Planters

I decided to start a garden this year in the small plot in front of our apartment. My boyfriend's aunt gave me a great urban gardening book for Secret Santa this year, Grow Great Grub, which has handy tips on how to make the most of small spaces. I especially love this book because it has great do-it-yourself ideas and environmentally friendly ways to garden - making your own planters rather than buying plastic ones, composting (even with limited space) instead of using chemical fertilizers, natural pest remedies instead of harsh pesticides, etc.

I recommend!

I wanted to start as many things from seed as possible, which meant starting some plants in indoor planters. To start the seeds at the very beginning, I poked holes in the bottom of old takeout containers and put the lids underneath to catch drained water. This worked but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. The seedlings outgrow the trays pretty quickly and need to be transplanted when they're still small and fragile.

Tomatoes in tomato cans

The better solution, which I used for the first round of transplanting the seedlings indoors, is to use big aluminum cans with holes poked in the bottom with a hammer and nail. This gives the roots a lot more room to grow compared to the trays. I tried it first with my tomato seedlings, and so far they are thriving!

Enjoying the windowsill herbs (be careful, tomato plants are poisonous to cats - I was monitoring her closely)

One important thing to note, which the book also points out, is that you will want to be careful what types of containers you use for this. Certain types of plastic can leach into the dirt and make their way into the plants, which is a problem if you plan on eating them. I suspect the same might be true for BPA in some tomato cans as well.