City Gardening.

M

MastaPowers

Veteran XV
I live in the city and have very limited green space. I do have a large driveway that i want to set up a garden in. My original plan was to build a box lined with a tarp. any other ideas please share.

Thanks.
 
you are building a garden in your driveway?

that seems odd. pics!


edit: tarp isn't gonna have proper drainage, so you'll get rot and nastiness in it.
 
i think they make material for this purpose.

and yes pics, because to me this sounds like it would go against city ordinance, and no i feel like NGFM
 
where do you live? in the summer blacktop/driveways get hotter than hell, so you have to account for that, and one of the best ways to take advantage of small spaces is to make use of vertical space as well.

here's a random bunch of shots that may give you some ideas
Rooftop Garden, 2007 - a set on Flickr

also, mulch is your friend
 
I live in Boston Massachusetts, so the garden would be seasonal. My driveway is not black top. But still I think that is a valid point about the pavement being heated.
 
Oshit, yeah, I should post some pix of shit I've done successfully in NYC.

I live in row houses, and I have a flat roof with access via ladder. I am the only one on the block who actually uses this valuable roof space, plus the dirt rectangle in the shared walkway in front of my house to grow edible stuff. I have rows of planters, including strawberries, a peach tree, peppers, cukes, tomatoes and scallions on my roof [scallions and tomatoes rock for city planting, they grow anywhere and in almost any clime], and have or have had, more scallions, onions, carrots, garlic, wide variety of herbs, asparagus and potatoes growing in my front area.

Common herbs and tomatoes/scallions are prolly easiest because they are like weeds and grow with little attention after you get em to sprout. Next would be peppers.

For a driveway I suggest building a planter box out of common Home Depot 4x4s, lining them with a pond tarp to keep the moisture in and to keep roots from going too deep. Then fill with dirt/soil and plant stuff. Also mulch everything, it's cheap. In NYC the DoS sometimes gives it away for free twice a year at dumps [it's literally ground up xmas trees from the winter before] , as much as you can possible carry away. And you should start composting using all organic kitchen waste, just put it in a huge tupperware type storage container in the yard, drill out some drainage and vent holes, keep it moist, and toss earthworms/bait worms in it to digest.

It's easy. And eating stuff you grew yourself rocks.
 
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You could maybe try aeroponic..

This is a pic of my setup on it's first day. It's since been improved upon, and intend to add another setup for 4 more plants, plus one large container for lettuce.

46621079750850307961850.jpg


Sorry for the shitty pics, but I just took these now in the rain...


img3862j.jpg

img3866e.jpg



My plants now are growing like crazy. If you are interested I will post more on it. The layout can be much smaller...all how you arrange your setup.
 
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No problem. Seriously, if this thread lives till the weekend i will get some pix and put them up. It's quite enjoyable and satisfying.

ITS SO EASY A CAVEMAN COULD DO IT!
 
Right, so here are those pix


The front garden. The left is the planter box, made out of 4x4s as I said, just decoratives in topsoil with mulch on the top. On the right are the veggies. Growing there are scallions [leftmost], garlic [rightmost, slimmer shoots] and in foreground the whispy things are actually asparagus allowed to go to head. They make great looking decorations, and after letting them grow untouched for one year, you can cut the heads for asparagus that you eat, and they'll grow back several times over one season.


Balcony on an addition to the back of my place. This is the top of a 2-story building, fyi. More scallions, but on the right the pots have various herbs. The tree is a peach tree in the corner.


Longer view from near front of the roof. Left you can see two small containers I use for creating compost from house food waste. The plastic shed keeps my tools and some other stuff I use up there. On the right those containers are leftovers from last year [and the ex-wife's stuff, which she never cleaned up], they are basically potting pots that went to seed/weed that I need to empty and toss. Last year I had peppers and tomatoes in them, and some broccoli that never really took..



A view along the housing row to show how much real estate up there goes to waste, hehe. The other direction is exactly the same and just as far.


My strawberries, two varieties, one that grows and spread from box to box like mad. They don't put out a huge harvest, but I like to keep them around. The berries this year are only tiny, not bigger than a dime and nothing as big as the ones in the store. Good to pop in a glass of wine tho. :D If you get a good starting batch of strawberries they will spread on their own if you let them, either by runners or airborne seeds when the berries drop off. The one darker set of leaves are a nicer species, and taste like cotton candy but don't yield or spread like the other variety. The lighter leaf variety is the one that spreads like a virus; it stated in one pot and invaded all nearby pots [growing other things at the time, hah!].


Close up of the peach tree. Its very happy despite it getting some leaf disease every year. Takes about 3 years of growing before a tree actually starts making peaches. The tree has several, you can see in the full sized pic.
 
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Mabelrode said:
Right, so here are those pix


The front garden. The left is the planter box, made out of 4x4s as I said, just decoratives in topsoil with mulch on the top. On the right are the veggies. Growing there are scallions [leftmost], garlic [rightmost, slimmer shoots] and in foreground the whispy things are actually asparagus allowed to go to head. They make great looking decorations, and after letting them grow untouched for one year, you can cut the heads for asparagus that you eat, and they'll grow back several times over one season.


Balcony on an addition to the back of my place. This is the top of a 2-story building, fyi. More scallions, but on the right the pots have various herbs. The tree is a peach tree in the corner.


Longer view from near front of the roof. Left you can see two small containers I use for creating compost from house food waste. The plastic shed keeps my tools and some other stuff I use up there. On the right those containers are leftovers from last year [and the ex-wife's stuff, which she never cleaned up], they are basically potting pots that went to seed/weed that I need to empty and toss. Last year I had peppers and tomatoes in them, and some broccoli that never really took..



A view along the housing row to show how much real estate up there goes to waste, hehe. The other direction is exactly the same and just as far.


My strawberries, two varieties, one that grows and spread from box to box like mad. They don't put out a huge harvest, but I like to keep them around. The berries this year are only tiny, not bigger than a dime and nothing as big as the ones in the store. Good to pop in a glass of wine tho. :D If you get a good starting batch of strawberries they will spread on their own if you let them, either by runners or airborne seeds when the berries drop off. The one darker set of leaves are a nicer species, and taste like cotton candy but don't yield or spread like the other variety. The lighter leaf variety is the one that spreads like a virus; it stated in one pot and invaded all nearby pots [growing other things at the time, hah!].


Close up of the peach tree. Its very happy despite it getting some leaf disease every year. Takes about 3 years of growing before a tree actually starts making peaches. The tree has several, you can see in the full sized pic.
Click to expand...

That's all really nice work :D
 
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