SOME might consider urban gardening as troublesome, while others may think that it is impractical or even time consuming.
But for some people who are residing in highly urbanized areas like Metro Manila and other key cities, urban gardening can be a practical solution to have your own source of fresh vegetables.
For those who may not have their own land in the metropolis but want to have their own source of fresh vegetables, urban gardening is the practical answer.
To have your own garden can also be the answer to beat the ever-increasing prices of vegetables in the market, particularly now that sourcing vegetables can become a burden due to movement restrictions.
By practicing urban gardening, residents in urban areas can have a ready supply of fresh vegetables.
For residents of Metro Manila and other areas, urban gardening can be easily done by using any kind of discarded plastic soda bottles.
This concept has been proven to be productive in any available space, like windows, terraces, or in the very limited areas of apartment buildings.
All we need are discarded plastic bottles which are cut in halves, pierced with small holes on the side, and filled with a small amount of soil.
But you can also use the ready to use potting mix that are now available online and delivered at your own doorsteps, like the one which I have used.
By doing this, you can have the containers to plant different varieties of green leafy vegetables, like for instance the simple kamote or sweet potato that I planted at home that now provides me and my family a steady source of fresh kamote tops for making tasty native salads.
For your homemade planting containers, urban residents can plant and eventually harvest easy-to-grow leafy vegetables, like lettuce, mustard, pechay, and even the ordinary hot chilli pepper.
We can use any size of discarded plastic bottles, depending of course on the varieties of vegetables which you may want to cultivate.
For the different varieties of lettuce or pechay, we can use the 330 milliliter plastic bottles, but for the taller varieties, we should use the 1-liter or 1.5 liter discarded soda bottles.
Another advantage of planting your own vegetables is that you can naturally grow them in your own home.
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 in small containers is that it can become a source of nutritional vegetables for your family.
Aside from providing food, there are other benefits of urban gardening, such as, improving the nutritional status of the members 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.
With the stressful city life and pressures of living in the urban areas, urban gardening can also help you to relax and unwind./PN
