Monthly Archives: January 2009

The Basics of Urban Gardening

Life in the urban environment doesn’t necessarily have to spell barren landscapes of hard, emotion-less settings and surfaces of concrete and metal. There are plenty of parks, trees and vegetation to blend in enough of the rural scenery that we too comfortably call the opposite of urban living. For some, though, this is not enough — and for these people, there is the possibility of taking up the practice of Urban Gardening to reconnect with nature.

Apartment life in the big (or smaller) city doesn’t have to be cold and uninspiring — and your life doesn’t have to mean moving back and forth between office park and urban dwelling. On the low side of the effort scale, there are house plants. Moving up from there, if you have a balcony, consider raising small trees, larger plants and shrubs or even herbs for use in the kitchen.

If you have a small backyard, then there are even more options available to you. If you are searching for more than any of these ideas, consider doing some research into your city’s offerings in the way of community gardening. Continue reading →