Big Hello from Ohio, US

Hi there,
I am a gardener coming from central Ohio in the US.  I have gardened off and on for most of my adult life (I am now 40), unfortunately more off only due to the fact that I rent in lower income areas, and rarely have even a good window, let alone some dirt.  I am finally in a place where I can garden again, last year being the first since early 2008, a garden I had to leave mid-season.  It feels great to be back into my gardening therapy. =)
My space is extremely limited, per usual, so this seems like the kinda place for me; I can always stand to learn more about utilizing space to the best of one's abilities.  To say the least, i am on a budget, so I am also especially interested in ways to do things free or with easily obtained (in the city w/o a car) scrap, etc.  Please feel free to show me any great tips in this regard.  I also do things vegetarian/vegan, organically, and try to be conscientious of sustainability (in other words: organic, but with further provisions of no dead animal products, and I try to avoid peat and other non-renewables).

Hope to meet some wonderful like-minded gardening enthusiasts.

If your space is limited, you might want to look into using more of it by embracing the vertical dimension. There are a number of youtube videos of people who have made vertical bottle gardens. My favorite are by a European guy, maybe a Belgian, I can't remember, who makes them out of used soda bottles he stacks vertically end to end, the top of one feeding into the bottom of another. The bottom bottle holds a reservoir of water that all the other plants bottles can draw on if needed.

The videos are great, it's as cheap as you can possible get, and it claims valuable "dead space" that someone with not much space can turn to great use.

Crop suggestions: basil, especially the smaller rounded "bouquet basil" or "dome basil" types, oregano, spinach, marigolds, various greens and herbs.

And welcome!

thanks for the tip
I always want to go vertical, but don't have money for even cheap PVC structures (let alone way to get to a hardware store nor to cut the stuff since I have no saw), so this sounds up my alley.
yeah, I love basil, oregano, spincach and ALL greens   
actually I am looking for more basil seeds, not all space saving, but I really want all the tulsi and other thai breeds.  I have some random thai seeds, not sure which one it is, don't think it is Siam Queen, nor any of the Tulsi, and i also have seeds for Dwarf Greek and a few larger Italian types (incl a giant).
I want to figure out what to do with the malabar climbing spinach, I got some seeds, and want to use it vertically somehow.  I may put it beside the duplex itself , see if it will climb the rental and make an edible ivy
been wanting some marigolds, anyhow, hoping to get some in a trade before spring.


I think I found the video


his blog is at 
urbangreensurvival(dot)blogspot(dot)com/

thanks for this lead.
this is awesome!

I grew Siam Queen, Sweet Basil, Bouquet Basil, and Red ... Red Ruffles, I think it was, which really wowed me. Very aromatic and extremely tough, deep purple leaves. You can never have enough basil.

Keep us up on how your malabar spinach goes. I've never eaten it or planted it, but I got some seeds and look forward to trying it out. I'd love spinach, or anything that tastes like it, all the time, but our summers are extremely hot here, so regular spinach won't always be available.

I'm also planting New Zealand spinach. With that, the malabar, and also borage, plus a little luck, I'll have some nice new flavors in the salad bowl next year.

I have been wanting NZ Spinach since reading about it in (iirc) the old Rodale book so many years ago, just never got any (yet  ).
also been wanting some of the red ruffles basil, and bouquet basil... all basil is sooo yummy.

Welcome from another Central Ohioan!

Welcome and hello from the Canal Winchester/Lithopolis/Amanda vicinity.   

Hi and welcome!  Im in London, but still work in Cbus.