The easy way to succeed at urban gardening A townhouse yard, a balcony, a fire escape, a south-facing window even a basement apartment can all be suitable locations to grow enough food to save a considerable amount of money and enjoy the freshest, healthiest produce possible.

Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Conventions Used in This Book 2 What You’re Not to Read 2 Foolish Assumptions 3 How This Book Is Organized 3 Part I: Urban Gardening 101 3 Part II: Gardening Basics 4 Part III: Places and Ways to Garden 4 Part IV: Growing Plants in the City 4 Part V: Growing to Perfection 5 Part VI: The Part of Tens 5 Icons Used in This Book 5 Where to Go from Here 6 Part I: Urban Gardening 101 7 Chapter 1: Gardening in the City 9 Knowing the Basics of Soil Prep 9 Finding the Many Places to Garden the City 10 Growing All Kinds of Plants in The City 11 Trees and shrubs 12 Edibles 12 Annual flowers 13 Perennial flowers and roses 13 Lawns and groundcovers 14 Exploring the Down and Dirty of Growing 14 Weeding and mulching 15 Watering 15 Pest patrol 15 Chapter 2: Reaping the Benefi ts of Urban Gardening 17 Enjoying Local Produce from Urban Food Gardens 18 Looking at places to grow food 18 Checking out urban food gardening projects 19 Creating Healthy Cities 22 Reducing pollution 22 Making cities more livable 25 Improving the neighborhood 26 Chapter 3: The Urban Microclimate 27 The Sunny City: Working with the Sun and Warmer Urban Temperatures 27 Taking advantage of seasonal solar angles 28 Dealing with solar glare 29 Minimizing the Heat Island Effect 29 The Windy City: Working with Seasonal Urban Wind Patterns 32 Taking Macroclimate and Microclimate Conditions into Account in Your Garden 34 Knowing your hardiness zone 34 Considering your own microclimatic conditions 35 Part II: Gardening Basics 37 Chapter 4: Getting to Know Your Soil 39 Determining Your Type of Soil 40 Understanding the different soil types 40 Figuring out what you have 41 Checking Your Soil’s Drainage 42 Performing a percolation test 43 Mastering the metal rod test 43 Discovering Your Soil’s pH Level 44 Finding Out What Lies Beneath the Soil 45 Doing a little digging (literally and fi guratively) 46 Protecting yourself from soil contaminants 46 Chapter 5: Feeding and Fertilizing Your Soil 51 Organics 101: Plant Matter 52 Adding a Little Something Extra to Build Soil Fertility: Animal Manure 54 Making Compost and Growing Soil 56 Composting safely in the city 56 Choosing a container 57 Building your pile 58 Troubleshooting common composting problems 59 Composting with worms 60 Giving Your Plants and Soil a Boost with Fertilizers 62 Getting to know the “big three” in commercial fertilizers 62 Wet versus dry fertilizers 63 Applying a side dressing of fertilizer 65 Chapter 6: Getting Your Hands Dirty: Planting How-To 67 Planting Annual Flowers and Veggies 67 Starting with a raised bed 68 Deciding whether to buy seeds or transplants 70 Making a seed-starting schedule based on frost dates 71 Growing your own seedlings 73 Picking out transplants 74 Planting your annual or vegetable garden 75 Planting Trees and Shrubs 78 Buying a tree or shrub 78 Digging the hole and planting 79 Getting your trees and shrubs off to a good start 82 Planting Perennial Flowers, Bulbs, and Roses 83 Buying and planting perennial flowers 84 Buying and planting bulbs 84 Buying and planting roses 86 Part III: Places and Ways to Garden 89 Chapter 7: Creating an Outdoor Room 91 Analyzing Your Outdoor Space 92 Fencing In Your Space 92 Planning Your Outdoor Room 93 Creating Your Garden Entrance 93 Installing moon gates for a Zen-like feel 94 Showing off your space with garden arbors 95 Opting for other types of entry features 96 Defining the Uses for Your Outdoor Room 96 Creating a Focal Element 97 Using a unique plant 98 Creating serenity with a water feature 99 Going with a man-made feature 100 Turning Recycled Materials into Chic and Useful Garden Art 101 Using yard sale items 101 Repurposing materials (Reusing junk) 103 Considering Interactive Garden Art 104 A garden sundial 104 Music in the garden 105 Chapter 8: Containing Your Gardening 107 Surveying Container Options 107 Cool commercial containers 109 Hanging, balancing, and other interesting containers 110 Bathtubs, birdcages, bicycles, and more 111 Selecting Soil for Your Container 112 Planting a Container 113 Prepping your pots 114 Planting your containers properly 114 Jazzing Up Your Containers 116 