Organic Container Vegetable Gardening in Southern California

(This article will be ongoing and updated as I go along.)

I have done plenty of traditional (in the ground) organic vegetable gardening in the past, but it took place in the backyard of homes that I owned personally. After the sale of my last home, I have become a renter and digging up someone else’s turf to grow vegetables in is a no-no.

I found that I really missed having fresh veggies straight from the garden. If you’ve never tasted the difference between a garden carrot and one from the grocery store – you’re in for a surprise! Grocery store produce is actually quite bland in comparison to the intense flavors of the home-grown variety. Plus, there is great satisfaction in eating foods that you grow yourself.

So – as the alternative to digging up the landlord’s lawn, I will attempt a successful container vegetable garden....all organic of course!

Zone 23 is a few miles inland from the coast. My home is in the eastern part of Oceanside close to the Vista border so I’m guessing it is closer to Zone 23 and not the coastal 24. We seem to be just beyond the edge of the usual fog belt.

I bought 2 large 24” plastic containers with plant caddies from Home Depot and fished out a smaller container from the garage to grown basil in. Basil is my favorite herb and I put it in just about everything. I also bought Martha Stewart 100% organic seeds (these are actually seeds from Ferry-Morse with her name slapped on it):

• Bunching onions (green onions)
• Bibb lettuce (butter lettuce)
• Basil
• Carrots

As you can see…I’m starting out small for learning purposes. Perhaps as the year progresses (you can grow year round in So Cal) I’ll add another container or two. I also bought recommended dirt and organic bug sprays at a gardening center:

• E.B. Stone Organics: Edna’s Best Potting Soil
• Monterey: All Natural Snail and Slug Spray RTU
• Safer Brand: EndAll Insect Killer for Organic Gardening

I decided to plant according to the Farmer’s Almanac just because it is uncanny how accurate it can be. October 18^th or 19^th were good days listed to plant root veggies in this area. Good thing I didn’t plant on the 16^th because the Almanac warned that the seeds might rot :-)

Because carrots and green onions are companion plants, I simply scattered them into the pot in a random fashion as opposed to rows. Once they germinate and begin to take shape, I'll thin them out.

The Almanac noted that the 26th and 27th were good for above ground crops (it's a new moon today - I wonder if that's why?), so I scattered the Bibb lettuce in the 2nd large planter and the basil into the smaller one. The carrots and green onions already have tiny little 1/4" shoots that showed up just yesterday!

It's been a little over a month since I planted and indeed there are some little green plants filling in. Because I'm a little lazy - I decided NOT to thin them out and see what happens.

Well, a smashing success as far as the onions and lettuce goes. The basil didn't grow past the seedling stage before it died out and because I didn't thin the carrots out, they didn't get very big.

However, everything is delicious - even the carrots! We've been partaking of this bounty for a few months now and it is amazing how much more you appreciate the food when you've grown it yourself.

I will be harvesting the rest soon for good and then planting something else....just don't know what yet.

Any suggestions?