The Enterprise guide to building your own edible urban garden: Cultivating your own food can feel deeply satisfying — and in many cases is far better for your wellbeing and wallet, especially with food prices skyrocketing in recent months amid rising inflation. Putting that into motion doesn’t necessarily mean you have to ditch the city for the suburbs altogether. With the right resources and techniques, you can build out your very own edible garden from the comfort of your apartment. Here’s what you need to know before you get started.

Building out a green roof (or balcony) is beneficial on many fronts: Growing your own food isn’t just a fun money-saving hobby, it's also a small-scale means of bolstering food security. Setting up a home garden can be a fundamental strategy for building the resilience of a city’s healthy food supply, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Applied at a large enough scale, a home garden can also help keep outdoor temps down, improve air quality and ultimately reduce indoor cooling costs. Growing a portion of your own food also helps drive down emissions associated with transporting your produce from farms to your nearest grocery store or market.

GETTING STARTED- First, you need to answer some logistical questions.

#1- Figure out how much space you’re willing to transform into a farm. It doesn’t need to cover the entire surface of your rooftop or balcony, a small terrace or a single window sill with direct access to sunlight can be a perfectly fine start.

#2- Pick out the containers you’ll use to house your produce. Hanging baskets, custom wooden containers (built to size) or standard clay and plastic pots all work fine as long as you make sure they have drainage holes.

#3- Next, you’ll need some soil or potting mix. Depending on the vegetables you plan to grow, you’ll need to get some kind of soil mixture to plant your seeds (or seedlings). You can head over to Mashtal and ZeroChemia for a wide selection of sand, soil mix, peat moss and compost. Most crops require a combination of all of these.

PICKING THE RIGHT CROPS-

LOW MAINTENANCE- If you’re just starting out it might be a good idea to experiment with some easier plant varieties. Herbs and leafy greens like rosemary, oregano, basil, arugula and spinach are good places to start. Pro tip: herbs generally prefer sandy-loam soil while leafy greens like a moist, yet well-drained soil mixture.

NEXT LEVEL CROPS- Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the basics of low-maintenance crops, you can take things to the next level with other relatively low-maintenance vegetables like onions, fava beans, cucumbers and radishes. Beetroot, zucchini and potatoes are also good, relatively low-maintenance options to explore — most of which grow well in loose, well-drained soil with a little sand. Planted from seed in late summer, most of these veggies reach maturity in about 3-4 months. Radishes grown from seed can take as little as one month to mature while zucchini typically grows in under two months.

NATURAL GREEN THUMB? Try out something a little more challenging, like tomatoes: Tomatoes are known to be tricky to maintain, but once you’re aware of the challenges to look out for, like blossom drop and end rot, the chances of producing a delicious harvest from your home garden are significantly improved..

Things to be cautious of: If you’re starting from seed you’ll need well-draining, slightly acidic potting soil, warm weather and ample sunlight. Tomatoes are particularly sensitive to fluctuations in temperature and nutrient deficiencies so waiting until the weather is sufficiently warm in the spring and utilizing some fertilizer, compost or peat moss in your soil mix will set you up for a good harvest. Also important is to make sure that you stick to a consistent watering schedule and provide at least 20 cm of water below the soil surface every week once it starts producing fruit.

Carrots also have some unique challenges: Growing full-size, nutritious carrots requires a little extra care. A common problem that arises when growing carrots is inadequate space and dense soil — which can cause them to deform or stunt their growth. Carrots typically grow best in cooler temperatures and bloom in the spring. They need lots of sunlight and loose, sandy soil to grow. Plant your carrots at least 10 cm apart to give the roots enough room to grow and water with at least 3 cm of water every week.

WHERE TO SOURCE SEEDS- You can find a wide selection of high-quality seeds at ZeroChemia in Maadi (or online), Mashtal and GrowPro in Eden Plaza in Sheikh Zayed (also available online). You’ll also find some at Green House Egypt and over on Amazon.

MAINTAINING YOUR CROPS-

Weather plays a big role: Most edible vegetables will need at least six hours of daily sunlight to thrive, which generally means beginning the planting process in spring. Several varieties of leafy greens do prefer milder climates, however, so you might be better off postponing planting things like lettuce and spinach until the fall.

Pro tip: Having some flowers nearby can help your crops flourish. Planting flowers in close proximity to your vegetables can offer more than just an aesthetic boost to your home garden. Keeping flowers nearby will help attract bees which will provide you the invaluable service of pollinating your crops at no cost. You can find some interesting flower varieties at the annual Flower Exhibition, which is being held for the first time this year at the Agricultural Museum in Dokki through 27 June.

How much you water your garden will depend on a wide range of factors. Generally speaking, crops planted in containers require a little more water than those planted directly in the ground. Another general tip is that plants will more efficiently absorb water earlier in the day when the temperatures are cooler, and soil exposed to direct sunlight will dry out more quickly than those planted in the shade or indoors. The type of soil also affects how much water your plant gets. For example, loose, sandy soil will moisten more thoroughly than dense clay-like soil. The general best practice is to stick your finger a couple cm deep into the dirt to check for moisture every few days. If your soil is dry to the touch then your plant probably needs more water.

Some guidelines for different edible crops:

  • Most herbs need watering about once or twice a week at least 3 cm deep.
  • Vegetables might require a little more water, but it largely depends on weekly weather conditions. In hot and dry seasons that means watering more than once a week.

OUTSOURCING YOUR URBAN GARDEN-

If all this sounds a little overwhelming, you can enlist the help of experts: Schaduf started out offering microloans in the form of rooftop gardens for low-income Egyptians. Now the company designs and implements green walls and roof gardens for various clients. ZeroChemia runs urban gardening courses at its Maadi location and can also help transform your roof into a new agricultural upstart. Nabat offers similar consultation services that can lend you a hand in turning your rooftop garden dreams into a reality.

Want to take it to the next level? Try out a hydroponic system: There is of course an alternative, somewhat more high-tech route for setting up a home garden called a hydroponic system. The basic idea behind this method is that plants obtain their nutrients directly from a water source, rather than from a soil mixture. Plants and vegetables in this system lay down roots directly into nutrient-rich water flowing through a row of PVC pipes or plastic containers. This system is usually most effective for growing short-season crops like herbs and leafy greens.

The pros of hydroponics? Proponents of this type of gardening claim that it can help reduce the presence of pests, bring down water consumption and boost crop yield. These systems are also stackable and can make for a more efficient use of space in an urban environment.

You can enlist the help of experts like Urban Greens Egypt and Schaduffor help setting up and maintaining a hydroponic system.

Tags: