If you live in a big city, affording a house with a garden can be out of reach for most people that is why urban gardening is becoming a trend. With limited options, living in apartment buildings is the next best thing, especially when you live in the heart of the town or city.
With this kind of living arrangement, it may seem impossible to enjoy certain aspects of life like growing a garden or having a backyard. While the latter may be far fetched, it is still possible to own a small garden in your apartment, thanks to urban gardening.
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Urban Gardening - 7 Ideas to Start Your Urban Garden
What is Urban Gardening?
Urban gardening is simply the practice of growing an outdoor garden in an urban environment. Today, most apartments create communal urban gardens on the rooftops, while some tenants do it on their balconies and homes.
From colorful baskets hanging on windows to lush balcony and rooftop gardens, urban gardening has become increasingly popular in urban areas these days. The best part is that not only does it beautify a space, but it is also good for the environment, economy and food security.
7 Urban Gardening Ideas
If you are considering starting an urban garden, these timely tips and ideas will get you started on the right footing:
1. Rooftop Urban Garden Design
One of the best ways to use open space for gardening is to start an urban rooftop garden on your apartment or office building. A rooftop garden is a fantastic way of utilizing an otherwise abandoned space.
When starting on a rooftop urban garden, ensure you speak to your property owner if you are doing it at home or your bosses if doing it in a work environment. They will let you know if there are restrictions or regulations you need to adhere to.
Some old buildings have weight limits for stability. If your building is one, consider using lightweight planters like those made from wood, foam, plastic and fiberglass. Rooftop gardens are exposed to excess heat and wind.
To ensure your plants stand the extreme conditions, use lattices, trellises and pallet walls in your planter to allow airflow and protect the plants.
2. Designing a Community Garden
A community garden offers the members of a community an opportunity to plant different foods, herbs and flowers in a shared space. This is ideal for neighborhoods that do not offer much space in terms of a rooftop and balconies.
Apart from being a source of fresh foods and flowers, community gardens require the community to come together to maintain them. This makes the perfect place to get to know other members of a community.
When starting a community garden, pay attention to the different rules and regulations that govern the neighborhood’s communal spaces to ensure your project is not in breach. This will ensure you invest in the right supplies for the project.
3. No Rooftop? No Problem. Turn Your Balcony Into a Garden
Hanging planters, vertical planters, pallet walls and container pots are space-saving urban garden options in limited spaces like balconies. Having a balcony garden allows you to grow plants, food and flowers privately while utilizing natural sunshine and protecting your plants from extreme wind conditions.
Perennial and annual plants grow perfectly in balcony gardens, and so do lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes. One tip to remember is to place saucers below the pots to prevent water from draining to your balcony or leaking to the house beneath you.
4. Creating an Indoor Herb Garden
If your apartment does not come with an outdoor space, you can still create a small indoor garden, especially for growing herbs. Take advantage of large spacious windows to create hanging gardens for different herb types, including basil, rosemary, mint, and even thyme.
These are herbs that do not require a large place to grow and can be harvested as they grow, allowing you to grow herbs all year round.
To make your indoor herb garden a success, you need to make use of well-researched product recommendations like hanging planters to grow your herbs. Hanging planters are easy to water, maintain and harvest from.
5. Think of Creating Vertical Garden
A vertical garden is a perfect choice if you are interested in growing a garden in your small resting space and on a budget. There are so many ways of growing vertical gardens.
You can allow vines to grow on your walls, starting a vertical garden on a fence or install vertical planters on walls and rails. All you have to do is invest in vertical garden equipment.
Remember to invest in garden trellis to keep your vertical pants upright.
6. Create a Small Greenhouse Indoors
If you prefer to grow your food and plants indoors, or you lack a community green space in your place of residency, you can consider installing small greenhouses at home.
You can enjoy having an urban garden all year round with a mini-greenhouse, whether you want to plant herbs, food, or flowers for your home. This is thanks to the fact that the conditions in a greenhouse can be controlled, meaning you can grow any choice of flower, plant or food all year round.
Mini greenhouses are ideal for apartment rooftops, small balconies, patios and even the indoors. You can make your own greenhouses or purchase a ready greenhouse.
7. Turn Your Window Boxes Into Miniature Lush Gardens
If you have a house with window boxes, you can turn these tiny spaces into green spaces without needing a balcony or indoor green spaces.
The best part about turning window boxes into green spaces is that your herbs, flowers or plants are protected from common plant insects and rodents because of the height of the boxes.
You can easily water your plants and harvest your flowers and herbs from the window, and they give the view to your window an amazing appeal.
Wrapping Up Our Urban Gardening Guide
A little gardening can go a long way, even in an urban environment. Whether you are interested in having a small herbs garden for health reasons or plant a large garden of flowers and plants, all these options are possible for people living in megalopolis areas.
With the ideas highlighted in this post, you can bring the appeal of flora and fauna to the cities no matter the size of your outdoor space or even the lack of it.