Gardening

How to Get the Most Out of Urban Gardening

Healthy food and fresh air is the obvious recipe for long life and happiness. However, it isn’t simple to get your hands on fresh food every day. You never know where it comes from, what sort of pesticides were used on it, for how long were they transported. On top of it all, the prices of fruits and veggies from trustworthy companies and natural growers are significant.

So what opportunities do we have? To move away from the city, leaving everything behind-carеers, friends, lifestyle? Is there another, smarter and better way for us? Fortunately, there is and it’s called urban gardening. Today i’ll give you some insights of how to grow plants in the city properly and how to benefit from them.

Herbs

Herbs need plenty of sunlight to fare.If indoors, put them in deep pots next to windows. Herbs which you can keep happy and healthy for significant period of time with this method are:

Basil

Basil

1. Purchase coarse soil first. Normal garden soil, without the needed drainage won’t be suitable for the plant and your chances of success fade significantly.

2. The pot should also provide significant amount of drainage. It has to have holes on the bottom so water to flow freely.

3. Clean the container. Use a solution made by yourself using mild cleaner and water. Scrub and rinse well.

Previously used pots, laying around in the basement can be used only after proper cleaning and care. Whether they are clay or plastic ones, you should make sure there are no debris and bacteria or mineral deposits on the walls. These are a comfortable environment for microbes. Mineral salts left on the pot may dyhadrate the plant’s stems. Use green cleaning solutions to avoid that. Oven cleaning professionals from London recommend steam cleaning or knife scraping. They use similar solutions in their work and recommend it. The technique allows kitchen appliances to be used right away with no danger for the people. Thanks to the unique qualities, similar cleaning procedure can be used in gardening too. You have to rinse well with water after the cleaning and dry the pot. According to some gardeners, mineral salts have to soak in bleach for 10 minuets and then to be rinsed. However, neither i nor professional cleaners would recommend that. It’s potentially dangerous for your health. Of course, If you insist, with proper safety equipment and significant amount of rinsing you can avoid inhaling bleach vapors and spills. Professional cleaners recommend using mask if you decide to use the method. According to them paper masks do not isolate well enough. They recommend, as the cheapest alternative, disposable masks made of plastic and paper filters. However, if you want to clean a lot, a respirator mask is required. According to professionals, these are more expensive to purchase initially, but have replacable filters which lowers their cost in time and are much more effective.

4. Buy the seeds

5. Moisturize the soil

6. Sow the seeds

7. Cover the pot with compost or fine soil.

8. Moist the soil repeatedly and look for germination. It should occur in a week time.

– Bay

Sweet-Bay-Laurel1

The herb can grow in a container all year long without significant headaches during the process. It should “look” east or west.

Tip: The herb likes and requires open spaces and lots of air circulation.

– Chervil

Chervil

Pow the seeds before fall. The plant feels great in low light conditions but requires room temperatures to thrive. Your thermometer should read from 18 to 21 degrees Celsius.

Rooftop gardens

Fantastic opportunity to grow a garden on the roof of your block or house. It may sound radical but the idea is thousands of years old. People have grown plants on their roofs since the Roman Empire. The technique saves space, benefits the house with perfect isolation from the top and it’s good for the plants as the area is exposed to significantly more sunlight than usual gardens.

Pros

– Effective control of the indoor climate of the house.

– Roof gardens attract different animals and potential inhabitants which make them extremely environmentally friendly.

– Protect the house from the ultra violet rays of the sun.

– In combination with solar panels roof gardens improve the electricity generation by cooling the system.

Cons

– expensive installation

– increase weight of the roof dramatically, especially in heavy rains.

How to grow vegetables on the roof?

Urban agriculture requires unique solutions such as watering systems and a greenhouses. Plants should be in proper pots too. Green roof installers use small bushes, grass and flowers to cover the area but plants have deeper reaching roots which may damage the structure of the building. To avoid that, deep enough pots are a must. Fill them with crumbly soil which is lighter and allows air to flow freely.

Virtually anything could be grown in a roof garden. But the whole installation makes most economical sense used to grow culinary herbs, kitchen gourmet greens and vegetables.

Tip: before planting anything on the garden, make sure the area is clean and sanitized. Especially in urban areas that’s can be a serious issue to consider. Steam cleaning is the way to go here.

Utilize urban areas by farming. Of course, you need permission to do it but If your local authorities and neighbors agree, you may start your small garden in a secluded urban area. A smart way to get the most of that type of farming is to use a system developed to perfection by the ancient Indians in North America and used by many ancient nations for thousands of years ago. The system is called “Three sisters”-beans, corn, Squash and allows the growing of three different crops simultaneously. The basic idea is for the different plants to benefit each other and to help each other in the process. Each different plant needs different resources which are often produced by the other elements in the system. For example tall plants protect younger plants by severe changes in weather. Some plants are used for homes from animals feeding with insects harmful for the rest of the plants in the systems etc. It is extremely productive combination which can be used in urban farming in order to utilize limited space in the best possible way.

I hope that at least some of my urban gardening tips will come up useful to you and you’ll have healthier meals for you and your kids.

Shared by maggiesovenservices.co.uk

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