Video - Edible Balcony Garden

If you have only a balcony or a small space to grow food in, have a look at what Janet over at Green Urban Living has done with her balcony.  I am amazed at what she manages to squeeze into a small space!

Link - Urban Gardening

Inhabitat brings us a quick article on Tenth Acre Farms, a trio of guys in Brooklyn, NY who are producing tons of produce every year on literally just a tenth of an acre.  If you live in an urban or suburban setting, and don't have a lot of space to garden in, let the people who are already doing it be your guide.  You CAN garden in small spaces.

http://inhabitat.com/nyc/tenth-acre-farms-an-abandoned-brooklyn-basketball-court-transformed-into-a-lush-green-space/

Vigilante or Guerrilla Gardening

Guerrilla gardening is when a person or group of people sneak onto a neglected, ugly spot, clean it up, and plant a garden in there. They essentially make an abandoned spot into a space that's useful for the surrounding community. Sounds nice, but technically such a group is breaking the law by trespassing onto property that they don't own and don't have permission to change. So it is possible to be arrested for this activity. Which brings me to my disclaimer: No, I am not recommending that you go out and start illegally planting tomatoes all over the place. I am not suggesting that you do anything at all. Your life is your own responsibility. Do as you will with it.
In the case of these videos, however, all turned out ideally. Todd Bieber and his gardening vigilantes grew a bountiful little garden, helped build community in an urban environment where people are notorious for keeping to themselves, and inspired the owners of the plot to continue keeping the space pretty and productive.

Unless you live in a more urban area, these videos will probably not seem applicable to your life. But before you write this off as something useless to your country life, give some thought to how Todd increased the sense of community in his neighborhood. It's a strange paradox that for all the people living piled on top of each other in cities, there is usually very little real community. Most barely know their neighbors.
Oh, but now wait a moment. Barely knowing our neighbors pretty much sums up all the rest of our neighborhoods too, doesn't it? Urban, suburban, rural, sub-rural. It doesn't matter. A lack of community is prevalent in them all, and our lives are less rich for this sad state.  Todd and his crew helped reverse that in one growing season!  That's the kind of success that we can all learn from.

I want to give an honorable mention to Steve Howard over at www.borntofarm.com, whose Grow Your Grub podcast turned me to these videos in the first place.  Check out Steve's podcasts and YouTube videos!  He's a great old guy, and shares his gardening experience freely.

No Dig Sandwich Garden Beds

Janet from New Zealand has a great video on creating what she calls a sandwich garden in a raised bed (reminds me of lasagna gardening).  It includes suggestions on what you can use to build a garden bed into.  It's easier than you think, and you can even do this on a balcony or fire escape.  Janet has a great collection of videos at her You Tube channel, greenurbanliving.  Please check her out!

If you're wondering why on earth I'd post something like this in the fall, when many people are done gardening for the year, then I'll tell you.  If you're living in Texoma, or in any part of the country that boasts a long growing season, then you've still got time to grow a few things.  Cool weather crops like lettuces, cabbages, and peas usually grow beautifully and quickly for us at this time of year.  Also these grow direct from seed, so they're easy.  You can put together a quick bed, and sow it with a variety of these quickies for a harvest now, while all the lovely layers you laid in process down for a nice, fertile garden bed come spring.
If you're not able to put a bed like this together now, then note that Janet has a few bags of dried leaves making up a few layers.  You can gather up bagsful of fall leaves now if you like, and store them for use later.  My only advice on that would be to have a care where you store the bags, so the wind and rain don't stomp the leaves to bits.  If the leaves do get stomped to bits, well heck, use them anyway.  Oh, and keep them in a dry spot, or they'll turn into something unspeakable!