Lifestyle
Starting a City Garden: What to Plant
With access to some outdoor space, spring’s the perfect time to start a (mini) city garden. 
Here are some plants you can easily start growing in the city:
- Tomatoes are a great beginner crop
- Radishes thrive even in less-than-perfect soil conditions & are ready to harvest in mere weeks!
- Mixed greens arrive in either summer or fall so you can get your fill of home-grown salads!
- Onions – if they don’t do well, you can always eat the greens.
- Bush zucchini don’t take up much room and are prolific.
- Diamant strawberries are mildew-resistant and delicious.
Since I’ll be starting a city garden soon, I’ll keep you updated of my progress!
Posted by Julie
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Julie Hancher is Editor-in-Chief of Green Philly, sharing her expertise of all things sustainable in the city of brotherly love. She enjoys long walks in the park with local beer and greening her travels, cooking & cat, Sir Floofus Drake.
View all posts by Julie Hancher
We plant eggplant and peppers every year as well as many others. We don’t live in the city (Drexel Hill) and know how hard it can be with not a lot of space to plant.
Will this be a community garden? I love the idea and remember you can also plant many things in pots too for those without yards. Tomatoes, herbs, cucumbers and squashes can be planted in pots and use a garden trellis to hold the vines up.
Great ideas, Julie. I have garden envy – can’t wait to move to an apartment where I can start one!
Hey Tina! Thanks for your comments. Unfortunately I’ll be testing my green thumb on a few pots (I’ve successfully raised a bonzai tree, so now i’m moving onto produce.) since i don’t have a plot of land. PA Horticultural Society has some stuff @ community gardens on their website – check it out: http://www.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org/phlgreen/current-communitygardens.html
I recently ran by a ‘community garden’ by the schuylkill river trail – apprx lombard and 25thish? Not sure how it works, but definitely looked intriguing!
Peppers… i’ve had success with Thai peppers and jalapeno…. and with tomatoes be sure to get some that are compatible with pots… it should say so on the tag.
cheers
stay green
Thanks PepperKatz! We’ll be adding some hot peppers to our mix also!