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    Month: August 2020

    urban_gardening

    Three Pillars of Planning an Urban Garden

    It’s never too early to start planning next year’s urban garden. Especially if you are planting cover crops and live somewhere with a mild winter.…

    Tyfife August 27, 2020
    0 Comments

    Soil-Less Plant Growing (Hydroponics)

    Hydroponics is an efficient plant growing and crop production technique. Because of increase in world Population, it’s gaining popularity due to its efficient use of…

    August 25, 2020
    0 Comments

    Health benefits of Microgreens

    Here Are Some Of The Health benefits of Microgreen Lower Risk of Heart disease Microgreens are known to be rich sources of polyphenols, which is…

    craigfer August 24, 2020
    0 Comments

    Vertical: The Future of Farming

    www.vertical-film.com Vertical: The Future of Farming follows a new generation of urban, indoor farmers, whose approach to food production offers the potential to combat climate…

    craigfer August 22, 2020
    0 Comments
    microgreen shoots

    What are Microgreens?

    Microgreens are known to be the easiest fresh produce to grow that can be eaten raw. They are the first true leaves produced from a…

    BernardP August 22, 2020
    0 Comments

    5 Easy Steps To Get Started Vertically Growing Microgreens

    At some point over the last couple years I’m sure you’ve heard someone mention microgreens. Maybe it was their ease of growing, their amazing taste,…

    Tyfife August 21, 2020
    0 Comments

    London Student Documentary

    Can anyone help our new member? They are students making a 10 min documentary on alternative farming methods and are looking for passionate people to…

    BernardP August 20, 2020
    0 Comments

    A shallow dive into aquaponics

    Aquaponics: Any practice that combines aquaculture with hydroponics in a symbiotic controlled environment can be termed as aquaponic. One of the neatest things about Aquaponics…

    Orion_lily August 19, 2020
    0 Comments

    Solution of Agricultural Land Scarcity

    One of the various post-modern problems that have axed the future of the human race is the massive population explosion that is taking place all…

    Mahfuz August 18, 2020
    0 Comments
    Image by 家志 刘 from Pixabay

    It’s a Growing necessity: vertical farming

    If coronavirus has taught the World anything then one of the lessons will be future food security. Singapore has the highest ranking for the past…

    BernardP August 17, 2020
    1 Comment
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    © 2023 - Vertical, Indoor and Urban Farm Forum

    Forum Description

    It’s never too early to start planning next year’s urban garden. Especially if you are planting cover crops and live somewhere with a mild winter. I used to be intimidated by making an actual crop plan, but once I decided to try and be an urban, market farmer I knew that it was something I couldn’t avoid; and honestly, it’s something that has helped me tremendously. Here are my three pillars of market garden planning.

    Label your urban garden beds

    I drew up a diagram of my entire urban farm (which is less than a half-acre and is shared by my house, dogs, and chickens). Once I had the general layout drawn, I labelled each block of beds and then numbered each bed within that block. In order to do this accurately, you are going to need exact measurements of each of your growing areas.

    The standard bed width is 30”, which is what I recommend using, since most market garden equipment is designed for this width. Walkways come in a variety of sizes, but if you’re lacking space like me, then the smaller the better. I’m using 12” paths on my farm. Once you have all of this information you can figure out exactly how many beds you can fit and you will know exactly how long each bed is.

    urban garden

    Decide what seeds your planting

    Before you can make any sort of crop plan, you need to know what exactly you’re planting. If you’re trying to market garden, I would start out by staking out your local farmer’s markets and see what sells first. You want to have products in your area that people want to buy. Once you have a general list, go online and find the exact seeds that you want to order.

    Then, start a spreadsheet that has their days to maturity, how many weeks before last frost they can be planted, how many weeks they need to germinate indoors, bed spacing, how many seeds per foot of bed, and the link to purchase the seeds. All this information makes it easy to know exactly how much seed you need to order, how long the crop will take, and how much room you need. I recommend either getting a couple different varieties for each type of crop, or else plan on planting them in succession in order to get a constant supply throughout the season.

    seed-spreadsheet
    Using a spreadsheet will make things easier in the long-run

    Decide where to plant

    I make another spreadsheet for this part, only this one is a little more complicated. Each row is labelled for the individual beds, and each column is labelled for the weeks throughout the growing season. This makes it easy to block out the weeks for each crop within its specific bed. Growing in an urban setting means that you probably will want to max out each growing space, so the more beds you can flip during the season the better.

    With this layout you should be able to get a general idea for how much each bed can produce over the year. Granted, farming isn’t exact, so not all of your dates will actually line up when it comes to next season, but it will give you a good idea of what to expect. Before you get started filling out the meat of the spreadsheet, there are three main things you need to consider: crop rotation, sun exposure, and fertility.

    crop-rotation
    Color coding each plant will highlight the ones you need to rotate

    Crop Rotation - If you are gardening this year, then it is best to write down what crops you have where, so you make sure that you can rotate them for next year. Some crops, like potatoes, are more likely to get pests if they are planted in the same place year after year. Similarly, there are some crops that are best planted after another the crop the following year. For example, legumes replenish nitrogen, so it is good to plant corn where your beans were the previous year.

    Sun Exposure - Being on an urban farm means that you may not have full sun on every bed, which is fine. Some crops grow better with a little shade. I find lettuce much easier to grow in the summertime when it gets some relief from the midday sun. Other crops, however, do best with as much sun as possible, so just plan accordingly. Fertility - If there are some beds that you know aren’t as fertile as others, you may want to plant crops that demand less from the soil, or consider removing those beds from production for part or all of a season and plant a cover crop to increase organic matter and fertility.

    It may seem daunting but having this plan will help you immensely when preparing for the next season. You will be able to budget for seed, fertilizer, and crop yields, which are necessary for any market gardener. Good luck and happy planning!