I'm excited to start container gardening: advice please!

[Stina]

Well, my boyfriend's acupuncture clinic has a huge window sill that's very bright and sunny and near our home. I'm going to start growing food in pots there.

Are pots six inches across big enough?

Any advice on what to grow other than greens, especially considering the time of year?

Do you think this will work well enough in Oregon considering the time of year?

Or do you think I should consider supplementing with LED lighting?

Is my easiest option on soil to go buy bags of organic growing soil?

Any book titles you can recommend?

Should I voodoo dance around the plants?

Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated.:)

[spicyfull]

ALL OF THE ABOVE. You can grow Collards, Arugla.
I wouldn't plant Corn or any Root Vegetables. Green would be your best deal and you can eat them all winter and if you want to try other seeds you won't be throwing away too much money.

I wish you all the best.

[rawstrength]

I find that singing to my plants works better than voodoo dancing around them.
I use a mix of compost from my compost pile and peat moss from the store to plant them in.
You should definitely consider watering your plants with dilute ocean water. You can make your own by going to the ocean and bottling a few gallons of ocean water, then mixing a ratio of 20:1 fresh water to ocean water, and giving this water to your plants. Or you could buy an ocean water mix like the Thalassa mix at www.growgreens.com . Do some research on sea agriculture. It's impressive :) .

[Stina]

Hey Rawstrength-

If you see this, can you share that link that has heirloom seeds?

thanks!

[alicemagooey]

do not use a heavy garden soil mix in a bag if you get a bagged mix.

container mix is far better because it drains better and is best for containers. It is also found in bags and is sold as container mix or container soil, or soil for container gardening.

you can also use a soil less mix ..some container mixes are actually soil-less mixes.. a soilless mix is a mixture of peat moss, vermiculite, perlite and perhaps some composted bark or other composites. They tend to drain better, and do better in the long run for many reasons, to inhibit mold and maximize drainage.

and put all your nutrients in , like kelp or sea water, or nutrients, through the watering ..

i think people in your area do grow a lot in different times of the year..but with those details, i am not familiar.. you need to ask some 'locals'

oh yes, you mentioned 6 inch pots.they are ok but better, perhaps? is: you can also get long planters.. windowbox planters i think they are called.. You would not need the largest size obviously.. you need to go to a local garden store. I think home depot has these items also.

cheerio
alice

[ltcartwright]

you can also use a soil less mix ..some container mixes are actually soil-less mixes.. a soilless mix is a mixture of peat moss, vermiculite, perlite and perhaps some composted bark or other composites. They tend to drain better, and do better in the long run for many reasons, to inhibit mold and maximize drainage.

and put all your nutrients in , like kelp or sea water, or nutrients, through the watering ..

cheerio
alice

What amounts do you use in the soiless mixture and the amounts of kelp, how often to water with sea water???

[Stina]

I'm on a trip to Michigan and I'm really looking forward to starting with this when I get back to Oregon. Really, I'm bummed out about irradiation of our food supply. So, I'm struggling to be more proactive in my life and reframing it as spiritual warfare at this point.

[alicemagooey]

buy the soil less mixture and use as is from the bag.

water when the soil gets dry.. do not know about sea water.

i think you need to go to a place like the gardenweb forum.
this is one of the largest forums on the internet for gardening of all kinds.

i am sure they have an indoor gardening section.. ask ALL your questions there.. it is a fabulous place and lots of helpful gardening people.
I think they may also have a place for Paciofic Nothwest gardens..That is so specific to your area. The helpful folks there can tell you about your lighting and things.

also,do a google for windowsill gardening . see what you find.

i do believe you might do better getting the answers you require from a proper gardening site..

obviously you will get lots of encouragement from here.
but lots of area specific and other information which you need from other places on the Internet

alice

[alicemagooey]

Hi again,Stina.. yes, it seems that lots of things are against us..

but ..you can do it.!

i mentioned some places where you can find info.

here is the pacific northwest gardenweb forum
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/nwest/

i will see if i can find the container gardening forum there and post it.

if i do not find it or have to go..

go to
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums

and look for container gardening.

cheerio
and best wishes,
alice

[Stina]

Thanks Alice; that's so helpful of you. I'll keep you abreast of gardening adventures!

[kaybee]

Stina--sorry, i guess i could look this up on the internet, but i have been out of the States for 5 months...what were you referring to with the irradiation of the food supply? I heard somethign about them irradiating bagged greens, but is it worse than that? also, i saw people on other RF sites recommending buying up seeds for some reason... Is there something going on that i should know about (yeah, i know about CODEX)... Im out of the states for now but not for good.... so whats going on there with this irradiation,etc?

thanks

kaybee

[MelissaO]

I talk to my plants and sing to my cats :) I like to grow herbs in my sunny window at home.

[Stina]

Stina--sorry, i guess i could look this up on the internet, but i have been out of the States for 5 months...what were you referring to with the irradiation of the food supply? I heard somethign about them irradiating bagged greens, but is it worse than that? also, i saw people on other RF sites recommending buying up seeds for some reason... Is there something going on that i should know about (yeah, i know about CODEX)... Im out of the states for now but not for good.... so whats going on there with this irradiation,etc?

thanks

kaybee

I'm trying to figure this all out myself. That guy from Natural News said it's more wide-spread than accounted for, including organic spinach. Obviously, we're talking corporate organic in that department. I'm confident a good health food store is more selective with where they choose to get their spinach. I read there's supposed to be a symbol on food that's been irradiated but I've never seen such a thing. Apparently, it's supposed to be illegal to irradiate organics, period. Some sources say anything brought in from outside the country is "burnt," others say it's not true.

Mayhaps I can go on a fact-finding mission and bring more info back to this community.

I'm unabashedly dependent on Raw Food Talk for news on food sources. People are so good about sharing information and links about what's going on. It's obviously increasingly important in this changing world.