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  • From: Pat Meadows <pat AT meadows.pair.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Veggie basket/container gardening/gardeners with back problems, etc.
  • Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 08:26:55 -0400

On Thu, 6 May 2004 17:28:55 -0600, you wrote:


>
>Has anyone or does anyone ever try peas in hanging baskets? Not market
>amounts, but enough for a family? What about hanging baskets of various
>vegetable plants? My mother has a back problem and is not able to bend and
>hoe. I want to come up with a few basket ideas for her. She has baskets of
>flowering plants about her place, but she seems bored with these and wants
>fresh vegetables! (I live 2500 miles away or I would keep her kitchen
>full!) I have come up with a few designs, but I know this list has more
>experienced folks that could give me a few new suggestions!

I think that perhaps you and/or your mother could benefit
from reading: 'Bountiful Container' by Maggie Stuckley and
Rosemary McGee Nichols. (Detailed info below.) This is a
really terrific new(ish) book, totally about container
growing of edibles: veggies, fruits, herbs, edible flowers.

It's the only book I've ever read about container gardening
that I consider really excellent and very useful. I have
done, and continue to do, a lot of container gardening, so
I'm a pretty good judge of a container-gardening book.

It isn't of course, all about hanging baskets, although they
are included, but it gives you info about many types of
containers, container gardening in general, then discusses
each specific herb, veggie, fruit or flower.

The only caveat I have with the book is that the authors
live in the Pacific NorthWest and people living elsewhere
need to make a few mental adjustments for differing climates
- but everyone has to live somewhere. This can't really be
helped.

Your mother needn't confine herself to hanging baskets:
there are a lot of other kinds of containers that one can
tend sitting or standing (on a porch or deck, etc.).

Another suggestion: I have a *wonderful* 'rolling garden
seat' - this one:

http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page.asp?page=45921&category=2%2C2120&SID=&ccurrency=2

This is very sturdy, very well built and will probably
outlive me by several decades.

Using this - combined with raised beds - enables me to
garden sitting, in comfort. I couldn't garden at all
otherwise (I have a form of arthritis that causes a lot of
joint pains, as well as back problems). Maybe this would be
useful for your mother as well. Incidentally, this is great
even for someone who doesn't garden: very useful when
cleaning house - lower kitchen cabinets, fridge, etc.

>I also wonder if these "Vegetable Baskets" with a few edible flowers thrown
>in, would make a nice sales item? The population is aging but also
>extremely health conscious. Is anyone doing this? Are sales good or ?

I think it's a good idea too. But I haven't actually *done
it* yet. I had planned to do it this year, but I'm
struggling with a variety of health problems this gardening
season and our own garden is all I can manage (and that with
extreme difficulty and I'll be having fairly major surgery
in July which certainly won't help). Maybe next year I can
actually *do* it.


>I am thinking of putting a few of these together to market locally. What do
>you think?
>

I think the only way you'll really know is to give it a try.
But I'd try it. I was thinking more of containers - that
you put on the ground or a porch or deck - than I was of
hanging baskets.

Details on the book:
McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container: A Container Garden of
Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers
by Rose Marie Nichols McGee, Maggie Stuckey, Michael A. Hill
(Illustrator)
Paperback: 400 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.19 x 8.96 x
6.08
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company; (February 1, 2002)
ISBN: 0761116230

I read it first on an Inter-Library Loan copy, decided I
wanted to own it for reference, and bought it online (used),
I believe for $8. For a price comparison of used books
online, see:

http://www.addall.com/used

Pat
--
"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of
supply and demand. It is the privilege of human beings to
live under the laws of justice and mercy." - Wendell Berry




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