Green Options

Using a nifty technique called sub-irrigation, the folks over at Inside Urban Green have been growing all sorts of things, including two tomato plants that yield a half-pint a day, in a Rubbermaid container, or grow box. They’re doing so while conserving water and taking up very little space.

Anywhere there is sun, you too can have fresh tomatoes, basil, eggplant, radicchio, sunflowers, whatever your heart desires, for less than the price of ten* local, organic heirloom tomatoes at your local farmer’s market. And it’s organic if you want it to be. And please believe it’s local. And it’s damn convenient if you ask me.

Though their specific technique involves Rubbermaid and polystyrene, there are a number of different ways to put together sub-irrigation, or self-watering pots. Learn how after the break.

Guest contributor Pamela Price is the founder of Red, White & Grew, a blog devoted to “Promoting the Victory Garden Revival and other simple, earth-friendly endeavors as bipartisan, patriotic acts in an age of uncertainty.”

As mentioned here last month, folks short on fertile land but eager to grow their own vegetables can opt for container-based Victory Gardens with astonishing results.

Below are four more clever garden alternatives worth exploration. Some are old, some are new…but each illustrates that, when it comes to cultivating food, we humans are remarkably imaginative beings.

Just as our parents, grandparents, and grandparents adapted best practices in growing their own food during WWI & WWII, our concept of the modern Victory Garden movement can (and should) include a variety of strategies to ensure success!