As food prices continue to increase and food supply continues to decrease people are looking to supplement their food storage by growing their own food. For all of us city dwellers that don’t have acres of land to create grand gardens there are ways to have a beautiful garden that provides fresh fruit, vegetables, and herbs.  Container gardens are a great way to grow your fruit and eat it too! Depending on where you live there are different types of container gardens, some you can have on your patio and some you can have in window boxes, it just depending on your space.

The best container gardens for patios are those that can grow plants hanging down and on top at the same time.  You get the most space for your plants with the least amount of space taken up. These are usually garden containers with holes out the bottom for 3-5 plants to hang down and then you put enough soil on top of these plants to plant what you would have in normal planters on top.  This is the type of garden I had in my last apartment because I did not have any railings to hang window boxes from.  I had tomatoes and peppers hanging down and strawberries, basil, thyme, oregano, and cilantro on top.  It was the best garden I have had since living at home where I had a backyard and a mother to help me!  Hanging plants are becoming popular with Topsy Turvy planting ideas and they are great to have on patios or even inside by the window so they get enough light.

What do you do if you don’t even have a patio to put your plants on?  Well as mentioned above there are ways to hang plants and grow fruits and vegetables that way but window boxes are also a great idea.  As long as you have a window that gets proper light you can have an indoor garden.  If you have a wide windowsill you can just put pots of plants on the windowsill itself but you can also get window boxes that hang from windows.  I had a friend who even grew a small herb garden with artificial light in her apartment during the winter in Utah. While you probably won’t be able to grow your own pumpkins in these types of planters, growing  fresh herbs and smaller fruits and vegetables can go a long way to improving your self reliance.

Whether you have space for a large container garden or just a window there are always ways to grow your own food and cut back on what you are spending at the grocery store.  No matter where you live growing your own food is an important emergency preparedness skills to have in case a disaster makes getting food difficult.