Hi, I’m Felipe — and I killed my first three tomato plants before I grew anything worth eating.
The first summer I tried gardening, I planted six tomato seedlings in pots on my Portland porch, watered them every single day, and watched every one of them slowly turn yellow and drop their leaves. Too much water. Wrong soil. Pots too small. I had no idea what I was doing.
That was four years ago. This summer, I harvested over thirty pounds of tomatoes from the same porch.
Why I started Chatinovax
I’m not a professional gardener. I don’t have a big backyard or a greenhouse or decades of experience. What I have is a rental apartment with a south-facing balcony, a few raised beds I built myself, and a genuine obsession with figuring out how to grow real food in a small space.
After a lot of trial and error — and a lot of dead plants — I got good at it. Friends started asking me questions. Then strangers on Reddit. Then someone told me I should write it all down somewhere people could actually find it.
So I did.
Chatinovax is the gardening blog I needed when I was standing over a pot of dying seedlings wondering where I went wrong. Every article here comes from real experience — things I’ve actually grown, mistakes I’ve actually made, and fixes that actually worked.
No fluff. No advice that assumes you have a half-acre lot and a $500 soil budget. Just practical, honest guidance for growing food at home — in containers, raised beds, balconies, and whatever small space you have available.
What you’ll find here
At Chatinovax, everything is built around one idea: you don’t need a lot of space or experience to grow your own food.
Here’s what I cover:
- Getting started — how to begin from zero, what to plant first, and the mistakes that trip up almost every new gardener
- Container & small space gardening — growing food on balconies, patios, and in apartments with limited outdoor space
- Growing guides — detailed, practical guides for specific vegetables and herbs, from seed to harvest
- Soil, tools & setup — the foundation stuff that most beginners skip and then regret
- Pests, problems & fixes — because things go wrong, and knowing how to fix them is half the battle
A few things about me
I rent. I’ve moved three times in the last five years, which means I’ve learned to garden without permanent infrastructure — everything I grow can be packed up and moved if needed.
I built my first raised bed from fence boards I found at a ReStore for $12. I started my herb garden in empty yogurt containers. I still use the same $8 hand trowel I bought at Fred Meyer when I first started.
I live in Portland, Oregon, where it rains nine months of the year and the growing season is shorter than I’d like — which has made me very good at making the most of every square foot and every sunny week.
Let’s stay in touch
If you have a gardening question, want to share what’s growing in your space, or just need help figuring out why your zucchini keeps wilting, I’d love to hear from you. Head over to the Contact page and send me a message.
Thanks for being here.
— Felipe