By Reggie Solomon

Take an afternoon to measure your garden and can sketch it on paper so you can figure out how to best maximize your space.

You wouldn’t construct a building before creating blueprints, so why start gardening before planning your site?

Use a simple tape measurer to determine the dimensions of your garden. In particular you’ll want to note features such as sidewalks, storm doors and stairways. Read the rest of this entry »

By Reggie Solomon

Square foot gardening is the ultimate urban gardening solution!

I stumbled upon this book at the Yale Bookstore this afternoon, and it has changed the way I will forever approach urban gardening.

The Square Foot Gardening book by Mel Bartholomew who also once hosted a similarly-titled television series on public television, is built around gardening in a 4′ x 4′ square subdivided into a grid of sixteen 1′ squares. Mel’s system, which can be organized via a raised bed or at ground-level, incorporates an ingenious vertical trellising design to accommodate vining vegetables such as tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, squash and melons.

The square-foot gardening system is ideal for the urban gardener because it’s suited for small spaces, maximizes growing space by eliminating wasted space between rows, and accommodates vertical growing.

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By Reggie Solomon

Narrowing down a list of what seeds to order online isn’t easy.

Today is my first big seed order day, and I’ve ordered a lot of seeds online (which the seed-provider companies will love) and am storing the leftovers for next year and sharing seeds with friends (which the seed-provider companies won’t like so much).

I want to plant at least two varieties of most vegetables I plan to grow, so that I can grow like a wine-taster. In some cases, like with basil (a personal favorite) I plan to grow six varieties, and am bordering on ordering more than my garden can accommodate.

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By Reggie Solomon

Not having an accurate understanding of your soil’s pH, composition and potential contamination level is just plain bad, especially for the urban gardener.

Lead paint chips from old houses and old buildings can be harmful to the soil, plants and people. If you have lead contaminated soil, you should avoid root vegetables and leafy greens which can concentrate the worst bits of contamination. Fruiting vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, peas, squash, are safer to grow in this type of soil.

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By Reggie Solomon

Attending a local gardening workshop is a great way to prepare for the summer gardening season and get tips from other urban gardeners in your area.

Though it tried its darndest, the 10-inches of fresh snow didn’t stop me and my gardening buddy from attending a gardening workshop hosted by the New Haven Ecology Project [NHEP] at Common Ground High School, a local charter school that sits atop a 20-acre farm.

Surprisingly given the wintry conditions, the workshop drew a solid crowd of 25-30 people. The assortment of urban dwellers in attendance included – young people, older people, renters, homeowners, and a vibrantly-dressed group of Muslim women. You could feel the immense energy everyone was waiting to channel into their gardens resting beneath the snow.

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