My Urban Vegetable Garden

When I first dreamt of starting my own garden I thought it would be pretty easy. I thought that in my tiny apartment I could fit a whole bunch of plants with no problem. And in the end… oh did I have a few problems.


I hope by writing this I can help a few people out. Written below is a sort of guide to how I try to grow my garden with limited resources.


Space is one of the number one make or breaks of gardening. I and many others don’t have a yard so I had to find an alternative way to grow my plants. A few options include:

  • Community gardens (this is what I did)
  • Grow inside if possible
  • Make an arrangement with somebody who has a yard / space

    We put our herb garden on the air conditioner box outside our window

In this aspect you can be creative, if you attend school or work somewhere with land or lots of indoor space to grow talk to them and see if they can rent it out or let you use it. I also know that if you have space in your house you can buy special lights to grow plants inside.


This was my biggest failure when I tried to grow my seedlings. I currently have broccoli and tomatoes in my window box, they used to sit on a shelf and eventually all died. Now they are on the window of course and seem to be thriving until they are ready for the outside. Most vegetables need full sun which can be hard if they need to be started in side and you don’t have enough sunlight in the house. I would suggest for people in this predicament to just bight the bullet and but ready to transplant seedlings.

Make a Plan

There are lots of decisions to make when planning a vegetable garden. Choosing what vegetables to plant is obviously important because plants need differing amounts of space, water, sunlight, trimming and time. I chose plants that are easier to grow and that I know I use often and designed a layout. I also included what I have to do before planting and what will have to be done throughout the duration of the plants lives.  Another thing to consider is succession gardening. Here are a few steps to follow:

  1. Choose plants that you have time, space and the skills to grow
  2. Design layout for plants based on the spacing
  3. Start seedlings inside if needed
  4. Till, de-weed and de-rock soil, cover with compost
  5. Plant seedlings or seeds outside
  6. Make a schedule of care for your crops and follow

    We put foil here to keep the cat out and help the plants get more sun

While the gardening season is just beginning for most I have had more challenges already than I ever would have imagined. Good luck!



2 thoughts on “My Urban Vegetable Garden

    1. So Sorry! I just saw this. The plastic container has drainage holes and a section underneath to hold the water. The tray for the fabric bag also has drainage holes. I only used the plastic container for babies then moved them to individual containers but it is definitely an option to keep them together in the container as long as they have enough soil and separation. Hope this helps!


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