own food in any meaningful quantity is possible within a small urban space.

Choice of plants
Because of my garden size restrictions, I have purposely chosen only a limited number of plant types. I selected them because I believed they would give me the most quantity of food from the smallest amount of space. Tomatoes are one of my main crops as well as potatoes which I am growing in bags. I also have broad beans which are supposed to provide high yields of nutritious beans. I have also chosen runner and climbing french beans, because they can take advantage of the airspace available via the climbing frame, and can be frozen easily for the winter months. I do have a small number of other types of crop such as carrots, beets, spinach, herbs, lettuce, cabbage, butternut squash, cucumber and Kale.Everything I learn this year will be utilised in helping to provide an even bigger crop next year.

I should also point out here that I am using Heirloom seeds, so I can save the seeds from the crop to plant again next year.

My garden as of mid-July

I do hope this website can inspire others to try their own 'urban farming' projects for themselves, and I encourage those that do to write of you experiences in the global gardening blog, and other "Have Your Say" interractive pages I have provided throughout the website. (Click here)

Be sure to subscribe to my blog (and newsletter) as this is an on-going project website, and is continuously updated.

Rick

PS People keep sending me emails asking how I made this website, and how I get the high visitor numbers that I get.
My secret is an idiot-proof company called sitesell! They are fabulous at helping people like me (who don't know the first thing about building websites) not only build a website from scratch, but also to make it turn a good profit. I genuinely couldn't have built this site without them.
I've put a link here in case you want a quick look at what they do.