Grow Your Own Urban Kitchen Garden

Just because you dwell in Shanghai’s urban jungle doesn’t mean you can’t have fresh fruits and vegetables this summer. While most of the city’s residents aren’t blessed with a sprawling backyard or rooftop terrace for a full-on garden, just about every one has a windowsill for a vegetable or herb to call home. So get out your green thumb and start digging – you’ll have whole summer salads in no time.

Windowsill & Container Gardens

Container and windowsill gardens allow apartment dwellers space to grow their seeds, no ground required. Just pot the plants in containers and place them in a south facing window and watch them flourish. Potted plants grow equally well outside, and you can expand your garden beyond your window by placing a board on your laundry drying racks.

Mostly used for ornamental purposes, windowsill gardens can brighten dull spaces quickly. Create your own pots from anything laying around the house – an old shoe, empty yoghurt containers, antique teapots and more can be turned into a cutesy container.

An easy beginner option is an herb garden. Basil, coriander, dill, green onions, lemongrass, mint, oregano, rocket, rosemary and thyme are easy growing herbs. Some vegetables grow without difficulty on windowsills too, including cabbage, chives, lettuce, okra, peas and peppers.

Raised Bed Gardens

Shanghai’s soil is one of the reasons in-ground gardening often fails; raised bed gardens solve this problem by separating the plants from ground. Usually contained by a wooden or stone structure (or sometimes straw for a temporary fix), raised beds should be oriented north-south to maximise sun exposure.

In addition to offering better soil than typical in-ground gardens, raised beds prevent soil compaction and serve as a barrier to slugs and snails. Because they are higher off the ground, they also ease back strain. When building your raised bed, keep the width less than 120cm so you can reach the middle from any angle without stepping on the garden. 

Raised beds are the perfect home for practically all herbs, fruit and vegetables. Blueberries, grapes, raspberries and strawberries grow well in this environment, as do beans, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, eggplants and tomatoes.

Upside Down Gardens

For a gardening method that requires no tilling, weeding or staking plants, look no further than your ceiling. Letting plants grow down is a time-honoured method for low maintenance gardening in a limited space.

To create your own upside down vegetable garden, drill a five centimetre hole in a sturdy plastic bucket. Place a piece of fabric or paper in the bottom (newspaper works fine). Make a slit to allow the plant through the paper and the hole in the bottom of the bucket. Lightly pack with soil until the earth reaches a couple centimetres from the top of the bucket.

Vegetables like beans, cucumbers, eggplants, peppers and tomatoes are the best varietals for upside down gardening.

Composting

A great alternative to chemical fertilisers is compost. By using trash you already have, you reduce the amount of waste your household produces while making your soil more fertile. The best part is it’s free!

Put simply, compost is decomposing organic material. The breakdown of the material releases nutrients that are essential to gardening. To create your own compost bin, Susan Evans, founder of green NGOs Kerplunk and GoodtoChina, suggests designating a container that fits inside or outdoors and laying a foundation of paper and cardboard, then fill it with organic materials and red worms. She also notes it is important to keep the material damp and recommends covering the container with a piece of cardboard.

Kitchen scraps, particularly coffee grinds, tea leaves, egg shells, fruits and vegetables, release nitrogen and are great organic materials. Don’t include meat as that will attract rats and cats. Leaves, grass trimmings and cardboard are also suitable compost materials. Try to keep a good mix of items as too much of one material will slow the decomposition process.

Where to Buy:

GoodtoChina sells ‘A Pot of Gold’, an easy starter kit for any novice or expert gardener. Made of 100 per cent biodegradable and organic products, these pots include a jute bag, a biodegradable sac, organic seeds and soil from BioFarm and handy instructions to get your garden started. The bags cost RMB 50 and are available at The Nest.

The Nest. Bldg 3, Studio 201, 210 Taikang Lu. Web: http://goodtochina.com, http://kplunk.com

Evans recommends sourcing non-organic seeds, soil and flower pots from Taobao or local flower markets. BioFarm also offers organic vegetable seeds and soil for home gardeners.

Web: www.taobao.com, www.biofarm.cn