Urban Gardening Guide: How to Master Urban Gardening

Urban gardening—also known as urban agriculture or urban farming—is the process of cultivating green spaces in urban settings. Urban gardening is a broad term that can apply to herb gardens, vegetable gardens, beekeeping, and chicken farming that takes place in an urban area. City dwellers with green thumbs may choose to grow their own food in container gardens on their windowsills, rooftops, or apartment balconies. Other urban farmers cultivate community gardens aimed at horticultural sustainability and bringing healthy food to food deserts (urban environments with a lack of grocery stores stocked with fresh foods).

There are several notable benefits to urban gardening.

1. 1. Improves overall health: Fresh foods provide essential nutrients, and the act of gardening itself can reduce health risks and improve mental health. Urban gardening can provide solace from the busyness of urban life, helping alleviate stress, lower blood pressure, and reduce anxiety.
2. 2. Provides food security: Fresh, healthy foods can be hard to come by in some underserved urban communities. Community gardens help provide food security by increasing access to fruits and veggies.
3. 3. Reduces food waste: Growing and eating your own food helps cut back on food waste and reduces the carbon footprint of the food system.
4. 4. Preserves green spaces: Many abandoned lots or greenways have been preserved by urban gardeners who've seized the opportunity to use the land for farming. The preservation of green spaces in urban settings provides residents with access to nature and improves environmental health.

If you’re looking for urban gardening ideas, explore some of the most common urban gardening methods.

1. 1. Community gardens: Community gardens are vegetable gardens that are open to the public. They are typically managed by volunteer growers, non-profit groups, or activists for the purpose of combating food insecurity in urban areas. Community gardens help provide food security by giving local residents access to free or heavily discounted fruits and veggies. They typically consist of small garden beds in the earth, raised beds, and containers.
2. 2. Indoor gardening: Herbs, sprouts, and microgreens are great options for growing indoors. They are easily grown in small spaces, such as a sunny windowsill. Windowsill gardens are a great space-saving option for home gardeners who don’t have a large outdoor gardening space, and can easily be done in smaller living spaces like an apartment.
3. 3. Container gardens: Container gardening is a method of growing plants in containers, rather than planting them in the earth outside. Container gardening allows gardeners to have more control over important growing conditions like sunlight, moisture, and temperature. Pots and hanging baskets are ideal containers for growing vegetables on an apartment balcony. When planting in containers, choose potting soil over compost or gardening soil. Many different types of plants are suitable for planting in containers, such as tomato plants, zucchini, and cucumbers.
4. 4. Raised beds: A raised garden bed is an elevated gardening plot. The walls surrounding the plot keep soil content pure inside the bed and prevent outside plants and pests from creeping in. Raised garden beds are a sensible choice for urban dwellings where yard space is limited and soil quality may be lacking.
5. 5. Vertical gardening: A vertical garden is a system for vertically growing plants via structural support rather than horizontally in a plot of land. In a vertical garden, you can grow plants upwards along existing structures like walls, arbors, or pergolas, or install structures like trellises or poles for support. Vertical gardens are designed to run up and down, which allows you to plant more crops with less ground space.
6. 6. Rooftop gardening: A rooftop garden is a collection of container plants that home gardeners or landscapers keep on the rooftop of a flat building—often an apartment building. Plants can vary from vegetable plants to ornamental shrubs. The setup can be as simple as planting a few plants in terracotta pots or as established as a greenhouse with an automatic watering system.
7. 7. Hydroponic gardening: Hydroponic gardening is a method for growing plants without soil. Plants grown hydroponically do not sit in soil but rather in a growing medium that transfers water and a nutrient solution to the plant roots.

If you're new to urban gardening, use this beginner's guide to help get you started.

1. 1. Assess your needs. Whether you're considering starting an urban garden at home or for the community, assess what type of garden would serve you best. Perhaps you find that root vegetables are easy to come by at the grocery store, but the leafy greens section leaves much to be desired. Or perhaps your community would benefit from a relaxing, perennial herb garden over a vegetable garden. Whatever it may be, make an assessment of the type of garden that would address the specific concerns of your household or neighborhood.
2. 2. Assess your growing area. Before choosing a gardening method, it's important to determine the growing conditions of the area in which you've chosen to garden. If you have access to outdoor space, take note of the sunlight, square footage, and access to water. In tight urban environments, observe and note any trees, buildings, or other obstructions that may cast shadows on your garden throughout the growing season. Avoid planting veggies or flowering plants that need bright light in low-light areas and vice versa.
3. 3. Choose your urban gardening method. After assessing your needs and making note of the growing conditions, it's time to choose your method of gardening. For those with limited space, indoor gardens, hydroponic gardens, vertical gardens, and container gardens are best. If you have access to larger square footage, consider a rooftop garden or raised beds. If you live in an apartment building, check with property management before committing to a rooftop or balcony garden.

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