How to Urban Garden for Beginners

Growing plants in an urban landscape is a rewarding experience that benefits you in many ways. Not only do you cultivate affordable and fresh food, but you also get to relieve stress and make your home more beautiful. If you live in the city, you may be wondering how you can garden with limited space. The good news is that it's possible to grow a variety of delicious herbs and vegetables even if you just have a small balcony or a share of a rooftop. This guide will show you how to make a garden in an urban spot and what accessories and plants you need to create a wonderful green space at home.

Start Your Garden

To start an urban garden, you need to have a plan first. Before you begin, decide important factors like:

• Where will the garden be? On a rooftop, in a greenhouse, on a balcony, or a small spot on a windowsill?
• What types of plants do you want to grow? Do you want an herb garden, a place for veggies, or simply a pretty plot of flowers?
• What is your budget and timeline?
• Do you need to invest in a landscape designer?

When you know where and what, you can now decide the particulars, such as:

• The type of planters required
• The type of soil required
• Plant starters
• Types of fertilizer
• Indoor growing lights
• Labels and care instructions
• Watering can

Since every garden’s requirements are subjective to your needs, you must take care to understand what your plants will need and get everything ready before you begin.

Set Up a Garden Bed (or Two)

Where you set up your garden depends on the layout of your urban home. You may find that installing a raised garden bed on your rooftop is the best option. Or, you might want to place some plant beds on your balcony to the right amount of sunlight. If your climate tends to be cold, you may want to install a greenhouse over these plant beds as well. When your plant beds and containers are set up, purchase the right potting soil for your desired plans and put them into the garden beds. Then, you may plant seeds directly into the beds or start your seeds separately and transplant them later.

Start Your Seeds

If you want to start a garden from scratch, you want to make sure that the seeds you plant thrive. This is why you should start your seeds in small starter pots so you can see which ones sprout and later transplant all the successful ones. This ensures that you don’t waste space in a big soil bed for a stronger and more lush garden. Climbing vegetables like tomatoes, pole beans, and zucchini are excellent space-saving vegetables to start in your urban garden.

Starting seeds separately also allows you to reuse items that would otherwise go in the recycling bin. There is no need to buy extra starter planters when you have small cups around you. Save yogurt containers, disposable solo cups, egg cartons, and anything else flexible enough to poke holes into for drainage. This is a great way to reuse items and not add to landfills.

Herbs: An Urban Gardener’s Dream

Herbs offer many rewards and are perfect for gardeners who are dealing with tricky lighting and tight spaces. They produce abundantly around the year, fit in small containers, and most come back every year.

Herbs like parsley and chives can live in part shade without a problem while other herbs thrive under growing lights. Basil, thyme, and oregano add incredible taste to foods when they are picked fresh from the plant. Place these herbs in well-drained soil and watch them grow. You can also find grown herbs from the supermarket and transplant them into a garden bed and watch them multiply. With a high return for little effort, it's no mystery why herbs top the list of favorites for city gardeners.

Tough Spots? Try Air Plants or “Container Growing”

If your space is extremely limited, you still have some room for air plants. This type of plant is simply a miracle for anyone who doesn't have the time for potting soil, spending time outdoors, or following intricate care instructions. These plants get most of their nutrition from the air. Most only need monthly soaking and indirect sunlight to be perfectly healthy. Set them on a saucer or top of a driftwood log for a cool aesthetic effect. In this way, you can always find space for something green and make a miniature urban garden even in the most inhospitable places.

Container growing is another option for small apartments with few options. To do this, put one or two plants in separate pots and place them in the sunniest places of your home, like a windowsill. This helps you avoid soil issues since you can put exactly what your plant needs in each container. To be green, you can reuse old milk containers that are cut in half, but be sure to poke holes and put a plate below for healthy drainage. Containers help avoid many soil issues because you are using soil specifically adapted for what you plan to grow. They can also fit in unconventional places like balcony railings.

Not Everything Needs to Be a Vegetable

Gardens aren’t just for edible food, but they can also become places for beautiful flowers and plants. By adding green spaces like this to an urban environment, you can boost creativity, reduce stress, and improve your daily mood. For instance, you can have some small indoor garden spots in your apartment where low-light plants like the golden pothos brighten up a bare corner. Plants like this are excellent air scrubbers, filtering dangerous irritants like formaldehyde from the air.

Want more oxygen and freshness indoors? Get the Instant Jungle Starter, a selection of curated plants that match your home’s specific setup and lighting specs. Choose your pots and containers for a custom experience. We’ll also include care instructions so that you know how to keep each plant in good condition. Now you don’t have to dream about keeping up with Justina Blakeney’s jungalow style, but instead, live among beautiful greenery no matter how deep you are in the city grid.

Gardening can happen even without a backyard. Even the smallest apartments have places where you can grow some delicious veggies. Take advantage of all the space you have to make a wonderful urban garden.

Are you interested in starting your own urban garden? Find everything you need to beautify your home with flowers and potted plants from Plantshed.