Create your own vegetable garden in the garden or terrace, it has lots of benefits. Above all, in food, eat fresh vegetables! It is already a luxury.
We are what we eat and today we don't know much about that. Accustomed to how comfortable, easy and, above all, fast, unfortunately food is not among our main concerns.
This is where our urban garden comes in. with the intention of producing fresh, quality food and knowing what we are eating in a limited space Practicing urban agriculture at home !
At the time we already wrote an article about plants of interior for home decoration. Today we will learn how create a garden at home step by step with the next guide…
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An urban garden is the adaptation of the traditional garden that is practiced in the rural field to a reduced urban space – covered or not – with the intention of harvesting food fresh; vegetables , vegetables , flowers, culinary herbs, aromatic or medicinal plants, etc. Orchards located in a city!
Indeed, it arises from sustainable social movements such as the slow food or slow life that culture claims of the natural in which the time of any process or activity. But…
If we want to grow a garden in the city we must follow a series of coherent steps that cover our needs. Let's see the steps to follow to create a garden at home.
First, a good quality summary video to understand the urban gardens (Remember that when end we leave a free course)
Although it seems obvious, we must remember that we have three possibilities for limited spaces; in the gallery – balcony home, inside the home (using system hydroponics), and a terrace garden or patio, that can be private or community.
Note: In many cities there are orchards suburban community s that are shared and rented monthly, in most cases. In this article, we will focus on an orchard built on the terrace of the building with wooden drawers, for being the most coherent and viable option.
But… What should I look at before deciding where to garden? Here are three key elements before to decide the location:
By the way, we have a nice article on natural lighting in architecture, in case it matters!
The best option is to put the garden in the patio or terrace of the building ; we do not occupy space at home, it is located at the open air, we can produce more vegetables for the family garden, we can move well to work with coherence etc.
And if you like designing gardens, there is an article on how the design of gardens changes the cities that there are also useful design tools.
It depends on the economy and skill of each user. Us We are going to count the needs and the different utensils that they are used to manage a crop on a terrace.
The market already offers us different types of flowerpots that adapt perfectly to the size of the patio, terrace or mini balcony. The containers more common we can find for our small garden with:
Planters and pots
Most planters and pots are already made directly from PVC plastic or bioplastic and with multiple sizes and shapes, so we have many options to buy. They are the cheapest containers! and also, we can do vertical gardens .
Keep in mind that there are some that take a small deposit of water reserve that supplies the irrigation to the plants by capillarity. They are very useful if we are clueless or we We're going on vacation.
As a counterpoint, in the following article you can see the The most original pot we've ever seen.
Growing boxes
They are usually made of wood and treated to withstand conditions outdoor weather conditions. we find them shaped square or rectangular and of different sizes, they are planters wooden!
It has an interior geotextile lining to preserve the wood and contain the earth keeping the humidity.
The drawers that are a little more expensive and have different compartments what can we use to separate the different crops.
Raffia sacks
Usually people do not use raffia bags for a terrace garden, but it should be noted that sometimes they are very useful because they are light and can be transported easily.
They are also made of a geotextile resistant to weather and permeable to water and even some have compartments.
Growing tables
This is the container par excellence of the urban garden on rooftops. They are comfortable to handle, small in size and without water loss.
They are manufactured in different materials such as PVC plastic and wood, with various colors and resistant to UV rays. Aesthetically, they look great anywhere.
They usually have an intermediate support to leave the growing tools and the largest growing stands, They have separators for the distribution and division of the that we are going to grow.
Planting tables
They are the closest thing to having a garden small . Used in large patios and terraces, and They go straight to the ground. Its cultivation capacity is much greater than the previous containers (We will see later).
They are covered with a protective geotextile, they are made of wood and At the base they have a protective bottom so as not to dirty the floor. There are different heights to grow species of low development and others that grow upwards.
Vertical containers
To get out of small spaces , also there are vertical structures for cultivation where we can create mini-gardens that are installed in the walls.
We find them in many forms that adapt to any wall type. Widely used on balconies or to grow in the inside the houses and have a minigarden or the famous "vertical garden" .
They are self-draining and self-supporting modules manufactured in strong polypropylene material. we have an extensive article on how to buy a vertical garden and what cultivate.
To buy an urban garden , we play here with the sale of the « grow kit «, more for beginners where they will sell you the complete pack; drawer made of wood , earth with compost , plus aromatic plants or culinary. Or the second option, buy the elements for separate which is more for
First, a few tips:
We recommend buying the following tables from urban cultivation :
We continue in
Most fruit trees, aromatic plants, vegetables and spices that we grow in the garden organic "they are easy to grow" but will need a fertile land, with nutrients, fluffy and with the capacity to retain water. And, in addition, we are practicing agriculture urban.
The appropriate substrate will be the one that ensures:
First, you must take into account the kind of substrate to be used in the potsherds A fairly common mistake is to use typical land for pots, it is a poor substrate if you need to feed the vegetables. Buy a suitable one and look at the label!
Here, in the first sowing of the garden, we will need the bags of substrates that are already prepared and that generally We can find them of two types:
Remember, that the success of our orchard ecological not only depends on the substrate, but also on the environmental conditions, the choice of varieties that we use or the growing season.
