You can start your own garden in a city apartment – a window sill is quite suitable for this. We tell you what types of greens and vegetables you should pay attention to if you decide to do home gardening.
The home garden has obvious disadvantages, the main one is the sowing area. It is clear that having several acres for tomatoes, zucchini and bushes with currants is not the same as one or two window sills or even a balcony in a city apartment.
However, such gardening also has its advantages – it is not threatened by frost, excess rainfall or drought, and crops can be grown all year round. In addition, you do not have to bother with digging and weeding the beds, as well as chasing voracious birds, protecting plantings from attacks by bugs and snails. All you have to do is to plant and regularly water the boxes and pots with the future harvest.
The main contender for a place in the home garden is fragrant greens. Tarragon, marjoram, rosemary, oregano feel great in pots on windowsills, even in not the best lighting conditions. And some types of herbs, such as basil, according to gardening experts, even feel better at home than in the open field.
The beauty of fragrant seedlings is that it is used in relatively small portions. The same basil for one salad needs only a few leaves, and therefore one pot with such a bush can be dispensed with for quite a long time.
Ordinary salad greens can also be grown without problems in small boxes on a window or balcony – green onions, dill, cilantro and parsley germinate quite quickly, however, and they will probably be eaten sooner.
Another type of home planting that is gaining popularity is microgreens. There is even less fuss with it, and the first harvest can be harvested within a few days after planting. In addition, you can do without buying soil – the seeds will germinate, even if you pour them evenly on a paper towel soaked with moisture or a thin layer of cotton wool.
You will need a pallet or plate on which you need to lay out a layer of “soil”, moisten it properly, pour out the seeds and cover the “bed” with cling film. The latter should be removed as soon as the first seedlings appear – usually it takes no more than a couple of days. Then it is important to monitor the moisture content of the plantings – spray the future microgreens two to three times a day. You can harvest in about a week, when the first leaves appear on the sprouts.
Microgreens are also wonderful because they contain a wide range of micronutrients, and in impressive amounts. A small handful of sprouts is enough to make the dish noticeably more “smoky”.
You can germinate any greens and even many vegetables – sprouts of all types of cabbage, peas, beets come out very tasty. It is recommended to take regular seeds or buy a mixture for microgreens, these can be found in most online and traditional gardening stores.
Growing large vegetables like pumpkins or zucchini on the windowsill is unlikely to succeed (although some succeed in this as well), but tomatoes and peppers, for example, are quite. To do this, be sure to choose varieties designated as suitable for growing at home. Such species tend to grow compact, do not require a garter, and produce small fruit with a rich taste.
This moment should definitely be taken into account, since garden varieties can stretch even higher than human height – it will be difficult to cope with such thickets in an apartment, to put it mildly. Yes, and providing them with enough sunlight is difficult. By the way, you should think about lighting in any case – for tomatoes, peppers, mini-eggplants, it is much more important than greens.
Finally, if you are lucky enough to have a fairly spacious balcony, wide window sills, or a well-lit floor area, you can use these areas for growing berry bushes – currants and blueberries, for example, are quite amenable to home cultivation. Here, too, it is worth paying attention to the description of varieties and choosing compact plant species.
For example, black and white currants are usually less spreading than red ones. Black has another benefit – antioxidant-rich fragrant leaves that can be brewed with tea or added to homemade preparations.
In general, adding freshly cut greens grown without unknown fertilizers to your diet is quite within the power of a city dweller. The main thing is to have a little patience and remember to water your home garden regularly.
How to sale thise product