I've been contemplating on turning our backyard into an urban garden soon. I gained the inspiration to try and learn how to create an urban garden from my dad's 75-year-old friend who's still very healthy and attentive despite his age. He says his secret is his years of intake of organic food. I have heard a lot of positive heath effects of organic food but in our area, the amount of these products are double the price of the regular ones. More and more people are now turning to organic farming as part of their lifestyle change and shift to healthy diet. So here I am trying to learn the art of urban gardening so I could make sure that the crops I would plant would grow well because as I said in another thread, I don't have what we call a "green thumb" yet. What are your thoughts on urban gardening guys?
Of course it is a great idea, no matter how much or how little space you have, you can always grow something. It doesn't have to take a lot of time and the fruit, veggies and herbs you grow yourself are so much fresher and taste better than store bought stuff. Maybe you can start with some herbs in pots, mint, basil and rosemary are easy to grow. If you have a bit of space, courgette doesn't take a lot of effort and are delicious. You will soon find it amazing to grow out to your garden and pick whatever you need for dinner and eat what is seasonal. Enjoy!
Thank you @valedevento! That is one of the things I'm excited with - going out into my garden and just picking the fruits or herbs I need in my kitchen. It just sounds so fresh and healthy. I get to eat freshly picked fruits and veggies and I also get to save on my grocery budget.
In 1994, we lived in a rented apartment that has no soil. The remaining space of the lot was concrete which used to be the parking area and later was converted into free space. My husband is a born gardener and he was uncomfortable with that. He bought big plastic pots where he planted his vegetables that included red pepper. when the lettuce was already growing, the neighbors admired it. But when the pepper started showing off the red fruits, the neighbors were in frenzy of asking for the fresh red pepper every now and then.
You could start small. Grow a few vegetables or herbs in pots/containers. It wold be easier to move this around so they can be in the shade when it's too hot. Depending on how well they grow, you should gain some confidence to actually start growing most of your vegetables and herbs depending on how much space you've got.
I would try your hand at it or I should say your green thumb-and you can use any available space on patios or balconies, these could be good places to grow your vegetables in hanging baskets and pots as well. Also a few pointers -you could make sure the containers are big enough for the plants to grow. Tomato plants take up alot of soil and watch that you don't over water the plants as well.
I am an urban gardener of sorts. Although our home have a backyard and front yard garden, I still need more space so I have plastic pots for extra planting space. When we were living in an apartment, my vegetable pots were sitting on the window sill. We had tomatoes, pepper, garlic and onions aside from the mustard and lettuce. An urban garden does not only give you organic food but also a feeling of healthy environment with your green decorations.
We also have the urban garden, and grow most things in planter pots. We do have a fairly large yard, but the soil here is hardpacked clay, and is like mud when it is wet, and like baked bricks when it is dry, so it is hard to work with it. We also have a lot of trees on our property as well as in the properties adjoining ours, so it is hard to find enough sun to have a regular garden. With the planter pots, we can use better potting soil mixed in with the clay/dirt that we have, and we can put the pots where they will get the best sun. We have already had our first frost here, and brought in some of the plants for winter, and the rest is just plants that can be left outside and come back in the spring, like most herbs.
I had an urban garden on my backyard and it saves me a lot of money. I buy less groceries now but I still buy groceries since there are veggies that don't grow on my region. I am also raising some rabbits for meat and fertilizer. I want to have independence when it comes to food source so I won't be part of the consumer rat race.
Not really much of a vegan, but I think that urban gardening is quite economical and can make you save lots of money and is very beneficial to anyone who loves eating vegetables. We do have some plants and flowers here at home but I don't pay much attention to them.
Well other than being economical you will benefit a lot from urban gardening whether be it emotional or physically , you can improve a lot.
