Create Your Soil for Urban Gardening

Tweet

In the previous post, Mommy shared how she declutter and organized our kitchen. Wondering where I was?

I was in the rooftop organizing my small urban garden.

Living in a subdivision , like us, lots for planting crops are limited. But this will not hinder your passion for gardening.

I made several attempts in growing vegetables in pots but none of them are successful since the place has only limited sunlight and teh soil I used in not good which are the most important things in growing plants.

Our kitchen roof is made of concrete and used only to store unused materials at home, this can be a perfect place to grow vegetables. There is also enough sunlight in this area.

But how to have your urban gardening?

I posted some tips on how to start urban gardening in the Chemist Dad site. Aside from the tips mentioned, picking the right soil is also important. Living in a suburban area will be quite difficult to find good soil for gardening. Doing your compost will be a great help but you will not have enough amount of soil to be used.

Where do I get my soil? Here are some ideas:

Rice Hulls

Eggplants and Tomatoes grown in soil with ricehulls

Our hometown is Nueva Ecija and it was known to be the rice bowl of the Philippines. When we go home, I get a few sacks of rice hulls and bring them to Bulacan. You can mix this with a regular soil or with chunks of decaying wood.

Saw Dust

Lettuce transplanted to soil with saw dust

There is a lumberware near our home here in Bulacan. I asked if I can buy some of the sawdust they produced in cutting lumber. Luckily, they gave it to me for free. The same with the rice hulls, you can also mix this in regular soil, either sandy or clay type of soil.

Home Rubbish

Trash coming from the peeling of fruits and vegetables are great materials to make healthy soil. All you need it to chop it into a smaller size to make decomposing faster, place in a container, cover with soil, and water. Keep doing this layer by layer every time you have rubbish from your kitchen. Using dried leaves or twigs can be included in your compost.

Animal Manure

Animal (chicken, cow, pigs, horses) have been used as organic fertilizer on farming. It is better if you are going to mix this first with regular soil. The manure can help improve the soil for it to hold more water and nutrients making it more fertile.

Cow dung are good source of nitrogen and organic carbon while chicken manure is highly concentrated with nitrogen and phospate which are essential for plant growth.

Having your vegetable garden at home will give you lots of benefits. You can have freshly-picked vegetables and cook them directly in the kitchen.

Here are some of the harvested vegetables straight to the kitchen.

Tortang Talong Special

Ginisang Munggo with Ampalaya and Sili

Ginisang Talbos ng Kamote

Adobong Sitaw