URBAN gardening can be the solution for people who don’t have the land or space to plant vegetables for their own consumption, particularly for those residing in highly urbanized areas.
Having your own garden is among the answers to beat the ever-increasing prices and scarcity of vegetables in the market, particularly now that sourcing vegetables can be 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 conveniently done by using discarded plastic soda bottles like those which come in different sizes, and even other plastic containers.
In some areas of the country, this concept has been proven to flourish in any available space, like windows, terraces, or in the very limited areas of apartments or high-rise condominium buildings.
For those who want to practice or would like to try urban gardening, this can be also be done by utilizing the grills of your rented apartment buildings.
All you 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.
By doing this, you can have the containers to plant different varieties of green leafy vegetables.
For homemade receptacles which can be dubbed “self-watering plant containers,” urban residents can plant and eventually harvest easy-to-grow leafy vegetables, like lettuce, mustard, pechay, and even the ordinary hot chilli pepper or “siling labuyo.”
With the use of improvised containers, the burden of watering the plants everyday can be minimized because watering should only be done when the water level in the containers becomes almost dry.
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, 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 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 in your homes, 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 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.
Among 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 also serve as an effective relaxant./PN
