​You Can Begin With Herbs​
Parsley, basil, thyme, sage, rosemary and tarragon can bring great joy to a small apartment with a sunlit window.

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Each day you can have fresh tomato bocconcini  salad, or a sprig of fresh parsley to garnish your hummus, or a thyme chick pea salad. All you need is a medium size pot, potting soil mixed with compost and the herb seedlings.

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A Garden of Little Pots

The herbs  you find in the grocery stores are expensive; but for the cost of a couple of store-bought packages of fresh thyme, you may be able to buy enough of your own seedlings to keep you in fresh thyme, basil, oregano & tarragon for the entire year!  We recommend a second herb pot of rosemary which will mean you will enjoy fresh rosemary and olive oil baked potatoes, rosemary chicken, or even, rosemary flavored lemonade.

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A Balcony Garden
If you have a balcony then you can have your own herb garden and also lots of fresh vegetables throughout the growing season.

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Our friend’s balcony garden has bush beans (you only need two plants), lettuce (three or four varieties), kale and chard. If you just snip off a few kale and chard leaves each time you harvest, your plants will continue to produce for months.

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Put one pot of cherry tomatoes in the warmest part of your balcony and by late August, you'll be able to add them to your wonderful fresh salads.
 

If you want to claim a small patch of lawn in your back or front yard for a garden, a lasagna bed may be the easiest way to go.

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Raised "Lasagna" Beds in the Yard

The fall is a good time to design & prepare your new veggie garden bed.

You don't even have to dig up your lawn, or buy a lot of expensive topsoil.

 

1. Mark out the area you want to plant, and build (or buy) a wood frame or construct a stone or brick enclosure to define your veggie garden space & to contain your soil.

2. Lay 3 or 4 layers of overlapping newspapers on the grass inside your wood, brick or stone enclosure.

3. Hose down the newspapers with lots of H2O.

4. Add a 6 inch or so layer of brown matter (chopped up leaves, plant stems, straw) on top of the newspaper. (Mix in some alfalfa meal for an extra shot of nitrogen, potassium & phosphorus and kelp meal for trace minerals.)

5. Add a layer of green matter (vegetable scraps from your kitchen are good) on top of the brown one.

6. Add alternating layers of brown & green matter until your new bed is around 40 — 60 cm (1½ - 2 feet) high.

7. Add a 2 inch thick layer of garden soil mixed with compost  to top it off.

8. Cover your bed with mulching material.

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In the spring, the organic materials & newspaper will have broken down (same goes for the lawn you buried). Your new soil will be full of earthwormial & microbial life & your bed will be ready for planting. Just work in more compost as you prepare your new bed to receive seeds & seedlings. Pretty easy: just wait & let nature do the important work.