Placing containers for visual interest 116 Coordinating colors 117 Cool container combos 117 Taking Care of Your Container Plants 119 Watering 119 Maintaining your containers 120 Moving containers 122 Chapter 9: A Garden with a View: The Rooftop Garden 123 Finding Out the Rooftop Gardening Basics 124 Why grow up? Reviewing reasons for planting on the roof 124 What’s your type? Choosing a green roof or roof garden 125 How much is enough? Looking at your limits 126 What’s next? Getting started and developing a plan 129 Designing a Rooftop Garden or Green Roof 131 Structural considerations: Making sure your roof won’t cave in 132 Managing rainwater 133 Deciding what to grow 135 Planning electrical service and lighting 137 Transporting materials 137 Staying In Bounds with a Rooftop Container Garden 138 Chapter 10: Going Vertical in Your Garden 141 Discovering the Benefits of Growing Vertical 141 Facing the Challenges of Growing Vertical 142 Rethinking Your Space: Up, Down, and All Around 143 Getting Plants to Grow Up 144 Vertical structures: Providing a place to climb 144 Growing vertical veggies and fruits 150 Giving Containers a Lift 151 Understanding the special considerations for vertical container gardening 151 Choosing vertical containers 151 Chapter 11: Apartment Gardens 155 Balcony Gardens 155 Using containers on your balcony 156 Creating a picture frame garden 158 Using flowerbox planters 159 Indoor Gardening 161 Creating an indoor herb garden 161 Growing under lights indoors 163 Practicing indoor plant care and watering 164 Chapter 12: Community Gardening and Urban Farming 165 Community Gardening 101 165 A brief history of community gardening 166 How community gardening works 167 Starting a Community Gardening Program 167 Selecting a site 168 Developing your site 168 Organizing the garden 169 Managing the garden 169 Urban Farming = Urban Renewal 169 Benefits of gardening together 171 Avoiding down zoning 171 Marketing Locally 172 Selling produce at farmers’ markets 172 Participating in farm-to-school initiatives 172 Selling to local restaurants 173 Hosting harvest festivals 173 Creating community gatherings and celebrations 173 Sharing a Garden 174 Gardening with roommates 174 Volunteering for others 175 Hiring out as an urban farmer 175 Planting a row for the hungry 175 Going from Pavement to Parks 176 Reclaiming urban green space 176 Creating urban parklets 178 Part IV: Growing Plants in the City 179 Chapter 13: City Setting, Country Food 181 Making a Veggie Garden Plan 181 Choosing a site for your vegetable garden 181 Sizing up your garden: How big is big? 182 Laying it all out 183 Keeping Your Veggies Happy 183 Feeding 184 Weeding, mulching, and watering 185 Raising the Top City Vegetables 185 Leafy greens 186 The tomato family: Eggplants, peppers, and other relatives 186 Melons, squash, and other vining vegetables 188 Root vegetables 189 Peas and beans 190 Cabbage, broccoli, and more 192 Easy herbs 192 Extending the Season 194 Succession planting: Lettuce forever! 195 Intercropping: The space between 195 Protecting plants in cool weather 196 Chapter 14: The Annual Flowering of the City 199 Understanding Annuals 199 Siting Your Annual Flower Garden 200 Figuring out whether your garden can support sun- or shade-loving annuals 200 Prepping and planting 201 Considering color 201 Thinking about texture and fragrance 202 Growing flowers for cutting 203 Growing Annuals in Containers 203 Choosing Annual Flowers for All Seasons and Soils 205 Cool spring and fall flowers 205 Summer flowers 207 Flowers for every soil 209 Caring for Your Annuals to Keep a Continuous Flower Show 210 Watering 210 Weeding 211 Fertilizing 211 Deadheading 212 Pruning 212 Keeping them up 213 Using Succession Planting to Maintain Your Annual Flowers 213 Chapter 15: Perennial Flowers, Roses, and Bulbs in the City 215 Getting to Know Perennials, Roses, and Bulbs 215 Finding a Permanent Planting Spot 216 Considering sun, soil, and exposure 216 Going with containers 217 Choosing Perennials Fit for City Living 218 Sun-loving perennial fl owers 219 Shade-loving perennial fl owers 221 Growing and Maintaining Perennial Flowers 222 General care and maintenance 222 Providing a little extra support 223 Divide and multiply 224 Enjoying La Vie en Rose 224 Selecting the best city roses 225 Growing and caring for roses 226 Lighting Up Your Garden with Bulbs 227 Finding a spot for bulbs 228 Finding the best spring flowering bulbs for