Anyone can Garden with Urban Gardening: Getting Started
Posted by Kelly
These days, everyone is talking about going green. There is constant chatter about the benefits for the environment, and more recently, your wallet. This conversation usually involves organic foods, which are not always cost friendly. Organic fruits and vegetables grown without harmful chemicals and pesticides are better for our bodies and the environment. Many people are turning to their own back yards to provide them with an alternative to grocery store organics. It doesn’t get any more ‘locally grown’ than this! Starting a garden is a great reason to get outside, grow your own food and start composting all your organic waste material, much better than sending it to your local landfill.
So maybe you don’t have a backyard. Maybe you’re in an urban environment surrounded by concrete or in a rental apartment. What now? Well, we’ve gathered plenty of tips and resources, so dig in! Plenty of people grow their own edibles in their homes, from a windowsill herb garden (a great place to start if this sounds at all intimidating) to small hybrid fruit trees, perfect for indoor environments.
Let’s talk about how to get started.
Creating the right environment is key, lighting and water are vital.
Here are some great tips from sheknows.com on lighting and watering indoors.
- Cover walls with reflective Mylar or white paint in order to allow light to reflect onto your plants so they can absorb more energy.
- Turn on an oscillating fan to create air and humidly flow around your plants because if an air supply fixes directly on your plants for too long, it can dry them out.
- Protect your household surfaces by putting drop cloths or plastic trays underneath your plants in order to prevent water damage.
- If using artificial light, it’s suggested you utilize HID (high intensity discharge) lights, which hang down from the ceiling and converts electricity into usable energy for plants.
- Ensure your plant has an adequate drainage system. Skip this step and your roots will rot and you’ll have a muddy mess on your hands.
- Fully hydrate the soil, but be careful to not over-water it.
- Use room temperature water so as not to shock the plant with scalding or freezing water.
Your garden’s new home, should be a happy one.
In an article posted by suite101.com, Bob Ewing suggests recycling old containers for potting.
- Use old ice cream or margarine tubs for planting. Punch a couple of holes in the bottom and use the lid as an overflow tray and you are set. This recycles and saves you money.
- Potting soil plays a very important role in the success of your garden, adding a little bone meal to the mix can help enrich the soil.
Getting your seedlings started is the first step to a great (and organic!) indoor garden and these steps should get you growing. You can plant anything from herbs to tomatoes to salad green, start experimenting with foods you like! Gardening on any scale is an ongoing project, so stay tuned for more tips and tricks. And as always, let us know what you think. We’ll take any great advice from your own experiences.
One Response to “Anyone can Garden with Urban Gardening: Getting Started”
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August 14th, 2009 at 9:50 am
[...] Desertification has a great blog post about water bottle container gardening, as well as a step by step how to. Also, make sure you read the first post in this series, Anyone can Garden with Urban Gardening: Getting Started. [...]