Pot luck gardening will help beat escalating food prices

We have been warned. Floods, famine, heatwaves and an ice-age type winter in the Northern Hemisphere are likely to have a big impact on the price of food in our supermarkets.
Add to that apocalyptic visions of birds falling from the skies and fish floating belly-up on to our beaches, and the year is off to a disturbing start.
Never fear, there is one thing we can rely on to combat the perils before us, and that's to indulge in a little bit of the good life in our own quarter-acre plot.
Before you venture into chooks, beehives and a humble house cow, it may be best to start with a kitchen garden. Some people will get excited, start up the rotary hoe and turn the kids' cricket pitch into a corn patch.
Others will adopt the precautionary principle and start more modestly - perhaps with a patio garden. And that's a lot simpler than you may think - all you need is a container, growing mix and plants. In fact, you could be into backyard gardening within a matter of hours and be dining on delicious and free home-grown produce within weeks.
Here are some simple tips for a patio garden:
Almost any vegetable that will grow in a typical backyard garden will also do well in a container - and almost any container with drainage holes will do.
One reader says they use 10-litre paint pails (which they have collected free, of course) as planters. They drill drainage holes in the bottom, place about 25mm of coarse gravel in the bottom to prevent the holes from blocking, then fill with nutrient-rich soil. Others use flowerpots, wire baskets, wooden boxes, bathtubs, plastic bags and sacks.
One oily-ragger from Whangarei uses fish trays. He says they already have drainage holes and cost only a few dollars at variety stores.
The downside to growing vegetables in pots is the same as with any potted plant. They need a bit more care and attention because they have limited soil from which to draw their nutrients, and the soil dries out faster. It is therefore necessary to fertilise and water the plants regularly.
Here are some more tips for space-challenged oily-rag gardeners:
Don't grow plants that take up lots of space - like Jack and the Beanstalk runner beans - or ones that have a long growing season. Small is definitely beautiful, so go for compact veges like finger lettuce, cherry tomatoes, spring onions, spinach and silverbeet.
Avoid using dark-coloured containers - they absorb heat, which may dry out the soil.
The easiest way to add fertiliser to plants growing in containers is to prepare a nutrient solution and pour it over the soil. There are many good commercial liquid fertilisers available, but a reader has this tip: "Don't throw away your plastic milk bottles. When they are empty, fill with cold water. Place lid on and shake. There is a good milky residue. Use the contents to water your pot plants. It acts like a pick-me-up. My indoor plants thrive and it saves you from having to buy costly fertilisers."
Use a potting mix, not regular garden soil, as some types of soil don't drain well and can become heavy and set like concrete in warm weather.

Frank and Muriel Newman are the authors of Living Off the Smell of an Oily Rag in NZ. Readers can submit their oily-rag tips online at www.oilyrag.co.nz