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Urban Gardening Made Easy

By: Arlene Wright Correll

Many of my favorite places in the world are in the Mediterranean and since most of these places are so old many of the towns have become big cities. Those that have not are mostly stone, concrete, narrow streets and very few have large plots of land with the buildings unless they are out in the country.

As an artist I love the light in these places. There is something special about it. However, the gardener in me really appreciates urban gardening because this is the area that I feel urban gardening began.

For centuries these inhabitants have used the art of window box planting, jardinières, hanging clay planters as they managed to garden and add beauty to their small personal spaces.

These people even knew how to compost in a small space by using containers in their homes where they added organic scrapes from their daily foods such as peelings, leftover vegetables and fruits and then adding a few worms. When the compost was ready, they drew out the worms, set them aside and added the fresh composts to their pots, flowerboxes and jardinières

Many gardeners in our cities are starting to have this European mindset. We are now seeing roof top gardens. Though most cities will not allow hanging planters and window boxes we are seeing these things on condo patios. These containers will easily create focal points on your patio. Plus they will give you a sense of beauty and charm when you sit amongst them.

Community gardens are now becoming part of the urban gardening scene.

We are seeing more and more self watering containers for use on patios and hanging planters. This is a great boon for the urban gardener. In these you can plant flowers that will feed the soul and you can also plant vegetables to feed your body. Plus the working urbanite that may not be home for a few days at a time does not have to worry about the watering.

A good self watering container cuts down on the attention you need to give it. However, basically any container that has about 5 holes drilled into the bottom of it will create a good reservoir for your plantings. These types of containers will need a water catching dish or container base under them. For large, heavy containers you will do well to put some roller bases under them for easy moving around because most things you plant will need about 4 hours of sun a day. Plus strong storms may require you rolling them into a protective area.

Remember to use good organic soil. Get help and advice from your local organic nursery. The easiest plant to start with is the old stand by, the tomato! It is usually easier to buy a plant or two then to buy a pack of seeds. Cherry and grape tomatoes are wonderful in containers, especially hanging ones. Whatever kind you buy will probably need to be staked if you do not use a hanging pot. Staking is easy and one does it as the plant grows. You can use gardening wire or loops or basically an organic piece of hemp or string.

Lettuce is always an easy urban gardening vegetable to grown. A few large pots filled with good organic soil will give you basically all you need for salads. I like to mix the salad greens or you can even buy packets of mixed greens today. Just sprinkle a few on the top of your soil and gently cover with another light layer of soil, then gently water and keep it watered. About a week or so later create another pot and do the same thing. I like my pots to be about 12 to 18 inches in diameter for this type of salad garden.

Believe it our not, one can even do cucumbers in hanging pots or basically any kind of pot. I like to grow the small pickling cucumber because they grow quickly and are delicious without peeling. Just make sure you wash them well because even though, as an organic gardener, you will not use pesticides, there are a lot of "things" in the urban air from soot to acid rain and you need to wash all you veggies before you eat them.


Author Resource:-> For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books. Arlene says, "All my royalties from the sale of my books go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my site."

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