Paul Simon

Urban gardening requires some creativity and flexibility, but the benefits you reap are well worth the effort. Your family can enjoy fresh vegetables and herbs all season long, and gardening is great exercise. You can plant an urban garden in a vacant lot, an underused parking area, or your roof, back deck, or patio.

Children’s gardening has become huge all across the country. Many educators, parents, and public officials see gardening as a way to reconnect kids with nature, get them outside for some healthy exercise, and teach them about healthy eating habits. You can find many ways to encourage and entice your children to be involved in the garden at home.

Creating the perfect urban garden is one thing. The right tool makes or breaks a gardening job. Using a hoe to dig a hole for planting a tree is like eating soup with a fork. It’s just not the right tool for the task.Hand trowels and cultivatorsHand tools are perfect for gardening in raised beds, containers, and window boxes.

Sustainability involves three practices that ensure the wise use of water, materials, and other resources to make sure they last from one generation to the next and in harmony with nature.Know your soil conditions.© piyaset / Shutterstock.com Many urban gardeners are correct in thinking they have poor soil. The urban garden area is likely to be compacted and poor in structure and quality.

In creating an outdoor room out of your urban garden, you should start by taking an inventory of your existing conditions and how to plan for the development of your outdoor room, including listing current and proposed uses. Of course your analysis also identifies other important features such as the size of your garden area, solar orientation, existing utilities, site features, and topographical conditions, to name a few.

City residents in many areas are challenging the notion that they can't grow gardens in their urban settings, by finding creative ways to garden in limited space. Some folks are even pulling up their small city lawns to plant vegetable gardens, urban orchards, and edible landscapes. Of course, there are plenty of other ways to garden in the city.

Herbs are the perfect edibles for the urban gardener. They are mostly small plants that produce abundantly all season. Herbs fit equally well in a container, flower garden, or vegetable garden. Many are perennials that will come back year after year. They grow best in full sun, but some, such as parsley and chives, can tolerate part shade and still produce well.

Who says families who live in the city can't grow their own vegetables! If you'd like to grow enough to feed your family all summer, here are some guidelines on how much of the most popular vegetables to plant to keep your family stocked with super-fresh veggies. You can adjust these numbers based on which vegetables you most like to eat.

So where do you begin when it comes to vertical gardening? There are a number of reasons for growing plants in urban areas on vertical structures. Vertical structures for growing up Whatever you’re looking for, adding a vertical structure to an urban garden is a space saver and can provide a three-dimensional element of colorful and creative context to your urban garden.