I'd like to try container gardening this but I'm new and have questions, I plan to start the seeds indoors and then transplant. Some seeds, in some areas will grow better plants if started indoors, others will do best being planted outside when the weather is good. I'm assuming I'll need a location that gets atleast 6 hrs of full sun per day for growing? Almost all fruiting and veggie producing plants do best with full sun, so yes. 6 hours of direct sun or more for best results. Many can do acceptably with less, but best results are with 6 or more hours of full sun. Also a few more questions.. Any suggestions on types of containers? Not really. I, personally, would not use a container with less than 6" of depth to it for fruits and veggies. I also would not use a small container (less than 12" rim diameter) because a plant grown for produce will produce less if the medium it is growing in is ever allowed to go completely dry. The larger the container, the less frequent the watering interval and the larger margin of safety. If you will be using automated irrigation such as drip irrigation on a timer then container size is not as important, but if you will be hand watering then it is important the container is large enough and the growing mix water retentive enough to hold ample moisture in between your watering. Where to buy seeds for planting spinach, tomato, squash, strawberries and green beans Many, many great sources. Your local big box store will have many varieties for less cost than mail order seed houses. Trouble is they don't necessarily have them when you need them and they don't often have 50 varieties of tomato the way a seed catalog will. Seed catalogs I like include Johnnys, Burpee, Pinetree, Stokes, and Territorial. These are all large seed houses, there are many, many more smaller operations I also like. How do I know when to start the seeds indoors and then when to transplant? This is difficult without local knowledge. I suggest you google on your state name followed by 'extension service' and see what turns up. Every state has an extension service that will offer tips for home gardening in one's area. You may wish to begin your exploration here.

And therein lies the rub  industrial agriculture looks so good on the surface  high yields, unblemished fruits, and cheap veggies. It is this first impression that keeps the policies that benefit agribiz on top. So howÂs the water quality in your neck of the woods? In fact, how much water is there? Any of these farmer actually making a good profit? The answers, of course, are terrible, very little, and next to nothing. For a good read about the agriculture in the Fresno area, read Victor David HansenÂs Fields Without Dreams. On the other hand, very little corn grown in California is genetically engineered. You have to head in to my neighborhood  the Midwest  to find most of it. South Dakota leads the pack with 83% of it corn acres planted to GMOs. Only 2% of all crops grown in California are GMOs and most of that is rice.

So the costs for you would be your time, your equipment depreciation, your water, and the power/energy expended by the stove, correct? Will they supply the canning salt, lemon juice or citric acid, and the sugar needed? If not add those costs in too. If so then the total cost depends on how you value your time. Is this something you would be doing anyway just for your own family? If so then the costs would be 1/2 your above total. Bottom line is the $ value of the food you will end up with equal to all the extra time you'd put in? Don't forget you have to peel all the tomatoes, snap and trim all the beans, shuck all the corn, etc. Personally I would probably do it simply because 1) I'm retired and have the time and no other demands on my time right now, and 2) I'm already actively canning and working in more of the same things is no real problem. But they can't set a deadline on me and they can't request special recipes just canned plain produce. JMO Dave

If your patio is warm and sunny and traps the warmth then you may have what's called a 'microclimate' which can be different/higher than the general local one. This can be really useful for you as a grower. You can maybe start growing earlier and expect plants to carry on growing for longer - just because you have a sunny, warm, and sheltered site. If you have room on your patio for a long table, not too wide - and not too scruffy(!) - you can put your containers up at a height where you can tend them more easily. One with a metal frame would be good. It would be possible to make a small 'tent' frame to go over the containers and sit on the table top, too. If you then covered this with horticultural fleece/frost cloth - or thick, clear glasshouse type plastic - you'd protect your plants from frost and could grow on for longer. Right now, even without having that protection you could plant up fancy lettuces or a mesclun mix (posh name for lots of different leafy plants picked regularly as a mixture) for salad greens and just cover them at night with either bubble wrap or cardboard to protect from early frost. Another plant that will probably tough it out through winter with a bit of shelter - and can be cut a stalk at a time - is Swiss chard. It comes in plain white stem/green leaf - and varieties with coloured stems which lets it double as decoration. What to do with the soil after a crop has finished? Unless you had a diseased crop, you can reuse the mix. Add some slow release fertiliser which looks like little balls, mix it through - and plant something different. If you grew peas - use the mix next time to grow lettuce. If you grew lettuce - move on to carrots. Just don't feed the carrots too much. There'll likely be enough goodness left over after the lettuces have finished. (This is what the books are talking about with 'crop rotation'. It helps to keep bugs and diseases at low levels.) From time to time - add some fresh mix. Say every time you take out plants you've finished with. When you come to grow tomatoes - they are hungry plants and have big root systems - even the little cherry tomatoes. They drink heaps, too, so acquire bigger containers - four gallons is probably useful. Those dear little plants simply shoot up - and down. If there's only you, or just two people in your household - go for the 'baby' varieties unless you love lots of coleslaw, for example. There are plenty of just-for-one varieties now. You can mulch to keep the soil cooler and hold in moisture by using 'dead' things - like pebbles and big glass beads that are about half to one inch wide. Big enough for you to easily take them off the surface to wash in a bucket and reuse on the next crop. (Keeping things clean is more important with containers than in gardens. There aren't so many friendly microbes in a bag of sterile potting mix.) If your local plant supply places are selling strawberry plants now plant them up in a container of their own. Don't buy the cream just yet because they'll need to grow on for a year (unless your local conditions say otherwise) and you'll actually have to take off any young fruit before it ripens. It's worth it, though. And you can use the tent to protect your crop from strawberry-hungry birds if you cover it with some nylon netting.