WSJ’s wonderful Gwendolyn Bounds recommends how to be a gardener on your back deck.
Consider me a lawn-chair gardener. After years of putting off starting a food garden because I could never find time to till the soil, erect a deer fence, weed, water, etc., I finally took the plunge thanks to an arsenal of easy-gardening products now flooding the marketplace. From container kits with premeasured fertilizer and watering gauges to compact potato and lettuce-growing bags that can be toted around, the gardening industry is angling to green the thumbs of reticent, and younger, first-time growers. The new items are intended to save time, water, fertilizer and space — and make it hard to mess up. Home Depot Inc. will begin selling “Farm in a Box” online within the next few weeks; the system by Atlanta-based Earth Solutions LLC uses aquaponic technology with recirculating water to grow vegetables on top of the box along with fish underneath (their waste acts as fertilizer for the plants); the smallest version, called “Little Tokyo,” costs about $249 and at 30 inches tall by 20 inches wide, can fit on an apartment balcony. – from WSJ