Growing food in and outside of the square
The world population is continuing to grow- according to the United Nations it’s expected to reach 9.6 billion people by 2050- which is increasing the pressure on farmers to grow more food. We are now exploring ways to accompany traditional farming methods. Janai Velez explores the possibilities and options available to grow your own produce in an urban setting.
From rooftops, to windowsills, to alleyways, to community gardens: urban farming is now a feasible way to produce food in the 21st Century. Not only do they help strengthen communities, urban gardens also encourages us to eat local, seasonal, fresh, natural foods, plus we save money and have fun creating and harvesting them.
So how do you produce your own food when you live in the city and only have a small space to work with?
The secret is clever planting and a practical garden design.
“You just have to learn how to plant wisely,” says enthusiast horticulturist Richard Moran from Wollongong Wholesale Nursery and Illawarra Blooming Gardens, “it’s about having fun and using your imagination.”
“Nowadays, all your plants become dwarfs, so instead of having a three or four metre banana palm, you can get a two metre banana palm,”he says. “Anybody that lives in a town house or villa can still have a lemon or pear tree in a pot…it’s utilising the space.”
Even in a single metre square, it is remarkable the amount of food that can be produced. Lolo Houbein explores the possibilities of a metre square garden in her book, One Magic Square. “A square-metre plot can produce enough to provide 3-4 people with a small daily salad if you feed and water it well and keep plunging in seeds or seedlings,” she writes.
Richard says: lettuce varieties where you pick off leaves as you need them, vegetables like broccolini where if you cut it will grow again and patio zucchini which can be grown in pots, are ideal for urban gardens. Just remember; “everything does need sunlight, at least 5 hours a day to grow vegetables or herbs,” Richard stresses.
Cath Blakey, Green Team Project Officer at Wollongong City Council says another key idea to maximise productivity of the small area you have available to grow food in, is to plant vegetables together which will be beneficial to each other.
“Companion planting means that plants complement each other. For example; one might attract beneficial insects that might pollinate the other one,” she says.
A classic example is planting tomato and basil together. Basil improves the growth and flavour of tomatoes and also repels flies and mosquitos and they “taste really great together,” says Cath.
Applying permaculture concepts to your garden is another way to create a sustainable garden that is easy to take care of.
Cath explains the advantages of permaculture; “instead of a lot of labour and effort, you just find clever ways that work with nature, instead of working against it. Having pots of herbs on your back door, or near your kitchen is a fantastic efficiency saver because you see them and when you want those herbs you can grab them,” says Cath. A vertical garden is also a clever idea as it maximises space and has multiple functions.
Another example of maximising space is rooftop gardens. Brooklyn Grange, located on two roofs in New York City, is the world’s largest rooftop soil farms. They grow a wide variety of produce such as tomatoes, salad greens, peppers, kale and beans and sell them to farmstands, local restaurants and retail stores. They also keep egg-laying hens and have launched a commercial bee farm.
They explain the essence of their farm on their website, “our mission was to create a fiscally sustainable model for urban agriculture and to produce healthy, delicious vegetables for our local community while doing the ecosystem a few favors as well.”
Rooftop and community gardens give people the option to eat locally produced foods. Wollongong already has several community gardens, such as Cringila Park
Community Permaculture Garden, Dapto Community Farm, Bellambi Neighborhood Centre Garden and more are being established.
Cath from Wollongong City Council says these gardens are ideal for people who don’t have the space to grow food in their garden or if they want some extra
space with good sunlight. “It’s a really lovely way to share skills and meet people,” she says.
City-dwellers and people with limited or no space to grow food can still have a productive and thriving food garden. The humble veggie patch has been given a new lease on life to keep up with today’s society.
From rooftops, to windowsills, to alleyways, to community gardens: urban farming is now a feasible way to produce food in the 21st Century. Not only do they help strengthen communities, urban gardens also encourages us to eat local, seasonal, fresh, natural foods, plus we save money and have fun creating and harvesting them.
So how do you produce your own food when you live in the city and only have a small space to work with?
The secret is clever planting and a practical garden design.
“You just have to learn how to plant wisely,” says enthusiast horticulturist Richard Moran from Wollongong Wholesale Nursery and Illawarra Blooming Gardens, “it’s about having fun and using your imagination.”
“Nowadays, all your plants become dwarfs, so instead of having a three or four metre banana palm, you can get a two metre banana palm,”he says. “Anybody that lives in a town house or villa can still have a lemon or pear tree in a pot…it’s utilising the space.”
Even in a single metre square, it is remarkable the amount of food that can be produced. Lolo Houbein explores the possibilities of a metre square garden in her book, One Magic Square. “A square-metre plot can produce enough to provide 3-4 people with a small daily salad if you feed and water it well and keep plunging in seeds or seedlings,” she writes.
Richard says: lettuce varieties where you pick off leaves as you need them, vegetables like broccolini where if you cut it will grow again and patio zucchini which can be grown in pots, are ideal for urban gardens. Just remember; “everything does need sunlight, at least 5 hours a day to grow vegetables or herbs,” Richard stresses.
Cath Blakey, Green Team Project Officer at Wollongong City Council says another key idea to maximise productivity of the small area you have available to grow food in, is to plant vegetables together which will be beneficial to each other.
“Companion planting means that plants complement each other. For example; one might attract beneficial insects that might pollinate the other one,” she says.
A classic example is planting tomato and basil together. Basil improves the growth and flavour of tomatoes and also repels flies and mosquitos and they “taste really great together,” says Cath.
Applying permaculture concepts to your garden is another way to create a sustainable garden that is easy to take care of.
Cath explains the advantages of permaculture; “instead of a lot of labour and effort, you just find clever ways that work with nature, instead of working against it. Having pots of herbs on your back door, or near your kitchen is a fantastic efficiency saver because you see them and when you want those herbs you can grab them,” says Cath. A vertical garden is also a clever idea as it maximises space and has multiple functions.
Another example of maximising space is rooftop gardens. Brooklyn Grange, located on two roofs in New York City, is the world’s largest rooftop soil farms. They grow a wide variety of produce such as tomatoes, salad greens, peppers, kale and beans and sell them to farmstands, local restaurants and retail stores. They also keep egg-laying hens and have launched a commercial bee farm.
They explain the essence of their farm on their website, “our mission was to create a fiscally sustainable model for urban agriculture and to produce healthy, delicious vegetables for our local community while doing the ecosystem a few favors as well.”
Rooftop and community gardens give people the option to eat locally produced foods. Wollongong already has several community gardens, such as Cringila Park
Community Permaculture Garden, Dapto Community Farm, Bellambi Neighborhood Centre Garden and more are being established.
Cath from Wollongong City Council says these gardens are ideal for people who don’t have the space to grow food in their garden or if they want some extra
space with good sunlight. “It’s a really lovely way to share skills and meet people,” she says.
City-dwellers and people with limited or no space to grow food can still have a productive and thriving food garden. The humble veggie patch has been given a new lease on life to keep up with today’s society.
