What is Urban Gardening?

As a part of the ‘going green’ trend, Urban Gardening is often a topic of great public appeal. “Urban Gardening refers to overcoming the restrictions of a metropolis and creating a garden in your home, no matter the size or lack of natural space,” quote from ecomii Encyclopedia. The basic idea is that if you have sunlight, you can also have a garden. I’ll take you through some practical applications for urban gardening as well as a few plants that are universally suited for any conditions!

There are many different ways that apartment dwellers and home owners alike can incorporate and maintain small urban gardens. Here are a few of the most popular ways to add some greenery to your life!

• · Raised Garden Beds: If you’re fortunate enough to have a small yard, dirt patch or any sunny area outdoors, you can easily build an above ground garden bed. The concept is that even if you have existing contaminated soil, you’ll be able to grow plants above the contamination in raised flower beds. Using hardwoods to build your box, you’ll fill this above ground garden bed with premium or composted soil and have a harvest all through the spring, summer and fall!
• · Container Gardening: With thousands of urban dwellers finding residence in apartments and condominiums, container gardening is a hot ticket! All you really need is a porch or balcony that receives at least two hours of full sunlight to start gardening! Container gardens can be very productive depending on how much time you have to dedicate to your plants.
• · Indoor Gardening: No balcony or porch? Just not enough sunlight? No problem! Technically you don’t even need a lick of sunlight to have a prosperous garden. With modern technology and grow lights, you can have the garden of your dreams indoors and away from the sunlight completely. With indoor gardening, plants can be grown year-round for a continuous harvest!

When purchasing seeds or young seedlings, you’ll want to know what types of plants will do well in the environment that you can provide. Obviously raised flower beds in a sunny location will have more plant opportunities than a North-Facing apartment that only receives two hours of sun. Instead of showing the endless list of plants that can be grown, I’ll show the hardiest of the urban gardening crew. These crops are highly adaptable and can be grown in the toughest of conditions!

• · Herbs: Some of the hardiest garden plants belong to the herb family. Herbs such as Lemon Balm, Mints, German Thyme, and Parsley will grow in as little as two hours of sunlight daily!
• · Radishes: Although radishes do require at least six hours of full sun, they are very easy to cultivate in containers. With most varieties of radishes, you’ll have a crop to eat in as little as 23 days!
• · Berries: Container gardens are a great place to grow berries. As with radishes, berries will need at least six hours of full sunlight. Through experience, I’ve found that growing berries in containers or hanging planters helps to deter those pesky birds and squirrels.

As more and more people move to urban areas, we’ll all need to address the question of “what is urban gardening?” Since you’re already here, you have a good head start. Get out there and get gardening! Good luck on all your garden adventures.