5 Things to Consider When Starting a Garden in the City

Vegetable gardens and seed to table cooking. Two terms that can often evoke images of expansive allotments and walk-in greenhouses. Very Martha Stewart, in the best way. Growing up on a rural property with a large yard, I watched my mum tend to a huge vegetable garden with mounds of rhubarb and sprawling rows of tomatoes. I couldn't help but be imbued with a fairly conventional sense of what it meant to be a gardener. So when I eventually moved to a big city, I never dreamed I could grow, cook and preserve from my own patch of green.

Fast forward a few years and I've spent countless hours tending to my little urban garden, feeding my family homegrown, organic produce and learning more with each season. For any fellow city-dwellers with their green thumbs ready but not sure where to start, here are the top 5 things I've learned about starting a veggie garden in an unconventional space: 

1) Pick the right containers. Gardening in an urban environment often means working with small spaces. The right containers allow you to grow a multitude of fruits & veggies without a large footprint. Which type of containers to use will depend on your preference (fabric pots vs. plastic) and on what you're growing. For example, tomatoes will need bigger, deeper containers than your leafy greens.

2) Choose the Right Variety. I get it, when I first started planting I had no idea what the difference between a determinate and indeterminate tomatoes was. The important thing to note is that for every vegetable there are tons of seed varieties to chose from and picking the right one is the difference between having a plant that fits nicely in a pot on your balcony, and one thats trying to grow above your head. When growing in a small space, choosing determinate & bush varieties that grow well in containers is key. 

3) Assess your lighting. Consider how much sunlight you will get throughout the day. This will impact which veggies & herbs will grow best in your space. Generally speaking, most do best with 6-8 hours of direct sun. 

4) Companion Planting. Be mindful of which plants play well together. Some plants, like tomatoes actually benefit from sharing space with herbs like thyme and oregano, while other plants (like mint) are better off in a pot of their own. Whether they are helping deter pests, or simply good at coexisting, it's helpful to know how your plants can work together for you.

And lastly,

5) Start Small & Experiment a Little! When I first started I was so excited I wanted to grow everything at once! But I learned that starting with a few plants made things more manageable and gave me the bandwidth to experiment with what worked and what didn't. Some plants did really well... others didn't. But honestly, that’s part of the fun :) 

Starting a garden in the city might not look like the sprawling setups many of us grew up envisioning, but it’s no less rewarding. If anything, there’s something really special about creating a little pocket of green in the middle of all the chaos. Whether you're growing a single tomato plant on your balcony or filling your front porch with herbs, every small step adds up—and before you know it, you’re harvesting your own dinner. So start simple, and let your garden grow with you.

Happy Growing :)