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Urban Farms: The Wave Of The Future

Whether you’re interested in growing plants for aesthetic reasons or trying to grow some tomatoes to feast on, maintaining plants in urban environments is much different then growing them in the country or suburbs.

There are a few essential tips and techniques you must learn and utilize to successfully farm within a city. This idea of urban farming is one of the few ways in which we can help improve the quality of American cities and other cities across the planet.

Urban farming can be defined as utilizing conventional and unconventional means of farming in modern urban environments. This is an uncommon form of farming and cultivation (like organic farming) because 80% of farming and cultivation practices take place in the countryside or the suburbs.

This occurs because of the greater availability of foliage, soil, and room for future growth, then there would be in the urban landscapes of a city. Anyone can grow plants or crops in the city, but not without awareness of a few essential techniques. Some urban farming tips and tricks include:

• Locate a window, a roof, or a fire escape with ample room for planting and exposure to the sun
• Identify what types of plants you want to grow to fully cater to the specific needs of each plant
• If you only wish to grow plants indoors, choose plants that love shade, like radishes, beets, or lettuce
• The amount of sun exposure is important for all plants, therefore placing your plants outdoors or indoors near windows or other sources of light is important
• Purchasing containers that can withstand the demands of the city (weather, pollution, pests, etc.) is important to the protection and continued growth of your plants
• Protecting your plants from the higher levels of pollution associated with city life is hard, but by simply bringing plants indoors or as far away from highly trafficked areas will go a long way towardshealthier, less polluted plants
• Remaining extra vigilant when it comes to changing your plants soil, adding nutrients to the soil, watering to your specific plants needs, and by even talking to your plants will help them grow in urban environments

Urban farming is an important way to help improve your life in the city. Farming in urban environments can help bring your family closer together and improve the quality of the community in the city. Children love hands on activities and gardening is no exception.

It’s easy to plant helpful, tasty vegetables and herbs, while spending time together as a family. Not to mention the important skills you will help instill in your children. The pollution levels within cities could change, alongside their aesthetic appeal, if urban farming became a more widely utilized practice. It is estimated that the world’s population could rise to a staggering 9.5 billion people by 2050, which could also raise the amount of pollution as well.

By continuing urban farming throughout the world’s cities we could help initiate natural mechanisms of growth and sustainability that will hopefully lead to reductions in pollution. By building growing skyscrapers with levels upon levels of farm land within them (kind of like multiple greenhouses), we could be one step closer to a more sustainable future. City life would also hopefully improve because of the aesthetic abilities a green environment could provide.