Grow a Salad in Your City Apartment E-book by Rosemary Hansen

Fresh foods straight from the garden still retain their highly-nutritious vitamins and enzymes versus store-bought produce. In most of the world’s cities, produce is shipped from half-way around the world to your local grocery stores. These highly-traveled foods have up to 30%-46% less nutrients in them because of travel time and from being picked green. You're losing key nutrients like lutein, beta carotene, lycopene, Vitamin C, and antioxidants. But, growing food in a city apartment seems impossible with no space, right? Not at all!

Rosemary Hansen, chef and city homesteader, grew salad greens and tomatoes on her city balcony for years! You’ll be calling yourself a city farmer in no time!



What's Inside:

How to grow Juicy Tomatoes + Easy Varieties
Gleaning FREE Fruit in Your Neighborhood - Interview w/ Expert
Finding Wild Edibles
Growing Sprouts - My No-Fail Tips
Square Foot Gardening Interview w/ Expert
Extreme Weather Tips
Recycled Pot Ideas
How to Avoid Over-Watering
Delicious Borscht Recipe (for all of those beets and tomatoes you will grow!)
Mixed Veggie Salad Recipe
Gorgeous Garlic Vinaigrette Recipe
All the Beginner's Guidance you need!

Rave Reviews:

"I read through Rosemary's book, and other than the gardening with lights I have had the joy of regular gardening for many years. I did enjoy The Square Foot Gardening Interview and I loved seeing her [the expert- Cassie's] garden flourishing. I think it is amazing how much you can yield from a small area. If I knew nothing about gardening of any kind this would be a very helpful guide to a person with no experience. And it does make me want to start some seeds!" Vicki, Experienced Gardener & Crafty Mom

"This book is well written and Rosemary makes it sound easy, like anyone can do it! My roomy and I love growing plants in our sunny little apartment and I think I want to try the sprouts for sure! I love to make salads and wraps!" - Desiree, 21, College Student

"Thoroughly engaging and a beautiful book. Mmmm, persimmons, figs, grapefruits, my mouth is watering! [Referring to the "Harvesting Free Fruit in Your Neighborhood" section] I never knew you could harvest so much fruit in the city!" - CM











Rosemary is an Author, Homesteading Mama, and a Chef. She has spent the last 10 years “homesteading” in the city. She and her family have just started their off-grid homestead in rural British Columbia, Canada. Her books, Grow a Salad In Your City Apartment and Rosemary’s Natural Cosmetic Guide are a great way to ease into a healthy, pure lifestyle. You can connect with Rosemary at her website: www.RosemaryPureLiving.com or on her YouTube Channel . Rosemary also writes for Mother Earth News.

A paperback version of Grow a Salad in Your City Apartment is available on Amazon .

I give this book 9.25 out of 10 acorns! I'm not urban, but I very much enjoyed this book, and learned quite a bit from it.

I like that she included a section on spouting seeds to eat. This wasn't something I was expecting to see in a gardening book, but it makes total sense, especially when there's little room for a garden. Jars of sprouting seeds don't take up that much space and really do add nutrients! I love all the details she gives on why sprouts are good for you, and how to buy the seeds affordably, and different methods for sprouting.

There's sections on raising earthworms, starting plants from seeds, how to buy and transplant starts, how to protect your plants from harsh weather events, and even some recipes.

I really enjoyed the chapter on gleaning, and the tips for how to go about it. I drive by a lot of fallen fruit in our area, but have never known how to go about asking people if I could harvest from their trees.

This is a relatively short book and a quick read, but it's packed full of information in much the same way an apartment balcony gets packed full of plants. The author utilizes the space very well!

Wow, thank you Nicole for your praise! It really means a lot coming from you.

You're very welcome! Thank you for writing such a great book packed with quality info for beginner gardeners!

FYI I am offering this book for FREE as part of Paul's Kickstarter Early Bird Bonus! I too want to infect more brains with permaculture and gardening :-)

Also if anyone wants a paperback version of my book, check it out on Amazon US.

hey, so this came up as a link this morning:  Good ideas Rosemary!


Here are my best ideas:

I do container garden, mostly because the gophers infest my property and eat entire plants.   That is "infest" not invest.  If only they were doing something good.

Per Tomato plant, I use a 5 gallon bucket:  But that is alot of soil-

So I make my own soil:  30% compost, 20% river sand, balance regular average soil from my yard (or neighbors or the like)

Compost:  Free       Everyone can do this:  Mine tends to be slightly acidic (coffee grounds)- perfect for tomatoes.
River Sand:  Free -  fill up buckets from the ocean beach or river bank close by
Regular soil:  Free   Wherever you find it

I want life in my soil, not sterile or baked dry.

Tomato and Chilli seeds were started back in January so I just moved into 1 gallons-  Some have little flower pistols already....

This year, I got my water tested:  Dammit!!-  Too much Salt.  Too much TDS.  

So it is rainwater collect for me:  I have about 200g atm:  about 1.5g used per day.

Better water.

For many years, I believed in "indeterminate" tomato varieties:  From all I read?  Oh, yeah.  And all the vids on vining and trellis and all that?   It seems most people go with this.

However, this year, for the first time:  I am going with DETERMINATE:  I will try for two "seasons"-  Harvest prior to "June Gloom" and a second in Indian Summer.   Wish me luck on that!

Every thing else is in containers, too:

I have beets (for greens) Spring onions, and cabbage:  These work for me from re-planting store bought:  Save the roots just like in the videos.
Even the cabbage:  Instead of throwing away the last part?  I just planted and watered.

Fertilizer:  Banana peels, ground egg shells, coffee grounds, soaked in a bucket overnight-  It is "free" IF you have or buy these items...

My eggs come from my chicken.

I only have two, but they are laying already.  I grew them from chicks that were like $1 each.

The first couple weeks, I kept them in a pet cage with a light on:  It happens I have a red light which calms them down at night for me to sleep.

Now, they eat mostly scraps and yard plants:  Oh, and beans and pasta:  (cheaper and more protein than commercial feed.

Mine are so fat and pretty heavy.  They are very curious and are always underfoot.

Well, there you have my best ideas:  

I do "pay" for stuff, such as rain barrels (well, I would if I didn't salvage) and I pay to get my river sand picked up and such things:

But ongoing expense?  Like water and soil and chicken feed?  I try "free" first.

I don't have a great deal of variety:  But I feel everything I do can be duplicated.

For a bigger project, I grow "invasive" species:  A flowering type of "mini-tree"  (great for chicken or other livestock food) and a ground cover, both needing little water after they are established with a tap root that goes straight down:
Do all "tap roots" go straight down.

Though I haven't tested, I believe these may "de- desertify" tracts of land, both large and small.

Best wishes!!