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Urban Gardening: Indoor and Balcony Gardening Tips

It is possible to grow your own food even if you live in an urban space and have no outdoor room to garden.  If you have just a bit of space on a balcony or rooftop, you can grow even more.  Here’s an overview of how to grow food for yourself and your family if you’re living without a large yard and transportation to move large quantities of plants and supplies to your house.

Urban Survival Gardening: Challenges

Gardening inside presents unique challenges.  Techniques that are simple outside require a bit of ingenuity inside.  For people living in urban areas without transportation, getting all of the necessary supplies for gardening is also a challenge.

Issues for Urban Gardeners

There are ways to get around all of these issues.  Here’s how.

Supplies

The Internet has made getting supplies much easier.  You can get everything you need shipped right to your door—including potting soil.  Many items that you use for everyday life can be re-purposed for gardening.  In the excellent book “Fresh Food from Small Spaces” by R.J. Ruppenthal, there are instructions for making a self-watering container out of a plastic Rubbermaid container, some PVC pipe and a colander.

Space

There are lots of things you can grow that are healthy, nutritious, and require relatively little space.

In addition to specific plants, you can also creatively use your space. Here are some ideas for spreading plants out in the space that you do have.

Light

One of the most important concerns for growing food inside or along a balcony is the light. Some plants need more light than others.  Any warm-season crop that produces fruits (think: tomatoes, peppers, eggplants) needs at least 6-7 hours of full sun a day.  An un-obstructed (as in, no tree or other building in front of it) south-facing window should provide enough sun to try these plants.  But, if this isn’t possible, here are some plants that can grow in shadier conditions:

Each of these plants will eventually produce enough to eat, though it might take longer than if the plants are growing in full sun.  Therefore, if you’re really dependent upon the crops, you might need to plant more.   In terms of sheer calorie production, potatoes have the most calories per square inch of growing space, so make plans to grow potatoes inside for extra calories and nutrition.

One way to make the most of your existing light and space is to reflect light from the outside, in.  Position a board painted white, a piece of cardboard covered in foil, or a shiny piece of metal near a window so that it reflects light back onto the plants.  Do not use a mirror or glass because that focuses the light to the point that it can start fires.

Pollination

Some crops need to be pollinated in order to produce fruit.  (And, anything that has seeds in it-squash, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. is fruit.)  Outside, that’s not a problem, because honeybees and other insects take care of pollination.  Inside, that’s an issue. You’ll have to pollinate your fruiting crops yourself.   You can simply use a Q-tip to move pollen from the stamen (where the pollen is) to the pistil (the sticky area in the center of the flower) to pollinate the plants.

Feeding Your Plants

If you’re growing plants outside, the easiest way to feed them is with a liquid organic fertilizer.  If you’re growing everything inside, you probably don’t want to use one of these because they usually have a strong odor.  A way to get nutrients for your plants and avoid the odor is to compost with worms.  You can keep a worm compost bin under your sink and solve two problems at once: getting rid of food scraps and feeding your plants.

Here’s how to make an indoor worm bin:

Supplies

Instructions

Red wrigglers are the best worms for indoor composting.  Each ½ pound of worms can eat about a pound of food per day.  Don’t feed the worms animal products.  Coffee grounds help absorb odor.  Keep the worms fed, and occasionally remove the “castings” and add them to your plants.

Growing food in small, indoor spaces is possible with a bit of planning and creativity.  Stop relying on the industrial machine for your food.  Start growing your own!

Other articles in this issue:

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