Starting An Urban Garden

After 3 years on a waiting list for a gardening space in the Squirrel Brand Community Garden, I finally had the good fortune to be given a garden space. Although my father was the neighborhood green thumb and we had the biggest, baddest garden in the neighborhood, I mostly picked and ate the produce, didn't really do any of the hard labor. So this was a learning experience for me.


The hardest part is lugging all those bags of compost and soil. Thankfully I had my trusty partner in crime, Kemal, to help me with the heavy lifting. What a rewarding undertaking and how fun to watch things grow, particularly from the itty bitty seeds some of the plants have. I decided to focus on veggies and probably planted too much in my little space but it was hard to control myself. I will be posting updates but for now, here's a video that shows how I got the raised bed up and running. Raised beds are great for urban areas where you have to contain your garden. They are also a good idea because urban earth is usually riddled with lead. You don't typically want to plant in that stuff. Hope you find it helpful!