Don’t Wait to Own Land – Start Gardening NOW!

My gardening journey started on the porch of a 550-square-foot apartment.

I didn’t grow up gardening.

As a kid, we had an apple tree that came with the house, which was great, but that was about it. I once got baby watermelon seeds as a handout from a class lesson. My parents let me weed 2 square feet of land and I managed to grow ONE baby watermelon. One day years later, I thought it’d be so cool to grow my own lettuce. My Mom let me buy a pack of seeds at the store. I knew nothing about lettuce varieties and what I grew was nothing like the iceberg lettuce I was familiar with from the store. I found my homegrown lettuce disgusting. I gave up.

It wasn’t until I was a newlywed in my tiny 550-square-foot apartment that I considered gardening again.

At church someone said, “You can begin self-reliance anywhere. You can live in a tiny apartment and begin with one tomato plant on your porch. Just start somewhere.”

I liked the idea of being self-reliant, as in being prepared for common emergencies. I grew up in hurricane and ice storm territory. I had experienced numerous power outages, including all the way up to 2 weeks without electricity. I definitely knew the value of keeping drinking water, a well-stocked pantry, and extra basic essentials always on hand. But the idea of growing my own food felt burdensome.

This was in the 2000s. It wasn’t the cool, hip trend it is now. I was on my own.

Just One Plant

But I felt like I had a duty to at least try it. Grow one plant, just to gain the experience, seemed reasonable. I told myself that if I hated it, then I could quit. Just one plant.

So I bought some packaged potting mix, a large tote container, and spinach seeds. I’m not a big fan of tomatoes (I know, SHOCKING in the gardening world) but I liked the idea of not needing to buy spinach from the store by growing my own.

To my amazement, spinach was super easy to grow in my climate! It thrived growing in a large tote container, it was prolific meeting my fresh spinach needs for months (money saved!), and it tasted WAY better than spinach from the store!

The most shocking part of all – I LOVED growing spinach!

It was rewarding and fulfilling and every day I looked forward to caring for my spinach plants, seeing them grow, and nourishing myself and my spouse from these wonderous plants growing on our little porch. I never expected growing food to feel so good emotionally!

I was hooked!!!

From there I tried new plants. Some worked, some failed. Didn’t matter. I loved the journey and some failure is just part of the process towards success. The successes tasted extra sweet because of it!

Other hindrances in life impacted our housing opportunities, so a lack of land continued to be my reality. But no matter where I’ve lived, I’ve continued to grow food any which way I can.

Of course, I dream of acres of land and my own homestead. But not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to afford that or in a position to live in a rural location without needing to deal with an unreasonable commute for employment. But the limitations of reality (and the lack of a rich spouse or parents) won’t stop you from growing food!

You can start growing food NOW!

If you’re in an apartment…

If you’re renting and can’t tear up your turf…

If you only have a small outdoor space…

If you have a yard but you’re plagued by too much shade or restrictive HOA rules…

… then grow food in these ways!

Grow Food in Pots

This is known as container gardening. You can grow a surprising amount of food in a very small space using this method. So if you have ANY outdoor space you have access to that has some sun, you can grow food.

Grow Indoors

You will need to be careful about rental rules with this, but if you’re allowed plants then you can grow edibles. Even if you don’t have much natural light, you can use grow lights to facilitate photosynthesis so your plants obtain what they need to grow.

Grow Microgreens Indoors

You can use your windows or a grow light to grow microgreens indoors any time of the year. They generally produce well even without proper light, such a kitchen counter, because you’re only growing them for those first few weeks where most everything they need to grow into a tiny new edible was stored in their original seed. Older plants become reliant on external sources to continue to grow.

Vertical Gardening

If you have a small outdoor space, whether it’s in containers, a raised bed, or in the ground, using trellises to grow your sprawling plants up off the ground will increase your yield within your square footage. So instead of a cucumber plant taking up a 6-foot by 1-foot section of garden, train it to grow up a trellis and now it only takes up 1 square foot.

Mini Greenhouse

Another way to grow vertically, a mini greenhouse gives you multiple shelves to grow shallow rooted vegetables like lettuce, spinach, pea shoots, and any microgreen. Bonus – the mini greenhouse makes it so you can grow in the winter! Plus, I lived in an apartment with deer and rabbits right out the backdoor, so a mini greenhouse was my only way to grow something to eat without the critters eating it first!

Community Garden

Research if you have a community garden near you. They have become more popular in the past decade so you might get lucky. The annual fee is usually very inexpensive. (Mine is only $30 per year for a huge plot that is about 20 by 40 feet. The community garden at the other end of the city limits is $30 per year for a 10 by 5 foot tall raised bed, so it’s geared towards seniors with physical limitations. Every community garden has different rules, so read yours thoroughly before signing up.) Often the cost of water from the spigot is included in the annual fee.

Borrow Land

If you are friends with someone who has some land and lives near you, even if it’s just an average yard but without HOA restrictions, then consider asking if you can grow food on their land. There are people who love the idea of homegrown food but are overwhelmed by the work. If you offer to do the work in exchange for sharing some of the produce, you could have an agreement. Especially if the homeowner is elderly, they may be thrilled by this arrangement. Not only do they get some free produce, they get a regular visitor and the joy of seeing their home be helpful to a friend or relative.

Waiting until someday when you own lots of land is a terrible plan. You’re better off starting exactly where you are right now. Grow your skills now then when the opportunity to expand comes, you’ll be ready! Whereas starting big generally leads to overwhelm, burnout, and quitting. (I’ve seen it, selling the farmhouse with 5 acres for a beach house. To each their own.)

Start small right now!

Any amount of homegrown food is a step in the right direction!

I started with spinach. What will you start with?