In this post we are going into detail about the What, How, and Why to Urban Gardening.
What is Urban Gardening
Urban Gardening is when you utilize any space within the city limits for gardening. It can be as small an area as a patio with a container that is dedicated to vegetable, herb, or fruit plants or as large as your yard will allow.
Urban Gardening can also be a flower bed that is shared with vegetable, herb, or fruit plants or trees.
Urban Gardening is a dedicated use of your yard space for a garden.
All of these areas dedicated to Gardening are considered Urban Gardening. It is the practice of processing and cultivating food in an urban setting. The planting of a garden is Urban Gardening.
Gardening in your yard allows you to have the freshest and healthiest vegetables and fruit possible for you and your family.
By Gardening in your yard, you can save money and get great exercise without spending it on exercise equipment or gym fees.
Why should you Urban Garden
Gardening can be one of the most therapeutic things you can do that everyone can do even if you don’t own your home and live in an apartment or rent your home. Gardening gives you an opportunity to be an artist with your garden, there are no limits to what you can do
Gardening in an urban setting improves the economy of the area, the environment, and the security of food for the people living in that area. They can be self-supporting when utilizing the full extent of Urban Gardening.
Urban Gardening can reduce waste such as plastic bags, and containers that the store-bought vegetables come in and end up going in the trash.
Urban Gardening reduces the fuels needed for those products to be delivered to the stores from the farms to the stores which reduce our carbon footprint.
When you urban garden you get both the mental and physical benefits while producing food that is more nutritious.
How to Urban Garden
Determine what vegetables and fruit you, your family, and neighbors if your sharing like to eat so that you use what you are growing.
Determine what you will eat fresh and what you will preserve for use later in late Fall and throughout the winter.
Design how you want to layout your Urban Garden even if it is one planter or an entire yard. To do this you need to spend a day in your yard to determine how much sun the area or areas you are dedicating to your Urban Garden receive. Ideally, you need 6-10 hours of sunlight for the best garden results.
The layout on paper where you will plant each plant or if it is a container what plants will fit in the particular size of the container you have chosen.
Types of Urban Gardens
Containers
For this type of gardening, you should plant the tallest plant in the center with other smaller plants around the outside so that the ones around the outside do not block out the sun. Verticle Gardening is a great way to maximize the planter.
When you use pots and planters you can use companion plantings to increase what you are growing and make the pots more attractive.
Container gardening using pots and planters will allow you to choose the correct pot size like these small ones to very large pots that can hold trees and other larger plants that need more room for roots to expand and grow.
Using pots and planters will allow people with physical limitations to garden in their yards to have better access to planting, maintaining, and harvesting what they grow.
Shared beds
For this type of Urban Garden determine what spots are open for your vegetable plants and how large a spot they will have when the other plants are at the maximum size they will reach. This way you will know how much sun the vegetable will get and how large a plant will fit.
Verticle Gardening is also a great way to maximize the limited space you have in a shared bed.
You should also consider what plants are good companions for one another to give the greatest benefit to both the vegetable and the flower.
Growing a garden in a shared bed will add color, texture and fragrances that will enhance existing flower beds that will also attract pollinators to your garden.
Dedicated Area
Take a measurement of the area and how the sun will travel across the area to plot out the hours of sun each area will receive.
Knowing the microclimate of the area is based on structures and plants that can shade the area and protect it from winds.
Determine if you are going to have raised beds, rows, verticle, or square foot gardening for your Urban Gardening. You can also blend several or all of these for the best garden results.
For a large area like this for your Urban Garden, you will need to know how much food you want to produce so that you are not wasting food that will rot and go unused.
When dedicating a larger area for your urban garden you will need more tools for handling these larger areas. Some recommendations are, shovels, rakes, hoes, and even a tiller to make the jobs easier.
Now that you know the What, How, and Why to Urban Gardens. Get started now even if it is one container dedicated to growing your favorite vegetable, herb, or fruit plant to start your Urban Gardening experience.
Happy Gardening from the Urban Gardener
