Organic Mini Garden: How to make an urban garden at home

Today we are going to see some ideas to make a mini garden at home. There are many container options for mini gardens, so even if you live in a city and don’t have a garden, you don’t have to give up having a home urban garden.

We will see several types of small vertical gardens and other ideas to make a flowerpot on the balcony or in the home garden without taking up too much space. A small balcony, a patio, or even a window sill is enough to make a mini urban garden.

As we will see, you can buy prefabricated structures, make your own containers or use recycled materials for the mini urban garden.

What is an organic mini garden

In this type of urban orchard it is very important to respect the principles of organic farming (among them do without synthetic fertilizers and chemical insecticides and replace them with natural products).

In order to harvest 100% organic, natural and chemical-free products, in the mini-garden we will always use organic fertilizers, such as compost or earthworm humus, and integrated pest control methods (such as pest traps or homemade insecticides made with plants) instead of chemicals.

In addition, intercropping plants of different types that have benefits over each other (the technique known as Association of Crops) is another of the alternatives of organic gardens compared to more aggressive traditional measures.

How to make a mini home garden: tricks to grow in small spaces

The first thing to make a mini garden at home is to decide the plants that we are going to grow, since based on that we will choose the containers and pots for the home garden.

There are plants that need more depth than others, so we will also have to choose the plants for the mini garden considering the space we have.

If we have the possibility of making a garden in the garden at home, we can put larger plants, such as peppers, tomatoes, pumpkins or watermelons. If, on the other hand, we are going to cultivate a garden on the balcony or a mini vertical garden, we will choose smaller plants such as garlic, lettuce, spinach, strawberries, aromatic herbs…

Mini Vertical Gardens

If you want to make a garden in a patio without much light, vertical gardens can be a very good option since you will take better advantage of the hours of sunlight that can reach the place.

In addition, the vertical garden can also be the solution if you want to grow on a terrace or small garden where you cannot afford a garden that takes up too much space. There are many types of vertical gardens, from a mini vertical garden with pallets (like the one in the photo above right), to hanging planters.

Another example of a mini vertical garden is the modular vertical planters, made up of several independent containers or growing bags.

If what you want is to make a cheap garden you will like these other ideas to make a mini vertical garden with recycled materials. You can use, for example, use reused fruit crates and recycled plastic drums as growing containers, or, as in the image below right, make a vertical garden out of recycled plastic bottles.

Mini garden on the balcony or on the roof

If you have one or more balconies or a roof terrace on the upper floor, you can put mini urban gardens in these areas of the house. There are many types!

For orchards on the balcony, elongated containers (such as rectangular planters) and pots fit very well, since they can be interspersed to make better use of space.

The containers for the mini garden can be of many types and materials: wood, plastic, ceramic or even recycled materials such as the polystyrene pot in the image below.

Geotextile bags or containers are also very suitable for the urban garden. These bags to grow adapt well to any space, which is an advantage when we do not have much space, as is the case with the garden on the balcony.

Vegetable garden in the patio or in the garden of the house

If we have a little more space to make the urban garden, a very comfortable alternative is the cultivation tables.

If we install cultivation tables we will not have to bend down for the work of the urban garden. They are also easier to move from one place to another and many are provided with wheels.

To make a garden in a patio or in the garden at home, several types of mini gardens can be combined: on cultivation tables, on terraces, mini gardens in planters, with recycled materials…

indoor mini garden

If what you want is an indoor garden, it is best that you choose plant species that can grow with little direct light, such as aromatic plants, celery, radishes or lettuce.

The options are almost as many as in the outdoor garden, you can make a flowerpot, a vertical garden…

The most important thing is to make sure that the indoor garden plants we choose can grow without much light (vegetables such as nightshades -tomato, pepper, aubergine…-, or cucurbits such as courgette, for example, would not be suitable for this type of urban garden as they require many hours of direct sunlight).

Another alternative for the indoor mini garden is to install a grow tent at home in an area close to the windows.

We can make a nice combination of vegetables, aromatic plants and flowers in this type of display cabinet to grow, and boast of having a real decorative garden at home.

Finally, mention something a little more innovative in indoor gardens: grow cabinets with a light source and automatic irrigation. For a lot more money, yes, but with these cabinets we can make a small flowerpot in the kitchen without worrying too much about irrigation or the light that reaches the plants (more about grow cabinets for indoor gardens).

In addition to home gardens, this technology of applying LED light to increase crop yields is being studied with very positive results in the field of intensive agricultural production in controlled environments. Thus, this type of indoor cultivation could become an alternative to supply the growing demand for food on the planet in the future, if, as it seems and unfortunately, we continue to contaminate the soil and the planet’s resources…

I hope you liked this post and that, if you can, collaborate with us by sending us more photos and examples of mini urban gardens, vertical gardens or original home gardens that you have seen (you can attach images in the comment thread below!).

References

1. Ministry of Education of Cantabria, 2007. Ecological Program for Orchards and School Gardens. ADVICE GUIDE for its implementation.
2. GRAMA Association – Action Group for the Environment, 2012. Garden Manual.
3. Paniagua-Pardo et al. , 2015. Effect of high-intensity LED light on broccoli seedling germination and growth. Polibotánca, nº 40, p. 199-212.
4. Madrid City Council, 2017. Ecological Urban Garden Course
5. Triodos Foundation. Social Farming Blog.
6. Gutiérrez Abaunza, FD, 2019. Urban gardens, a second alternative. B33 Architecture Magazine, nº 4 (2019): Urban Studies.