How to Grow an Urban Garden

Urban gardens are often located in unconventional areas, such as on rooftops or terraces. Urban gardeners often face many challenges that traditional gardeners do not. These include limited space, poor soil quality and unique environmental hazards. With some hard work and persistence, just about any plant can grow successfully in an urban garden.

1. Choose your location. You will often have a limited number of options when choosing the location of your urban garden. Patios, terraces and rooftops can all work well. Your location should have adequate sunlight and be reasonably close to a water source.


2. Decide how you will plant your garden. Most urban gardeners do not have the luxury of having open land available to them. They need to make due with paved or hard surfaces. You have a few options available to you when deciding how you will plant your urban garden. You can choose to build raised plant beds out of lumber. Depending on the amount of space that you have available, raised plant beds can be a great option. If your space is too small for raised plant beds, consider growing a container garden. You can use any number of pots and containers for this purpose. Large 5-gallon buckets, rubber storage containers or planters work well for a container garden. You can also consider installing hanging baskets to take advantage of the vertical space that you have available.


3. Treat your soil. In an urban garden, you will need to import your own soil. Visit a garden supply store or nursery and purchase high-quality potting soil. It is important that you remain vigilant about the soil quality in your garden. Urban gardens are highly susceptible to soil contamination. Routinely add grass clippings, organic compost or shredded leaves to your soil to help counteract the natural effects of pollution. Wash any fruits or vegetables thoroughly before consuming them.


4. Water your plants routinely. Use a watering can or jug to water your plants at least once a week. During warm weather, you will need to water them more frequently.