Outdoor Life Prepare for Anything Survival Manual (31 page)

Living in the city doesn’t mean you can’t grow a garden. There’s always a way to make the room that you need to develop a supplemental food supply. You may not get to produce the volume of food that your rural friends can grow in their wide-open spaces, but you can still grow a respectable amount of nutritious and tasty vegetables—and add to your growing sense of food security by becoming an urban gardener.

SEEK THE SUN
Unless you live in a tiny basement apartment, chances are good that you have some direct natural sunlight coming through the windows of your home. A few lucky city dwellers may have a backyard or rooftop access, but for most folks, you only get what your windows and balconies provide. If you have a southern exposure to your dwelling, use these south-facing balconies and rooms for your urban garden. These get the most direct sunlight each day, regardless of season. North-facing areas will be the worst garden spot, as they remain fully shaded most of the day.

GROW UP
Like cities themselves, if you cannot grow outward, then you must grow up. There are numerous styles of hanging containers, vegetable-growing towers, and even wall installations which allow you to grow food when floor space is at a premium. The inverted tomato-growing buckets do reasonably well, but using something with a larger volume of soil is much better for your plants. Vine vegetables like cucumber and pole beans can be trained to grow upward or laterally by gently tying them to string, rope, railings, or latticework.

LIGHT ’EM UP
Grow lights are often employed by indoor gardeners to supplement or replace the rays of the sun. But these are not the only options for plant lighting. Mirrors can also be very helpful, by bouncing direct sunlight toward your plants. You’ll see the plants respond to the mirror’s extra light within days. The phenomenon known as phototropism can be seen as plants grow toward the light and the leaves orient themselves perpendicular to the light streaming in. Use any size mirrors to redirect the sun to your plants, but bigger is better. You can even do a downsized version of this mirror trick by placing aluminum foil under your plants to bounce light up under the leaves.

WATER WISELY
City water is treated with chlorine and other chemicals to make it safe for people to drink, but it’s not all that good for your plants. Although small amounts of these chemicals seem to be tolerated by most plants and vegetables, the best way to water is to collect as much rainwater as possible (if it’s legal in your area) and use that to water your plants. If you must use chlorinated tap water for your vegetables, let the water sit out in an open container for a day or two, to let a significant part of the chlorine evaporate.

Since limiting factors like light and soil depth have such an important impact on urban gardening, you’ll want to select the easiest plants to grow. In general, skip tall-growing vegetables, like corn, and ones with trailing vines, like pumpkin. Focus on herbs, tough perennials, root crops, and salad plants for the best results in your urban Eden. Here are a few ideas:

• Cilantro, chives, basil, and parsley (need to be replanted each year)

• Rosemary, mint, thyme, and sage (perennials that last years in the same pot)

• Potatoes, beets, and radishes (these do better in cool conditions)

• Sweet potatoes (these are ideal for very warm areas)

• Lettuce and spinach (can handle short day length or low light)

• Cucumbers and cherry tomatoes (do well if they have enough space and light)

• Green beans and peppers (can handle heat and dry conditions)

• Peas and kale (can handle very cold weather)

If your space to grow is limited, or you just want to maximize your production, a shoe organizer and some potting soil can be used as an improvised growing wall for crops like herbs, lettuce, spinach, and small root vegetables like radishes.

STEP 1
Securely attach a plastic or nylon shoe organizer to a strip of wood or wood frame, using screws or nails depending on the surface behind the growing wall. Mount this to the sunny wall of a patio or balcony. Other outdoor installation sites can include an exterior wall of your home or a fence. Indoor installations can work as well, but protect your floors—you’ll need a container underneath the grow wall to catch any water that drips through.

STEP 2
Fill each pocket of the shoe organizer with potting soil. This can include time-release fertilizer or you can mix in your own blend. If you may not be able to water the growing wall daily, you can add water-absorbing crystals to the potting mix. These soak up water and then release it slowly, keeping the plants healthier if you miss a day of watering.

STEP 3
Plant your seeds or seedlings in each pocket and water thoroughly. If the pockets are clear plastic or vinyl, the dark soil may heat up too much in strong sunlight or hot summer months. Hang a bit of light-colored cloth on each row to prevent overheating. In cool weather, however, this solar heat gain will help your plants grow.

STEP 4
Fertilize, harvest, and replant as needed. The potting soil, if fertilized every other month, should last for several growing seasons. Loose leaf lettuce and spinach could be ready to harvest within 30 days of planting seedlings or 45 days from planting seeds. Cut the fully grown crops and replant the shoe pockets immediately for the fastest turnaround.

When you have limited space for your survival garden, you want to get the most nutritional bang for your buck. The numbers next to each vegetable reflect a ranking system created by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. This ranks different vegetables (with kale at the top) according to multiple nutritional ratings as well as their vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. The labels also note which plants do well in containers vs. raised beds, which are particularly cold or heat resistant, and which are the easiest to grow for beginners.

A raised bed garden can provide you with a surprising amount of food from a very small space, and it works in a variety of climates. This type of versatile garden bed can tackle a number of common problems in gardening, as it can make for good drainage in rainy climates and warmer roots in cold climates. Here’s how you can set up a 32-square-foot (10-square-m) raised bed garden.

GO SHOPPING
Your local home-improvement store should have everything you need, but you may already have some of these things at home, too. Grab a deer fence and assemble the following supplies:

PICK A SPOT TO BUILD
Pick a site with at least eight hours of uninterrupted direct sunlight per day. Less than that will greatly reduce your production. To build your frames, cut one of your boards in half lengthwise. Nail or screw the ends of your short pieces to two long boards to create a rectangle. Repeat with the second set of boards and stack them for height. Align the long axis on a north-south line so that sunlight hits both sides.

DIG THE SOD
Make marks on the ground that match the dimensions of your frame, and remove any grass, weeds, and roots by digging. You’ll need to dig 3–4 inches (8–10 cm) down to get most of the roots, and be diligent. Use the debris in your compost pile.

FILL IN YOUR GARDEN BED
Place your wooden frame over some chicken wire (to keep pests from burrowing up) on the ground you have prepared. Fill the frame with your garden soil and plant your seedlings or seeds. Water the bed deeply every couple of days.