A good substrate will guarantee the supply of nutrients without need to have to think about it for a long time time.
Highly recommended! Ask in a specialized store What substrate do we need for the garden according to the vegetables and vegetables «X» that we are going to plant.
And how to choose a good substrate from the following video we give the keys…
If you're hell-bent on making a combination yourself and you're a thoroughbred urban farmer. The best option is to combine Several of them. To start…
The less chemical fertilizers, the better, you have to take advantage of the waste generated at home. Organic fertilizer and free! The we can manufacture at home with the help of a kit compost bin.
You can learn more with the manual of the good composter from HERE, the diagrams at the end of the PDF are very useful.
It benefits us all, it is taking care of the environment and the time, we transform some waste by recycling it to remove they a good match.
In the end, it is to complement the techniques of cultivation , being able to convert the residues into humus, to help fertilize the substrate.
Before you start cultivating , check that the containers you use; planters, pots, drawers, etc., have a hole for water drainage. And now follow the steps of the following scheme:
First, in home gardens , we must know that we have two options for seedbeds in the nurseries for our outdoor plants to grow. We can buy envelopes with seeds or seedlings :
Buy seeds in packets . For our organic gardens of dimensions small, the seeds will be planted directly in the ground without creating seedlings in a specific seedbed. always see instructions on the envelope.
Although if we have a seedbed to create seedlings we can control more and better germination and obtain at home seedlings.
To begin with, we will practice direct sowing with the following tips:
Buy seedlings . The Seedlings are seeds that have grown "X" time. As we have commented, we can make them at home or buy directly in a nursery.
If we buy the seedlings, although they are a little more expensive, we will have results in a shorter time and that is appreciated, if we are starting.
When you plant them keep in mind the distance between the different seedlings so that they grow properly.
What to plant in an urban garden? Almost all species are suitable for growing in an orchard ecological, however, the most recommended are:
| Lettuce | Tomato | Green bean | Strawberries | Zucchini |
| Aubergines | Peppers | Potatoes | Carrots | Radishes |
Throughout the year you can have vegetables fresh if you know when it is time to sow and for that, there are the sowing calendars .
As a guideline for cultivation urban , we leave you an excellent calendar (Spring, summer, autumn, winter) that indicates the tasks: planting, transplant and harvest, but you should always look at the instructions on the seed packets.
Aromatic plants (basil, thyme, oregano, rosemary, parsley, etc) are ideal for planting in pots, and are essential in any kitchen. Due to its intense aroma, they drive away the insects that attack the plants with more frequency. They do not require great care, and grow with ease.
Crop rotation is important . Apart from the distances that we must keep between plants, it is convenient to know that not all varieties of vegetables they can be grown side by side.
In home gardens with pots and boxes, we can follow the rotation marking each of the pots with a number to let it guide us. In crop rotation methods. One of the most common is that of botanical families:
As we all have mobile phones, there are mobile apps for the orchard and gardening that will come in handy. Two stand out from the rest:
In the following YouTube playlist we can learn how to plant the following vegetables in detail.
| How to plant in the orchard: | |||
| lettuce | chards | cabbage cabbage | cucumbers |
| broad beans | tomatoes | peppers | zucchini |
| eggplants | beans | peas | carrots |
| radishes | onions | potatoes | |
Today, in stores we can already find specific fertilizers for orchards with crops concrete.
Their primary function of these fertilizers is that we have an abundant and quality harvest in addition to intensifying the flavor. Most are organically based which guarantees a organic farming due to its formulation.
Mainly there are three types of fertilizers for the urban garden :
Also, in the market we have inorganic fertilizers or chemicals and, although they are not usually used in small orchards, we will find them in granulated or liquid format.
But... How often should I pay? First we have to read the manufacturer's instructions and, As a general rule, fertilizers are applied with a frequency ranging from one month to one year depending on the wealth of the soil, the type of crop or the fertilizer you use.
In city agriculture, the plants and vegetables that are grown in a container need more water than those that live on the ground.
Tips for watering plants from a orchard:
If we do not settle for the typical hose or shower for water and we want a more drip system complete for the urban garden, we can set up an irrigation system automatic for the terrace.
The automatic watering models already represent a greater investment and budget, although we provide better use of water and less constancy.
Due to its complexity, knowledge or professional advice, broadly speaking, we leave a scheme of an automatic irrigation system for a terrace with different assumptions:
To learn more about how to install an irrigation system automatic for pots we leave the following video…
This is a complicated topic and in some cases we will need a professional to eradicate any pest or specific disease that we have in the garden.
As an outline we leave the following infographic on common garden pests and which plants alive we can use as repellents:
If we want to use ecological remedies for garden pests , we can see the following infographic about pests and their solution:
I think if you are interested in the subject you should watch the four Youtube videos of a small online course that you can see from HERE. It covers the topics of:
Remember some tips:
Of course, it's not all advantages when you decide growing your own food , and being honestly, practically the most notable disadvantage of having a mini garden at home is that you have to take care of the budget we allocate – especially at the beginning – and that it must be a long-term project.
Documents of interest if we want to learn more:
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