You Can Grow a Garden Anywhere
Making due with the space you have in the city or suburbs
Lately, I’ve been going for lots of long, summer evening walks. There’s really nothing better than the cool(er) air of a summer evening, with a slight ocean breeze rolling through, and lots of colorful flowers to look at.
As you probably guessed, I am no longer in Phoenix, but rather enjoying my summer at the Jersey Shore, away from the heat and closer to the beach. During these walks of mine, I’ve noticed an impressive amount of homes having small gardens in their front (sometimes back) yards.
Why is this so impressive? Well, they don’t have much space for one. A lot of these homes have barely enough yard space to hang outside in. Second, they are going out of their way to grow their own food, making use of the little space they DO have.
Most people have the mindset that they can’t start their own gardens until they have an acre or two of land or a huge farm. Even people that live in cities think it’s impossible for them to grow their own food until they move out of those cities. I even had this mindset when I was living in DC.
It wasn’t until I decided to start a small garden in our downtown Phoenix home that my perspective changed. Sure, we only had concrete in our backyard and barely any green in sight, but it was absolutely still possible to grow vegetables and flowers!
I want this newsletter to be a motivation for whoever else has this mindset. I’m here to tell you you can absolutely garden anywhere, without whatever little space you have. Be thankful you have any outdoor space in the first place! Many people in cities don’t.
That being said if you do live in the city without as little as a balcony to work with, flee that apartment immediately. Ok, I’m kidding (kinda). Instead, try finding a community garden where you can volunteer and learn the valuable skill of growing your own food.
Starting small
When you think of starting a garden, you may immediately jump to growing your own food and never have to go to the grocery store again. While that is possible if you have lots of land and the right weather conditions, you don’t always need to grow food for the purpose of it replacing all of your grocery (or farmer’s market) trips.
You can absolutely start small, like start by growing all of your own herbs. Or even just one of your favorite herbs that you cook with a lot! Most herbs are easy to grow and can easily grow in a confined container. In fact, some herbs like mint are best to grow in containers because of how invasive they can be otherwise!
You can choose to buy seeds and plant those in some soil in a pot, or even begin with a starter herb plant from your local grocery store that is already thriving. With water and sunlight, there’s little you can’t grow!
I recommend putting them somewhere outside or even on your windowsill. Just make sure they are in a place with lots of light!
If you’re feeling even more adventurous, you can buy seeds of vegetables that grow well in containers. I’ve seen tomatoes and eggplants being grown in pots, but here are some other vegetables that do well:
peppers
squash
lettuce
peas
green onions
strawberries
citrus trees
Honestly, I don’t think there is really anything you can’t grow in a container. You just need to make sure it is the right width and depth! I recommend reading this article for more details on the size of the container you need to grow certain vegetables.
This is one of my favorites I saw on my walk yesterday. They planted beautiful, big tomatoes in a planter on their front patio! And look how many tomatoes there are! This just proves that you can get an impressive yield from something grown in a small pot that you can find anywhere. And this pot of tomatoes would absolutely fit on a small city apartment balcony!
Upgrading to a raised bed
For some reason, I had more trouble growing in containers than I did in a raised bed. However, I think I bought pots that didn’t have a hole in the bottom for drainage. Make sure you choose ones for function rather than aesthetics!
When we were living downtown, we bought a wooden gardening bed off of Facebook marketplace from a couple who built them themselves in their backyard. You can typically find vendors at farmer’s markets who also construct their own beds, but the Facebook option is usually cheaper.
Raised beds require more soil upfront to fill the beds, but also allow you to grow a lot more due to the nature of their shape and size. I recommend planting herbs and vegetable plants in the same bed, as the strong scent of herbs sometimes deters pests.
When I first filled this bed with soil, I bought all of the vegetables that I loved to eat from our local plant nursery. I assumed everything that was available was in season. This was a big mistake. I planted lettuce and strawberries in June in Arizona, which quickly died.
For this reason, I recommend buying something like a planting calendar that tells you what to plant and when depending on which gardening zone you are in. I have this one for planting zone 9B which encompasses Phoenix.
Don’t assume that the plants at the nursery should be planted in that time period! Follow the calendar and you’re bound to be successful.
Taking back your power
A few years ago, I had no interest in gardening whatsoever. Then I slowly began to wake up to the larger truth about how our food system functions. In the United States, our food supply is largely controlled by a few corporations like Nestle, General Mills, PepsiCo, and Smithfield Foods.
Products like lab-grown meats are being pushed on us as more sustainable and health-conscious options, despite being anything BUT that. Vegetables are being sprayed with chemicals like Apeel that contain who-knows-what.
This isn’t meant to scare you but to empower you. Humans have been growing and hunting their own food for hundreds and thousands of years. It is only recently that we’ve lost this skill and the ability to provide for ourselves.
We are more disconnected from our food system now than ever. Connecting to our innate abilities to grow and hunt will allow us to take back our own health without relying on an external source for nourishment.
When we grow our own food, we know exactly what is going into those fruits and vegetables. We can pick them at peak ripeness when the nutrient value is the highest. We know the distance they are traveling to end up on our plates.
Take action:
Start small. Buy an organic herb plant from the local health food store or even a tomato plant. Give it lots of sunlight and water it consistently. Let it provide you with nutrients to make up your everyday diet.
I recommend starting with a plant you already know and love, and that you eat consistently almost every day. It’s so much more rewarding when you love and use what you are growing!
While we don’t have a garden while we are here in New Jersey (despite my begging my dad to start planting one in the spring), I am beginning to take small steps in utilizing the resources around me.
My dad bought me an organic mint plant at the grocery store and now I’m going to plant it in a pot and put it out on our front steps. I’ll use this to make one of my favorite tabouleh recipes and to put in my morning cold brew. Baby steps!
If you enjoyed this newsletter, we would really appreciate you forwarding it to a family member or friend. We are just getting started building our tribe! We need all the like-minded folks that we can find to get on board.
Enjoy your Sunday,
Madison