Sustainable…the word of the day, what does it mean to container gardeners and urban dwellers?  How do we live sustainably?  Even Long Horns Restaurants get into the act now with their micro-wavable, freezer safe reusable take-out containers.  Can we as gardeners incorporate sustainability into our growing practices as well?   I recently visited an apple orchard in York county doing just that…they made wine and cider from their apples trees and fed the remnants to their potbelly pigs.   At the end of the season, the pigs roam the orchards, cleaning up debris.  Baby pigs earned extra money for the farm by roaming free, begging for bottles from anyone who passed by (bottles are $5 and worth every penny!!! You can find out more about them here: www.windyhillorchard.com ). I am personally looking forward to the apple blossom festival next spring!

So, aren't all home gardens sustainable?  Why are we even asking this question?  Let’s tour my garden nook and see how I compare to the Windy Hill example…well, obviously, the only animals I can use in my garden is my worms and they have grown into a large colony, so large in fact that my stand has started giving way….so I’ll have to fix that at some point, meaning I'll build my own and show you how too in an upcoming issue of Carolina Gadener Magazine.  And that white stuff coming to the surface of some containers…what’s that?  Excess salts?  From my not-quite-overcome habit of using of synthetic but water soluble fertilizers (ie Miracle Grow).   Peas are blooming but my greens lag, collards and mustard just reach a point and quit on me.  My bok choi bloomed well…when it was two inches high…must find another variety and maybe plant a little later in the season when the temps don’t reach the 80’s every few days! Geraniums, lavender, forsythia all bloom.  Holly bushes burst with berries.  Shredded paper and left over vegetable scraps make their way into the worm bin where it quickly becomes worm food, the worm castings, then back into the pots it goes.  So there’s some sustainability here…but it could be better. 

Looking at the pantry shelves inside, I didn’t put away as much as I would have liked to because I didn’t make it to the local farmers market for bulk purchases as much as I should have.  I have been purchasing pork from a friend who raises and butchers his own hogs, so that’s something too, but it could be better. I recently visited a dairy goat farm (Jeremiah Farm & Goat Dairy (http://www.jeremiahfarm.com/Jeremiah_Farms/Welcome.html ) ))  )where I tasted fresh goat milk and thought, wow, that’s just delicious, if only…if only I had a little land...if only I had a farm...well, here’s a hint, sustainability is about living where you are, in the here and now of your own particular situation and making things better.

Here’s a few ways we can make things better:

1. Find a local pick-your-own or CSA (community supported agriculture) to support next season.
2. Find a friend with a garden plot and co-op.
3. Swap other services for garden products.
4. Buy in-season items in bulk at the local farmers markets and learn to preserve the harvest.
5. Find someone nearby with an excess of eggs, milk or meat producers and buy fresh and local.
6. Find spots in your landscaping for fruit and nut trees, herbs and perennial vegetables like asparagus.
7. Share your garden with a child.  Passing on a love of the soil to the next generation, what is more sustainable than that?

So what's up with me for next year? Shortly I'll be harvesting some beets and trying out some new recipes from  a new all vegetable recipe book, "The New Southern Garden Cookbook".  I'll also be building a worm bin and keeping Praying Mantis as pets (hmm...sound more like the bug lady than the SC Container Gardener, don't I?).  And something more sustainable in my backyard...aquaponics...you got it....I've already bought the videos, I've got the fish tank...so I'll be building that next year and you can follow along...should be an interesting journey.  I'm guessing my neighbors won't see me walking a dairy goat through the neighborhood just yet, but you never know what might happen here in our South Carolina Container Gardens!!!