Let’s play a game. Imagine that you have the most decadent, gourmet salad sitting in front of you (if you do not like salads, for the moment, pretend that they are your all time favorite meal). The crisp leaves, in all shades of green, are topped with a medley of cheese, cucumbers, tomato, carrots, and your favorite dressing. Now, consider these questions. Where was the lettuce grown? How do you even grow tomatoes? How do you know if a cucumber is ripe for harvest? If you are stumped by these questions, you are not alone. As a culture, we are more disconnected from our food than we have ever been. Urban gardening can help us regain connection to our food systems
Why is it important?
When we are disconnected from our food, we become slaves to the broken food systems prevalent in American agricultural industries. The mainstream food systems practice unsustainable agriculture in order to reap more profit at the expense of environment. We discussed some of the negative effects of industrial agriculture in the sections on Eating Habits and Consumer Habits. Urban gardening, growing your own produce in small spaces (like a balcony, an alleyway, or a patio), allows you to take control of how your food is produced and grown in order to ensure it is done in a sustainable fashion.
Urban gardening aims to decrease the environmental impact of food production compared to that of industrial agriculture. Industrial agriculture is very resources intensive, relying heavily on fossil fuel energy, inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Urban gardening reduces an individual’s carbon footprint by reducing the distance that food must be transported from where it’s grown to where it’s consumed. Inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides are not used in urban gardening, therefore, biodiversity is not affected and runoff is not polluted.
The benefits of urban gardening, for college students, extend far beyond the realm of sustainability. Firstly, Urban gardening is very cost efficient. Though urban gardening requires that you invest initially to start up your garden, in the long run, you will save money spent on grocer produce. The National Gardening Association “concludes that the average gardening household in 2009 experienced a $530 return on their average $70 investment to garden”1. Essentially, urban gardening lets you save money while eating delicious, homegrown produce. Urban gardening also has meditative effects that can benefit a gardener’s mental health. A garden becomes a space that individuals can retreat to when surrounded by stress. Individuals also gain confidence and satisfaction from growing their own food.
How to:
Thinking of how to being an urban garden can be very intimidating, especially for college students, but with a little creativity and ingenuity, urban gardening can be extremely rewarding. The scale you choose your garden to be is determined by the space you can grow a garden and the amount of time and energy you wish to dedicate to your garden. Here is a step-by-step guide to creating a garden that suits your wants and needs.
Step 1: Determine where your garden will be.
If you live in an apartment you may be limited in the space that you can dedicate to your garden. For apartment dwellers, railings, window ceils, balconies, and patios are popular places to have small gardens. You may be lucky enough to live in a house that has a small yard where you can use a portion to grow a garden. For UVa students, growing a garden in a yard can be problematic since students move and leases are not always renewed. Having a portable garden is most useful for UVa students.
Step 2: Analyze how much sun your garden will get.
Determining how much sun your garden will get is crucial to figuring out what produce to grow. If you measure how many hours of sunlight your garden will receive, then you can make sure that you will grow a successful garden. Knowing the amount of sunlight your garden receives will save you time and effort in the future.
Step 3: Choose what produce to grow.
Most places where you will be able to grow an urban garden around Grounds will not receive sunlight throughout the day. Here is a list of veggies to grow in the shade depending on the sunlight that your garden gets.
| 5 Hours | Broccoli
Brussels sprouts Cabbage Cauliflower Swiss chard (stalks) |
| 4-5 Hours | Beans
Beets Carrots Celery Collards Peas Radishes |
| 3-4 Hours | Arugula
Kale Lettuce Spinach Swish chard (leaves) |
| 3 hours | Culinary herbs
Mustard greens |
| 2 hours | Asian greens
|
Step 4: Decide what form your garden will take.
The form that your garden takes is determined by what you are growing, where you are growing, and how much space you have. Here are some examples of gardens at various scales and locations
Step 5: Harvest and enjoy your produce.
Green & Me 