URBAN gardening is definitely the answer for those who don’t have the land or space but would like to plant vegetables for their own consumption, particularly those who are living in the urban areas.
It is also one of the possible solutions to beat the ever-increasing prices of vegetables in the market.
Through urban gardening, you can have a ready supply of fresh vegetables, aside from having a source of fresh flowers if you want to cultivate ornamental plants like the flowering annuals.
For a resident of Metro Manila like Mer Layson, urban gardening can be easily done by using discarded plastic bottles like the empty soda bottles which come in different sizes, and even plastic containers.
In some urban areas of the country, this concept has been proven to flourish even in any available space, like windows, terraces, or in the very limited spaces of apartments or high-rise condominium buildings.
According to Layson, who has been practicing urban gardening by utilizing the grills of his rented apartment building in Manila, all you need are discarded plastic bottles which were cut in halves, pierced with small holes on the side, and filled with a small amount of soil, and presto! You now have the containers to plant different varieties of green leafy vegetables.
For his handmade receptacles which he calls the “self-watering plant containers,” Layson was able to plant and eventually harvest easy-to-grow leafy vegetables like lettuce, mustard, pechay, and even hot chilli pepper and the panigang variety of pepper.
With the use of his improvised containers, the burden of watering the plants everyday can be minimized.
Watering should only be done when the water level in the containers becomes almost dry.
Layson says you can use any size of discarded plastic bottles, depending of course with the varieties of vegetables which you may want to cultivate.
For the different varieties of lettuce, Layson only uses the 330 milliliter plastic bottles, but for the taller varieties, he uses the 1-liter or 1.5 liter soda bottles.
Another advantage of planting your own vegetables is that you can naturally grow them without the use of fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides.
Since the plants are just within reach and can be viewed or seen at any given time, pest infestation will not be a problem.
Another advantage of planting vegetables in small containers is that it can enhance the aesthetics of an area of your home, at the same time, provide fresh vegetables for your family.
Aside from providing food, there are other benefits of urban or container gardening, such as, improving the nutritional status of your family, ensuring food security, possible generation of additional income if ever there is surplus in your production, and savings which could have been spent for buying vegetables in the local market.
One of the valuable benefits of urban gardening or container gardening is wellness.
With the stressful city life and pressures of living in the urban areas, urban gardening can very much serve as an effective relaxant. (jaypeeyap@ymail.com/PN)
