Start your Urban Vegetable Garden with Good Dirt!
Builders often cheap out and have the lowest quality of dirt in yards. If you want to have a bountiful urban garden, you need to start with a good base. We ordered a bulk bag of high quality dirt to get the process started: https://eaglelakelandscape.com/product/alberta-gold-bagged/
Urban Vegetable Garden Spacing Tips
Do you know how on many seed packages it tells you to space rows apart by 12 inches? You don’t have the luxury of space in an urban garden. Planting rows 6-7 inches apart is the better rule of thumb. This advice came from my uncle who is a master gardener and received that tip from a Harrowsmith magazine article: https://www.harrowsmithmag.com/topic/gardening/urban
Companion Planting
Companion planting is planting items close that support one another, while keeping others apart so that they are not competing for the same nutrients. A great example is to plant corn and beans together. Beans climb up the corn stalks, while corn feeds off the nitrogen from the beans. Beans do not like to be planted close to garlic, onions, peppers or sunflowers. A little pre-planning can help to set up your garden for more success. For a detailed chart of what to plant together and plants to keep apart, visit: https://www.almanac.com/content/companion-planting-chart-vegetables
Hardening off plants
If you have started any seeds indoors to get a jump on the growing season, it is very important to harden them off. What this means is to place the plants outdoors for a couple hours and increasing the time each day for two weeks. This “hardening off” of the plants helps them not go into shock. Think of your own skin and how it reacts to going outdoors with the warmer days approaching.
Corn needs companionship!
Corn needs to have a minimum of two rows planted beside one another. This is because the wind pollinates the corn. If you only plant one row, it makes pollination very difficult.
Happy Vegetable Gardening!
Please share any other tips or tricks that you have for urban gardening. Gardening improves our overall well-being as cited in numerous case studies. Here is to enjoying the fruits of your labour!
Wild About Nature Challenges
Don’t like gardening? Do you want to improve your overall well-being? Immerse yourself in nature this way: https://wwwtemp.motivatedbynature.com/wild-nature-challenge/
Pingback: 10 Surprising Health Benefits of Gardening - Motivated by Nature