I may resue this for the main site, or not.
Gardening in Shaw can be a challenge. Sometimes you don’t have a yard. Sometimes you do have a yard but it will never see sun. And then there are a dozen other challenges that make you roll your eyes when you look at regular gardening books and magazines, they assume you have space and sun. Then there are your own worries, worries I have discovered are a bit unfounded. I worried that people would come into my yard and steal my tomatoes. No one came into my yard to steal them. The greatest threat was the newspaperman who I swear always aimed for the vine knocking over a few unripened tomatoes. Then there are other worries about soil contamination, vandalism, and the run of the mill garden worries of pests and disease.
Looking for information for urban gardening is a bit fun. Below are some of the links found about gardening in the city.
Urban Gardening Links
City Farmer – Straight outta Canada is a wonderful resource for serious urban gardening. What is pretty cool is the discussion forum where people present questions and discuss gardening ideas that are particular to urban dwellers.
DC Cooperative Extension Service – Maybe you can find some information about DC’s cooperative extension service
UMD Home and Garden Information Center– Very informative, particularly the plant diagnostic tool, to figure out what is killing your plants. Site also has helpful online publications for the home gardener.
Rough Terrain Urban Gardens– Pennsylvania based and sponsored by International Paper. There are some great stories about people creating gardens in an urban landscape and some simple how to’s. More inspiring than informative.
Path to Freedom– For the anti-corporate types who want to throw off the chains of dependency from the Man by growing their own food. Uh, ok. Parts of it are very informative when researching the impact of a small (in the eye of the beholder) garden . The main site is interesting should you desire to live in an urban area but off the grid.
Container gardens the city dweller’s guide– Oh my I didn’t know you could use a child’s wading pool as a garden container…. now I do. Creative and informative and geared towards the city gardener.
Green Institute’s Urban Garden Tips– Includes page on gardening in lead contaminated soils. Perfect for DC soil.
Journey to Forever organic garden– Lots of useful links to a library of articles related to urban gardening and container gardening.