Adaptive Gardening in the City Becomes Urban Gardening

Bloom where you are planted is one of those old sayings handed down for generations. It applies to people and to gardens.

I read a great article in the NY Times about urban gardening.  Seems like  some cities like New York City, Philadelphia,  Oakland and Milwaukee are leasing old lots, and other empty spaces to people so they can grow vegetables and other plants. Space in one NYC garden leases for as little as $2 for a 4 by 8 plant bed.

This offers people living in the city an opportunity to do more than garden in their apartment, on the fire escape or window sill. These gardeners are growing produce for their own families and in many cases are selling it through co-ops or farmers markets. Many gardeners choose to garden organically.

The cities have offered resources such as composting, gardening classes and business classes for those looking to sell their produce.

Like all gardeners they are faced with the usual challenges of weeds, creatures and other pests-human and otherwise. But some of the gardeners have faced an additional challenge with having the ground contaminated with heavy metals as a result of manufacutring and vehicle exhaust.

To overcome this challenge the urban gardeners have used raised garden beds to avoid the contaminated soil. Raised bed gardens will work almost anywhere. Raised beds can overcome bad soil conditions (contaminated or compacted soil), need for easier access and fewer weeds.

So if you live in the city and want to have more than just a container garden, give a call to City Hall and find out if your city is sponsoring urban gardens.

If you find the people to call, let me know and we'll post all the locations and phone numbers here.

Thanks to Tracie McMillian of the NY Times for the alert on this unstoppable group of gardeners.

It's all in a gardener's day,

Thanks to Saturna 76 for sharing the photo of the sunflower growing in the city.