5 Tips for Growing Food Anywhere

The whole concept of “urban farming” seems contradictory,
 yet more and more people are living in cities, and more and
more urbanites are growing their own food.

The benefits of homegrown produce are amazingly diverse:
it’s safer and more nutritious than conventional foods, it’s more
flavor-rich — it can even act as an anti-depressant. And in the
face ofclimate change and rising energy prices, it makes better
 environmental sense to grow closer to home —reducing the
energy and carbon costs of moving perishable food in refrigerated
 trucks long distances from farm to fork.

There are certain advantages to urban container gardening
over conventional food gardens. For one thing, self-watering
containers are fantastic, easy, and keep your plants perfectly
 moisturized. Also, you tend to deal with fewer weeds and pests.
 Veggies can be more densely planted in containers than in
conventional gardens, assuming they get the moisture, fertilizer,
 and sunlight they need.

Overall, most of the rules of container gardening are consistent
 with the rules of in-ground gardening — you need plenty of sun
and water, rich soil, and good fertilizer. But there are some key
subtle differences, which we’ve outlined below. If you want a
comprehensive guidebook to container gardening, get Ed Smith’s
 amazing Vegetable Gardener’s Container Bible . But you can
also wing it, and with the following brief rules, you should do just fine:

What to Grow

You can grow just about any vegetable in a container. If you’re doing
leafy veggies like herbs, lettuce, spinach or kale, smaller pots or
shallower containers with 6 inches of soil will work well. But if you’re
doing bigger plants like peppers, tomatoes, eggplant or cukes you’ll
 need deeper pots and up to 12 inches of soil. Edible flowers are also
 a great addition to any growing container — nasturtiums are
especially pretty because as they grow, they drape down the side
.