Food from a Flowerpot

By Joanne Poyourow

Grow a feast of vegetables, fruits, and herbs on your patio or balcony...

You don’t need a farm or a huge plot of land to be a gardener. You can grow healthy fruits, vegetables, and herbs in the smallest and most unexpected spaces.

Joanne Poyourow, founder of the Environmental Change-Makers Community and the Community Garden at Holy Nativity in Los Angeles, is about to launch you on an exciting and sustainable food growing adventure...

In her new book, Food from a Flowerpot, Poyourow explores everything you need to grow healthy, delicious food in whatever space you have. From soil building to water-wisdom, Poyourow adapts simple principles of gardening to flowerpots and other
tiny containers.

After reading this book, you will:
• Get inspired by easy, low cost gardening tips... you CAN do this!

• Learn how to efficiently use small spaces to grow a bounty of healthy food.

• Set up a a delicious herb garden anywhere... even in an apartment or condo!

• Apply the principles of sustainability and regenerative gardening, and grow food
ANYWHERE!

No tools, no time, no space? No problem! With Food from a Flowerpot, you’ll
earn your green thumb in no time. Get your copy now, and start growing your own
food today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joanne Poyourow
• Release date: Mar 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005230456

Joanne Poyourow

Joanne Poyourow explores sustainable solutions. Her home garden is an edible landscape and an urban wildlife habitat. In 2004 she co-founded the Environmental Change-Makers community group in Los Angeles.With the change-makers she has built two community gardens and a community-scale, wood-fired bread oven. And since 2008 she has managed the plantings at the Community Garden at Holy Nativity, which grows vegetables for the local food pantry.Joanne finds delicious ways to cook those abundant vegetables. She is a passionate seed-saver, and for relaxation she knits insanely complex lace patterns.She is on Instagram @ecmJoanne

Book preview

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Food from a Flowerpot

By Joanne Poyourow

Part of the Abundant Harvests series:

High-Yield Vegetable Gardening for City Spaces

Change-Making Publications

~~~

FOOD FROM A FLOWERPOT

Smashwords edition CC March 2021 by Joanne Poyourow

This ebook is published under the Creative Commons license: Non-commercial, attribution, share-alike.

ISBN 9781005230456

First printing: April 2014

Second edition: April 2018

Additional copies are available via www.change-making.com

Contents

Introduction

Eight Reasons to Grow Vegetables in Containers

POTS

About Pretty Pots and Fiddly Gadgets

The Bigger the Better

What Type of Pot?

SOIL and ECOSYSTEM

Start With Your Soil

Recycle Your Potting Soil

Crop Rotation for Container Gardens

Mulch

Watch the Weight

Fertilizer versus Fertility

Compost

Worm Composting

The Legume Family

Manufacture Microclimates

Aphids and Snails and Mildew, Oh My!

PLANTS

What Can You Grow in a Flowerpot?

Food from a Flowerpot in L.A.

WATER

Watering Container Veggies

More Resources

About the author

Introduction

Wish list:

High-yields

Organic food

Low cost, low inputs

Doesn’t take much time

Works in a city’s small spaces

YES! You can grow food from a flowerpot, and plenty of it. In some ways, growing food in a flowerpot is no different from in-ground growing. At times, it’s even easier to grow in a container.

Start with a big enough container, and most vegetable plants won’t even know they aren’t growing in Mother Earth. They’ll perform the same for you as for in-ground gardeners. Thus in many ways, learning to be a productive flowerpot gardener means learning all the same skills as learning to be a productive in-ground gardener. You’re simply working within a tighter space.

Flowerpot gardening can have its advantages. If you planted in the wrong place (too sunny, too shady, too crowded), you can simply move the container to a new spot. Easy! If you’re growing a plant that has special needs (acidic soil, high water), container gardening gives you much greater control.

Certainly there are situations where container gardening presents unique challenges. When it comes to maintaining soil moisture through Southern California’s long, hot summers or Santa Ana wind conditions, container gardening can get tricky.

I’ve been growing food in flowerpots for many years to supplement my home gardens. In this ebook I’ll share tips and tricks which will get you started in container gardening. But this ebook isn’t just for beginners. Nor is it about having one lone flowerpot on a searing patio.

The mission of the Abundant Harvests ebook series is to dive deeper—to reach beyond dabbling in vegetables. This Food from a Flowerpot ebook will explore aspects of container gardening which will boost your yield and productivity. Your container gardens can be (and should be) every bit as productive as an equal amount of in-ground growing space.

Tips for flowerpot gardening:

Start with your soil.

Use the biggest container you possibly can.

Choose appropriate varieties.

Watch your watering techniques.

Manage microclimates.

Eight Reasons to Grow Vegetables in Containers

1. If you don’t have an in-ground garden: If you live in an apartment