By Sharon Miki, Assistant Editor

(Sea ain’t just for
grandma anymore.

As the seasons sway
into spring and hunger pangs
rumble in the proverbial tummies
of college students everywhere,
the natural inclination is to trade
in nutritious-yet-expensive, fresh,
local organic produce for cheap
frozen burritos and Tanqueray. Is
there not a better way to live?

While I doubt many of us have
the resources to harvest enough
crops to sustain us entirely, with
a little planning and preparation
it is most definitely possible to
grow a little garden and—in the
long term—maybe even save
a little green. Whether you’ve
squished your collegiate self into
a tiny shoebox in the sky or you’re
dwelling in the underground
depths with the basement people,
ample land for harvesting might
be closer than you think. The key
to growing your own delicious and
nutritious foodstuffs and oxygen-
enhancing vegetation might just be
in your own backyard—even if you
technically don’t have a backyard.
But how can you get started?

Urban Gardening

Executive director of the
Vancouver-based non-profit
organization City Farmer Michael
Levenston spoke to The Other

Press about the keys to growing in
small spaces. Levenston and City
Farmer (www.cityfarmer.info),
have worked to encourage and help

12

people grow food in the city for the

past 34 years.

No matter where you live,
Levenston explains that the keys
to successful gardening are simple:
sunlight, good-quality soil, and the
desire to grow.

“(Urban gardening] isn’t
hidden. I think the hidden thing
is the awareness that people can
do it—that they can get started,”
Levenston says, noting that once
you have the supplies, it’s easy
to find help, whether it’s online,
through YouTube, through books,
from classes (City Farmer offers
free city gardening demonstrations
in Vancouver), or from just talking
to someone. “Try something, talk
to anybody around and you'll find
that someone you know has a green
thumb and is ready to help you.”

Once you’ve made the decision
to start growing, you must decide
which method of urban gardening
best fits your situation. Urban
gardening can cover a lot of, well,
ground, but for our purposes,
we will use the term for refer to
container or apartment gardening,
and community gardening. Each
of these avenues allow the space-
limited to plant and enjoy a garden
insome form.

Apartment Gardening

“If you can put dirt in it, you can
grow something in it,” urban
gardener Lindsey Klock told The
Other Press while tending her
window garden of succulents—
water-retaining plants like aloe and
cacti that flourish indoors during

@ Port Coquitlam Community Garden
:

. Urban gardening for the
* broke and backyardless

winter months.

Klock, who has been apartment
and balcony gardening year-round
for about three years, noted the
multiple values of urban gardening
for the young and broke. “First
of all, for students, gardening
is a great, productive way to
procrastinate. It’s amazing stress
relief.”

Also, aside from the therapeutic
benefits, she explains the more
practical advantages to the hobby:
“There’s something super satisfying
about living in a small apartment
and picking fresh food from your
patio. When it comes to balcony
gardening, sure, it’s definitely lesser
quantities—but it’s amazing when
you’re shown what it takes to get a
few pounds of something. It makes
you appreciate your food more.

 

“But it definitely tastes better...
you pick a strawberry off your plant
and eat it and it’s incredible. You’re
not eating genetically-modified
fruit—you’re eating the actual fruits
of your labours.”

For Klock, the secret to urban
gardening on a tight budget is to
be resourceful and inventive with
your supplies. “If you plan and
look around, you can do almost
everything for cheap. Just be
creative to find ways to recycle
things for free.” Indeed, Klock’s
small Vancouver apartment is
rich with the kitsch of imaginative
gardening. Even in still-chilly
early March, the space is strikingly
alive, with greenery dispersed
throughout the indoor and outdoor
space in everything from mason jar
terrariums to handcrafted vessels to