Creating a garden in the city is more feasible than it might seem, especially if you keep a few things in mind. Here some handy tips on creating and maintaining your urban garden, so you can eat like a homesteader...wherever you live!
1. Know Your City
Only some cities allow residents to grow outside gardens. This restriction means you’d have to suffice with a set of window boxes, which are great for growing herbs but might not hold up to sturdier options like tomatoes. You’ll need to check with your local governance office to ensure you’re following the laws for your specific city of creating a garden that won’t get you a hefty fine.
2. Roof Top Havens
Many cities encourage residents to create rooftop gardens that help clean the air and produce fruits and vegetables that people can eat, helping to improve the local economy and the diets of those who partake of the harvested food. Having that wide open space to produce your vegetation is a beautiful start to maximizing what you can grow for yourself. If you have rooftop access where you live and have the legal ability to use that space, take some time to consider what you want to grow and do some research.
3. Plan Your Garden
Creating a garden that expands your harvest takes some planning when you have limited space. You’ll want to spend some time researching which plants grow better up than out and which ones will need a trellis or a cage for growing. For instance, tomatoes usually get a wire cage to help them as they grow. Green beans and peas grow well on a trellis. Anything you can get to grow up instead of out will also help you optimize the number of plants you’ll be able to have in your city garden.
4. Rich Soil Takes Preparation
Preparing your soil for planting takes more than just a hoe and shovel. Depending on where you live, you’ll need to add some nutrients to your dirt to get your soil where it needs to be for gardening. Compost and manure are natural sources of phosphorous, nitrogen, potassium, and other nutrients. Wood mulch is also a great option, as it keeps weeds down and can help retain moisture. If you’re planting your garden in natural soil, like a courtyard, you can plant deep-rooted plants to help mine nutrients in the soil bed.
5. Water is Essential
Everyone knows that plants must have water to thrive. In a city setting, this can prove difficult, especially if you end up under a water restriction. One way to combat this potential issue is to put out rain barrels to collect any rainwater that falls during this time. Instead of drawing from the city or paying astronomical fees for adding extra water, you can take advantage of the rain, which plants love. Before you start producing, check if your city is under any restrictions, and be sure your water bill budget can extend to cover the fees should you need to consume extra water.
6. Weeding is a Must
One area that no gardener gets past is the need to weed your garden. Taking out plants that are detrimental to the growth of your garden is priority number one once you’ve put your seeds in the ground and watered them well. However, when your seeds start to sprout, it can be challenging to know what’s a seed and a weed. Research what young seedlings look like, and then extract everything else.
7. Community Gardens
One area that has flourished in the city is the community garden. These are more significant areas of land that the city allows you to use to create a garden where residents can help grow plants and then harvest the foods they’d like to eat when the fruit of the plants ripens. Community gardens are a fantastic way to help poverty-stricken areas and to nurture a love for growing food and sustainability in children and adults.
8. Hydroponic Solutions
Getting herbs and fresh vegetables can prove difficult for the introverted city gardener. For those who don’t like to spend a lot of time outside, are limited by time due to work, or need a different option, hydroponic systems are excellent for growing a small number of plants.
9. Animals to the Rescue
One area that city gardens can take advantage of is that of animals. Letting chickens roam around a fenced garden area, for instance, can provide natural fertilizer to your plants. Besides the benefits of fresh eggs, their excrement can restore the soil. Ducks are another great option if you have a garden near water, and duck eggs contain more protein than their poultry cousins.
10. Your Garden and Rats
In any garden setting, rats can be a big problem. This is especially true in the city because the rat population explodes in heavily populated places. The extra food that’s readily available can lead to overbreeding. Dealing with rats can be a pain, but there are some steps you can take to keep these pesky rodents at bay. Keeping your garden free of debris or garbage is crucial to ensuring rats won’t come in droves. Even if you bag it up, advertising free food with trash will only cause more trouble. One reason it’s essential to clean up after your pets is that rats enjoy pet waste. As animals that aren’t picky, these rodents will feast on almost anything, including your pet’s leftovers. Ensure you don’t leave out any food for cats or other strays. And if you use a bird feeder in your garden, clean up under and around it daily.
Keeping oils and fats out of your compost can also help to reduce your rodent pest problem. If outbuildings are around your garden space, ensure no entry points for rats. They only need half an inch of space and will seek out areas for shelter. This is true for keeping your garden from becoming overgrown as well. Limiting where rats can find shelter will help drive them away from your garden space.
11. Containers and Raised Beds
Creating a city garden can be a challenge if you have limited space. In this case, containers, raised earth beds, and hanging baskets can all be helpful. Larger plants will need plenty of room for their root systems, so having some five-gallon buckets might be nice and is more economical than trying to afford twenty or thirty-gallon potters. Installing a trellis will help with any vine-growing plants that you can nurture to grow vertically. Hanging baskets are perfect for flowers and provide a way to offer pollinators like honeybees a lovely food source.
12. Layout and Companion Plants
Planning the layout of your garden is vital to creating an optimal space and one that’s easy to get around in. Whether working with a rooftop space or a more extensive community garden, moving around quickly for weeding and harvesting is essential to a successful garden. Also, planting crops that grow well together is excellent for optimizing nutrients and space in your garden. For instance, beans, squash, and corn grow well together because they can each give up nutrients the others need, and whereas corn and beans grow vertically, squash is a grown cover grower — tomatoes like basil, lettuce, or cucumbers. Cabbage, however, would not pair well with tomatoes because they would compete for vital nutrients both plants need.
13. Beginning Is the First Step
Sometimes when you’ve never done something, starting can be difficult. Just beginning can be the hardest step, but you’ll find a most rewarding experience once you do. Slicing that freshly grown tomato for your hamburger or salad will be satisfying. And as you learn, the knowledge of gardening will pay dividends for your physical and mental health.
Source: Gardening Know How, Wayfair.
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