Getting Started With A City Garden – 4 Key Things You Need To Know

In this blog for city gardening for beginners, I’ll share with you the quickest and easiest way to get started with a city garden so you can grow your own food even if you are living in the middle of an urban area.

When I first thought about the possibility of growing my own food it seemed really overwhelming. After all, I didn’t know where to start! All I had was a long and narrow backyard, but I was determined to make it happen.

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To get started with a city garden, you will need to assess how much space you have available, choose the tools you need, decide on the vegetables you will grow and choose which soil and fertiliser you will use.

This way, you’ll set yourself up for success to achieve your self-sufficiency goals so you can feed yourself and your family with an ongoing supply of fresh vegetables and fruit all year-round!

You may have many reasons for wanting to grow your own vegetables – perhaps you want to save money, to cook your own meals or even just have fun.

Personally, when I started out, I wanted to be closer to nature and more self-reliant in terms of food sources – especially in urban spaces where most people are so disconnected from how food is produced.

Right, let’s look at the four key factors you will need to know to be confident you can succeed…

Table of Contents

City Gardening for Beginners: How much Space do You Have?

The first and most important step is to calculate how much space you have. How much room is available to grow your own food and how much can you grow?

To make this decision, you’ll need to measure up your area. Even if you don’t have a garden and want to grow food, use a tape measure to check space in your balcony or backyard or whatever area you have allocated for gardening.

For example, when I got started a couple of years back, I had 17 by 3 square feet of outdoor space. So a very long and very narrow backyard.

Initially, I didn’t even want to use all of this space to grow food as I needed to be able to have some room for wandering around and moving things – so it was even more challenging!

But I had to do the best with what I had and compromise on what I was able to grow.

You’ll also need to think about what containers will fit your area. For small spaces, longish troughs along with a few planting containers can do the trick.

In my previous apartment, I also had this planting ladder which was very pretty but the second and third steps of the ladder blocked the sun for plants on the lower steps. So when assessing your space, think carefully about how shade will affect your planting.

City Gardening for Beginners: What Tools do You Need?

Having the right tools available is crucial if you want to make your city garden a success. The type of tools you will need will depend on your own situation, but there are some basics that suit pretty much everyone. Here’s what I used to get started:

Containers And Troughs

• Two, medium-sized terracotta containers – 8-10 inches deep x 9.5 inches wide. That’s around 20-25cm x 24cm (all containers need to be relatively deep to allow for for root growth).
• A planting trough – terracotta or plastic – around 36 inches x 8 inches deep x 8 inches wide. That’s 91cm x 20cm x 20cm.
• A raised bed – this isn’t necessary if you have limited space but is definitely worth it if you have a larger garden area.

Other Tools

• A trowel to fill up containers and troughs with soil and compost. You can find trowels very easily at most hardware stores or order online.
• A decent pair of gloves. Durability is the most important factor here (it’s easy to get side-tracked by appearances!) Gloves can get dirty very fast so you will need to make sure they are make of strong material and water resistant.
• A watering can. Believe it or not, it took me a while to recognise the benefits of a watering can. For a while, I was using bottled water which was a massive hassle as it ran out very fast. This is why it’s important to choose a big watering can that you can carry when full. After all, you don’t want to keep having to go back indoors – unless you have a tap outside.
• A shovel. If you have raised beds in your area and/or have access to a garden, a shovel is an important tool to have at your disposal. The type you should get depends on a variety of factors, such as how much digging you do along with the hardness of the soil. Stainless steel shovels with long handles are best in my opinion – especially if you suffer from back pain.
• Secateurs. These are great for pruning your plants and keeping them in good condition once they grow – and especially useful if you have mini trees in your garden area.

City Gardening for Beginners: Choosing Your Vegetables

When getting started with your city garden, you’ll need to think carefully about which vegetables are best to grow for self-sufficiency.

Of course, it depends what season you are in, but also on other factors such as how close you are to the road, whether you have a walled or closed area, whether you can grow vertically, and so on.

When I was getting started with my garden, I focused on growing staple vegetables such as onion and garlic sets that are relatively easy for beginners to grow.

I figured that I would get around to growing trickier veg, like runner beans, once I’d mastered the easier vegetables. I also quickly realised the importance of planning ahead, thinking carefully about what seeds to sow for the future.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what I planted and when during my first year of gardening in London…

January to March: Garlic sets are an excellent choice – (both hard and softneck varieties depending on the month) as well as a variety of herbs, salad and lettuce leaves. When sowing salad and lettuce seeds, you will need to plant in trays and transplant seedlings to bigger pots once they have started sprouting.

You can also plant a variety of vegetables indoors before moving them outside. A mini-greenhouse and/or polytunnels are really useful to have available during these months as the weather can be erratic no matter where you are.

April to June: This is a brilliant time to plant onion sets as well as carrots and potatoes (first-earlies, second-earlies and main crops) throughout April. I tend to plant potatoes in grow bags, which is easier for balconies and backyards.

July to September: Grow winter vegetables like cauliflower and kale/spring cabbage to harvest the following spring. I have to admit, not all of these worked out for me but it was an interesting learning experience…

I also planted some late-season seed potatoes for my Christmas stash. The rain and stormy weather meant that not all of them fully grew to the right size – but I managed to harvest a few.

October to December: During this period, I focused on planting and transplanting a ton of seedlings and herbs indoors. I initially kept most of them inside in a sunny spot, because I was concerned about rain – but I found that once transplanted, they were pretty hardy when it came to surviving outside.

I’ll finish by saying that when getting started with a city garden it can be tempting to try to grow everything at once. But it’s important to be realistic and not get too carried away because your first year will be trial and error. So choose your vegetables carefully.

City Gardening for Beginners: Soil and Fertiliser

And last but definitely not least, you should decide what kind of soil and fertiliser you will use. If you are going to go big on container gardening, you’ll want to find a potting soil or mixed compost type that suits you – both are light and easy to drain, so perfect for growing vegetables in containers.

It’s best to order in as much as you can because it can get used up pretty quickly. Here are some recommendations of what I have used so far:

• Premium Miracle-Gro all-purpose compost (20L)
• Miracle-Gro Plant & Gro – lightweight compost for all plants (6L)
• Doff Bonemeal plant feed, slow-release fertiliser

If you have more growing space, you may want to consider making your own compost supply. It’s very useful to know how to do this and makes the whole process much easier.

You can also make your own fertiliser – but this should be further down the line once you have nailed down the basics.

City Gardening for Beginners: Final Thoughts

So, there you go, the four key things you’ll need to get the crucial elements in place so you can start producing food and moving towards your self-sufficiency goals.

As food prices soar and we feel the impact of events beyond our control, we can feel empowered by taking control of what we can and utilising our space to build self-reliance and confidence.

With trial and error you can succeed in building out your own city garden, no matter how small your space. The key is patience and flexibility – and of course a willingness to get your hands dirty.

Good luck!