Just finished moving to a new place with: 1. Front yard 2. Back yard 3. Side yard You know what this means...URBAN GARDENING MAYHEM 2013! I'm planning on doing a leafy green sideyard due to a lack of sun there, but the backyard can get a little WILD if I let it. Anything you guys are interested in learning how to do as far as urban gardening outside? I'm going to turn my journey into a few series of videos and posts so anything you want to learn I can work in! P.S. Got a worm composter too!
If you build your own systems I'd be very interested in techniques to make reservoirs/trays light proof. Had some algae problems with my outdoor hydro last season. Also a comparison between different systems in regards to ease of maintenance/construction/cable requirements especially for outdoor hydro would be interesting and good for beginners. Managed to get my mom a bit interested in hydro but she sees the electricity requirement as quite a big problem.
Got it. Maybe experimenting with solar panels too re: electricity problems? It's actually something I've got to deal with as there aren't a lot of plugs outside for me. On comparison, how about a look at DWC vs Ebb and Flow to start? A simple wick system might do really well also though and skirt the electricity requirement P.S. Get a profile pic!
You said you brew your own beer right? You could try growing some hops! Also, you should get us some pictures and/or google earth aerial images of your yard! It would really help see exactly what you have and what to plant!
Damn, GREAT suggestions...HOPS BABY! I'll get those pics soon and maybe we can get some collaboration on planning
Here's the layout of the house...LOTS of potential and I think that there is enough space to grow almost all the produce that me and my cousin would need! Excited to hear all of your ideas
That is a lot of room! You could probably get the hops to grow along the sides of the alleyway. Are you planning on building a greenhouse anywhere?
The problem I'm running into with building a greenhouse is that our lot is actually shared by one guy in a smaller house. So he actually has the rights to some of the backyard, though I think if we offered him some food you would be okay with it – at least I hope so. The parts that are fully ours are the side yard and the smaller front yard, along with some of the backyard against the fence closer to the front yard. I can definitely do hops up the side of the house, because they need to be trained vertically. I was thinking about laying down some stone walkway tile in the back and not actually growing in the soil, but building up raised beds or potentially ebb and flow beds. What do you think?
I think ebb and flow beds would be a lot more portable than raised beds, so you could experiment more with those! Does your city have any ordinances against gardens in the front yard? I know some do, but rarely enforce it unless they get a lot of complaints from neighbors.
Yea, I need to look into the ordinances against Gardens. I don't think I should have a problem especially because I'm just going to be doing it in a small section of the front yard, since there's so much space in the back yard to grow. Even one 3 x 3 box will have enough lettuce to have a salad a day for one adult. There's more than enough space to have enough salad and vegetables for two people in just the front yard alone, so it's going to be cool to chronicle this journey. I think I'm going to actually document the entire thing so that other people can follow along and learn how to turn their living space into an urban garden that produces a lot of the food they eat every single day.
You should do an aquaponics setup if you are going to do it outside. Maybe even if you just do a small koi pond setup it would be pretty cool to use one to grow some food!
Saw you got a worm bin! If you make a compost tea out of the worm castings, can you feed that into your hydro system as an organic fertilizer?
Hey Cat, welcome to the forums! You COULD introduce it as a liquid fertilizer, just depends on your goals. A lot of hydro gardeners want a completely sterile system so they don't use any organic nutrients, but it would be a great one if you are diligent about bacteria and any pathogens. Thanks ks for the comment!
Word of caution, I tried putting some Vermi-T solution into my DWC. It almost killed my tomato plants, and caused the leaves to burn a bit. If you do decide to do this, I would make sure that the pH is checked very frequently and that you put some hydrogen peroxide into it so that algae doesn't develop.
First garden bed is planted! Square Foot Garden 3x3 bed courtesy of the author himself, Mel Bartholomew! I used to work with his non-profit foundation and got a bunch of equipment and planting gear Planted: Rainbow Swiss Chard, Spinach, Thai Basil, Collard Greens, Buttercrunch lettuce, Bibb lettuce!
