With the rising cost of food and the number of chemicals used to grow most produce, it would be prudent to grow your own. The quality is so much better, as well.

Greens are some of the easiest to grow. Kale and Chard are both "perpetual" for the season -- they'll continue to produce all season long. The other greens you mention will not last the entire season -- you'll get a useful life out of them of about 6 to 8 weeks, so you need to make succession plantings throughout the season, from now through about late August/early September in your NY climate, in order to have a constant supply. This is easy to do.

Really, almost any vegetable can be grown well in pots. Pumpkins, squash are hard only because they need SO MUCH room and such a large pot, but it can be done. If you want to try something like pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, or melons, look for "bush" or "container" varieties with short vines.

As far as whether to use seeds or plants, you'll find, in the spring, that most large garden centers or farmers markets will have plants of virtually every vegetable known to man -- it's just a matter of your preference. Plants are more expensive, but are easy and more of a "sure thing" sometimes than planting seeds. Seeds are cheaper, though, and just as easy once you get the hang of it.

As far as tomatoes needing support, most kinds are "indeterminate," ie, vining, and do like some kind of support, but it's not strictly necessary -- they'll happily sprawl all over, just takes up a lot of room. However, there are "determinate" or bush type tomatoes which don't grow long vines, and also "bush" or "patio" types with very short, sturdy, self-supporting plants.

Finally, no, most herbs are REALLY easy to grow -- probably, if you had trouble keeping them alive OUTDOORS in proper conditions, it would be from overwatering (just a guess). I think you should try again, you'll find them really simple to grow.

Good luck, I would encourage you to plant what you can, you'll so enjoy it, and it will taste so much better. There are a lot of gardeners in major cities. People in Manhattan grow things like peach trees and cherry trees in large pots on balconies and rooftops, not to mention all kinds of veggies and even keep bees.

I agree that herbs are easy to grow; most problems are caused by "over-loving them", ie too much water and too rich a soil. Herbs generally prefer being in the ground to pots; but there are people who successfully container-grow herbs.

For success growing veggies, your garden area will need at least 6 hours of sun daily. Some herbs are for shade, but most also like full sun. There are a lot of good resource books on growing in a small space; my favorite is the Square Foot Garden plan.

You didn't mention it but I'm assuming you mean to grow these on a balcony. If not, please ignore the following post. :)

When I lived in an apartment I managed to grow a decent amount of veggies on my balcony. Keep in mind that balcony gardens are subject to some fairly harsh conditions. When they get sun (and like a previous poster said, most require at least 6 hours) it's usually blazingly strong. Winds tend to be higher than on the ground too. These factors can add to faster loss of water and some leaf burn. Keep this in mind when you start setting things up. Think about how much weight you're putting on your balcony. A garden can be a heavy responsibility. ;^)

Greens were pretty successful as long as I stuck with loose leaf lettuces (Thompsons black seed, grand rapids, etc) but did manage to grow little gem romaine one year. Because of the amount of wind that can hit them on a balcony, you may want to look for "tip burn resistant" strains. And once the temps start to remain in the 70s your lettuces and spinach are likely to stop growing and go to seed. Try to place them where they won't get hit with blasts of wind.

In general I stuck with varieties of veggies that were bred to be smaller in size like baby bok choy, patio varieties of cherry or grape tomatoes, etc.

I got permission from my landlord to put a trellis on my balcony and had some gorgeous scarlet runner beans for 2 years. Beautiful and edible. They also provided a bit of shade and wind control for my more tender plants. But I had to really secure the trellis because of the wind issue.

For beans look for "bush" varieties. Eggplant may be a challenge due to space required (three foot plants), same with the squash (unless you can trellis it up). I'm sorry to say that yams require a growing season that is longer than you'll have in NYC.

My experience has been that herbs can do pretty well in containers if you treat them with a bit of neglect. I found they did better if I left them on the dry side rather than too much water. And don't fertilize them.

Depending upon how high up you are you may have to run a plant dating service. That is, you may have to pollinate your plants. To help encourage bees to visit plant some flowers among the veggies. Phlox, petunias, bright red sage (non edible variety) plants can all help draw pollinators.

Since it's your first time, I recommend you buy the plants already started. And go to a proper nursery if possible. That way you can ask questions and find out which varieties seem to work in your situation.

Best of luck and enjoy those fresh veggies!

When I read your questions, I immediately thought of Garden Girl. She's got so much great information and tips for urban and small space garden. I'll put the link below, you should check it out, especially since you mention that you have a small bit of yard to possibly work with. Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Girl TV

Thanks everybody for your input. Whynotmi: No, I'm actually growing the bulk of my current plants on a ground floor deck, as well as in pots in my small dirt yard. (I live in Queens in a private house, so that's how I garnered a deck/yard! :-)

When I moved into this rental a year ago, it was from another rental (that also had a small patio), so this is why I already have so many plants in pots. And since I my current place is just a rental, I don't want to put too many things in the actual dirt (except for maybe seasonal vegetables). I hope to buy a place at some point, so obviously when it comes moving time, it will be alot easier if most/all my plants are already in pots. So this is why I haven't transplanted any of my potted plants into the soil.

I'm assuming most/all vegetables are considered "annuals", and so that those would make the most sense for me to use the ground to plant them in?

Tx!

A number of people mentioned that I possibly was over-watering my herbs. So am I to infer that herbs like being er...."ignored"...or whatever that gardening term is...when you really don't pay too much attention to a particular plant?

I mean, it's not like any of my other plants died from over-watering, so perhaps herbs really need periods of the soil being bone dry??

Tx.

Hi all. As mentioned, I am going to try growing a few types of greens. I may try to plant these directly in the ground since they don't take much space. But if that doesn't work, what type of container would work best? I'm used to "pots", but might a flat type container work better for greens and if so, where in NYC might I find such a thing? Maybe I should just try a windowbox type container?

I am also thinking of trying to grow a type of squash that is advertised as being just over 1 lb. when fully developed, and a type of eggplant that is described as "tiny" and "bite-sized". I'm thinking of growing these on my deck, which is surrounded by a structure made of a frame of wood, with the sides and roof consisting of chicken wire. I believe that both squash and eggplant are sort of vine-like, and that they normally spread over the ground, but that they can also grow vertically? So I was thinking of weaving the vines through the chicken wire, and then as the actual vegetables come out and grow, they'd have the chicken wire for support. Does that sound doable?

As for a planter, I'd rather not use a huge round planter, not only cuz that would take up precious space on my deck, but also because they use so much potting soil. And I suspect that these veggies really wouldn't need that deep of soil. Can I just grow the roots of these as well in some type of flat container, like in window boxes that I position flush against the sides of my deck "walls", and then train up along the chicken wire walls?

Thanks all!!

yippee 1999:

I'd like to recommend a gardening book to you. The title is From Seed To Salad, and you can read a couple of pages on the iUniverse Publishers Web site. You raise a lot of questions in your message, and this small manual answers them all.