Growing your food is a great way to get fresh, healthy local produce. But it’s also a great way to save money on your grocery bills and even make extra income if you sell those vegetables at a farmers’ market or online. In this guide, we’ll go over everything you need to know about urban farming so that you can start growing your fruit and vegetables in no time!
Optimize the space in your urban garden
When designing your urban garden, maximize the space in a way that works for you. If you have a small backyard, try using containers or vertical gardening. This lets you grow more plants in the same space and allows plant growth to go up instead of taking up horizontal ground space (often limited). Using pots or raised beds also makes it easier to move around and harvest your crops without bending down constantly.
Find the right plants for urban farming
When choosing plants for your urban farm, it’s important to keep several things in mind. First and foremost, choose plants that are easy to grow within your climate. This can range from anything like tomatoes or zucchini to more difficult crops like potatoes and sweet potatoes. Additionally, ensure you consider how easily each plant is harvested—you don’t want to spend all day harvesting something just so the harvest doesn’t last very long! When it comes time for storage, make sure you have plenty of space available; some common urban farming options, such as berries, will need ample time before they’re ripe enough for eating or preservation purposes. Finally: cooking and preserving! Do not forget about these aspects of any potential new crop selection; if possible, try out foods from this plant before making major investments or planting large amounts of them!
Use vertical space
Vertical gardening is a great way to maximize your gardening space. Trellises, fences, walls, and poles are all excellent places to grow plants vertically.
Use a greenhouse
Greenhouses are easy to construct or purchase from home improvement stores, but they can be costly if you buy one new. If you’re handy with tools or want something already assembled, look for a used greenhouse online or at garage sales in your area (make sure it’s safe before buying!).
Use a hydroponic system
Instead of using soil-based gardening methods if you have limited space to grow to produce on your property. Hydroponics involves growing plants without soil by using nutrient-rich water. This technique works well as long as there’s enough light present during the hours when photosynthesis occurs naturally outdoors!
If you have a room outside buildings such as barns/sheds, consider building an indoor worm farm where food scraps can be added regularly without taking up much room.
Invest in a greenhouse
You should invest in a greenhouse. Greenhouses are an effective way to extend your growing season, allowing you to grow plants that don’t thrive in your area or during certain parts of the year. While they can be expensive, cheaper options may work for you. You can also build your greenhouse using reclaimed materials and recycled plastic bottles!
Watering your urban garden
Do you know how you should water your garden? Maybe you do, but you don’t know how to do it right or have questions about what water-delivery systems work best for urban gardens. In either case, this guide is here to help!
- Drip irrigation system: This type of irrigation system uses tubing and emitters that distribute small amounts of water directly onto your plants’ roots, making them more efficient than watering by hand or using sprinklers. You can buy kits online; they’re easy to install and will last years with regular maintenance (like replacing faulty emitters).
- Rain barrel: If there’s a rain barrel around, use it! It can help reduce runoff in storm drains and act as a backup water source when other sources aren’t available (and save money on your city water bill). Just be sure not to put anything toxic into your rain barrels—it’ll end up in our waterways if you do! You can buy them at hardware stores like Home Depot.
- Watering can: Use this method sparingly unless you want puddles everywhere. There’s no way for excess moisture from the ground surface above to get back into the soil until gravity pulls it down again.
Urban bees and other animals
Urban bees are a great way to add pollinators to your urban garden. You can use an old bathtub, a wooden pallet, or a large bucket as the base for your beehive. You should also put up some mesh over the top of the hive so that predators can’t get in and eat any of your bees. If you keep enough food in your garden for the bees to eat straight out of it (like flowers), they won’t need much from you!
Urban composting, recycling, and storage
Composting
You can compost various organic materials, including food scraps and yard waste. Composting reduces the need for fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides when done right. In addition to providing nutrients for plants (and reducing your gardening costs), composting also helps keep harmful substances out of landfills by turning them into rich soil.
Recycling
This is one of the easiest ways you can help reduce waste in your community—and save money on trash bags! Think about what items you can recycle before you throw them out: aluminum cans? Paperboard cartons? Glass jars, and bottles? Plastic containers? Used motor oil? Electronics equipment like computers or cell phones? Appliances such as refrigerators or stoves aren’t energy efficient enough to be donated instead of thrown away when they break down (though you may need to pay a fee for pickup if these items are too large).
If there isn’t any recycling opportunity near where you live yet, but there’s lots of trash waiting for pickup day every week… consider starting one yourself!
Conclusion
This guide has covered a lot of ground and given you some great ideas to get started. We hope that it’s given you some inspiration to start growing food in an urban farming setting. Urban farming can be a rewarding experience, whether it’s just for yourself or if you want to share your bounty with others in need. It’s an activity in which anyone can get started, regardless of their resources or skillset. Not only will growing your food save money on groceries, but it also gives us all more control over what goes into our bodies—and that’s something worth fighting for!