the city 228 Determining the best summer flowering bulbs for the city 229 Caring for bulbs 229 Chapter 16: Growing a Tree in Brooklyn 231 Selecting City-Friendly Trees 231 The best deciduous trees 232 Evergreen tree options 234 Growing Some Shrubbery 235 Looking at ways to use shrubs in your yard 235 Discovering some great city shrubs 236 Keeping Your Trees and Shrubs Fit 239 Watering and fertilizing 239 Pruning 101 240 Growing City Fruits 242 Finding the best fruit trees for the city 243 Keeping those tree fruits growing 244 Keeping Berry Bushes in the City 245 Choosing the best city berries 245 Staying berry healthy 248 Chapter 17: Lawns and Ground Covers 249 Selecting the Right Grass 250 Cool-season grasses 250 Warm-season grasses 252 Seed versus sod 253  Caring for Your Lawn 255 Looking at city mowers 255 Mowing correctly 256 Maintaining your lawn 257 Patching up paradise 259 Ground Cover Alternatives 259 Lawns versus ground covers 259 Cityside ground covers 260 Planting and caring for your cover 261 Part V: Growing to Perfection 263 Chapter 18: Weeding and Mulching Your Plants 265 Winning the War on Weeds 265 Identifying weeds and knowing why you should care 266 Stopping weeds before they’re a problem 267 Controlling weeds once they’re large 269 Mulching 101 269 Types of mulch 270 Mulching correctly 273 Chapter 19: Watering Your Garden 275 Conserving Water 275 Knowing how much you need to water 276 Using less water 277 Harvesting Water 278 Installing a rain barrel 279 Utilizing gray water 279 Creating a rain garden 280 Delivering Water to Your Plants 282 Hoses and cans 282 Watering wands 282 Trigger nozzles 283 Soaker hoses 283 Drip irrigation 284 Sprinklers 286 A few other watering methods to try 287 Chapter 20: Controlling Urban Garden Pests 289 Knowing the Good Guys 290 Bringing in beneficial insects 290 Attracting birds to your yard 291 Encouraging bees to stick around 292 Being Proactive to Control the Bad Guys 293 Designing your garden to prevent problems 294 Deciding whether you really have a problem 294 Dealing with Insect Pests in Your Garden 295 Know your bug 296 Managing your pests without sprays 300 Using safe sprays 303 Spotting and Treating Diseases 304 Knowing whether you’re really dealing with a disease 304 Preventing damage in the first place 305 Being aware of some common diseases 306 Finding the safest sprays for diseases 308 Critters in the Bean Patch 309 Identifying animal damage 309 Figuring out which common city animals to watch for 310 Part VI: The Part of Tens 311 Chapter 21: Ten Tools for Urban Gardeners 313 Chapter 22: Ten Kid-Friendly Ways to Garden in the City 319 Chapter 23: Ten Tips to Manage a Sustainable Urban Garden 325 Index 331

Learn to: Make the most of limited space with vertical growing tips, rooftop gardens, and moreAdd beauty and color to your landscape with annuals, perennials, and bulbsGrow the freshest, healthiest produce possible The easy way to succeed at urban gardening A townhouse yard, a balcony, a south-facing window even a small inner-city apartment can be a suitable location to grow some yummy edibles, develop a colorful flower garden, or create an outdoor room. Urban Gardening For Dummies helps you make the most of what you have through the use of proven small-space gardening techniques that allow gardeners to maximize their use of urban spaces. Urban Gardening 101 — get an overview of urban gardening, including soil preparation, planting, choosing urban-friendly plants (including edibles), and plant placement Dig in — discover everything you need to know about soil, from analyzing soil types and understanding soil pH to how you can build good soil with manure, organic fertilizers, and compost Get a green thumb — find the lowdown on the urban microclimate, local weather patterns, and how you can actually influence weather conditions at micro-levels to benefit the health of your urban garden Oh, the places you'll grow — get creative with container gardening and find funky and functional ways to garden on building rooftops, balconies, and with vertical growing strategies Open the book and find: The many benefits of urban gardeningTips on planting annual plants and veggies, trees and shrubs, and perennial flowersThe 4-1-1 on community gardening and urban farmingHow to create an outdoor roomThe scoop on using fertilizersTechniques for container and vertical gardeningComposting tips and soil growingTricks for keeping weeds and pests at bay