Plant-based diets are becoming incredibly popular, whether for ethical reasons or to reduce one’s carbon footprint, and, even if you’re not planning to go vegan or vegetarian, fresh greens are still essential to ensure healthy nutrient intake. In order to minimize your environmental impact, it is also important that those fruits and vegetables are sourced ethically and organically. 

Sadly, there are significant barriers in place for many trying to make these kinds of lifestyle changes, from prohibitive costs to food deserts. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven that beyond a doubt. However, everyone has the ability to grow some portion of their own food at home, be it just a few herbs or your entire menu.

Here’s how:
 

Windowsill Gardening: Basil and Composting

If you don’t have an outside area where you feel comfortable gardening, or if you’re a beginner to being a plant parent, then growing potted plants next to a sunny window is a great option for you. Herbs are the best plants for windowsill gardening and will likely end up saving you money in the long run. Basil, mint, parsley, chives, cilantro, and oregano are all good choices to start with, and all are relatively inexpensive and easy to grow from seed. They’re a great testing ground for your gardening skills, so don’t be too concerned if they die off after a certain number of months. Many herbs are annuals, meaning that they grow through an entire life cycle within a year.

Composting is essentially a controlled decay of food and plant waste with the purpose of turning them into nutrients for plants. Compost can also help improve the texture of both sandy- and clay-heavy soils. If you have access to a big backyard, then there are plenty of articles online on how to start composting on your own, but if you live in an apartment or condo this is much more difficult. Luckily, many waste agencies are now allowing you to place compostable food waste in your green waste bin, if you have one, and there are often community organizations with their own composting programs.  

 

Balcony Gardening: Tomatoes and Hydroponics

A relatively small collection of potted plants on your balcony has the potential to provide lots of fresh produce with the right care. Of course, your success will partially depend on how much sunlight your balcony gets and how vulnerable it is to heavy winds and hungry birds, but growing in pots tends to be easier than growing in the ground for beginners because it’s easier to isolate problems and control water and fertilizer application. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, zucchini, and similar plants work particularly well in a balcony environment, and they tend to produce lots of fruit relative to their size. Tomatoes and strawberries also work well as hanging plants if that’s an option that’s available to you.

If you have access to an electrical outlet, then hydroponics is also a great choice for balcony gardening. While some systems are fairly elaborate, most require just some PVC pipe, a motor, water, packets of nutrients, and small pots for your plants. In addition to the plants listed above, leafy greens like lettuce, kale, and chard grow well in hydroponics systems. A Google search will yield hundreds of results on how to install one, so chances are there will be an option that will fit your spatial and budgetary constraints.

 

Road Strip Gardening: Sage and Pollinators

Everyone who lives in suburban California is intimately familiar with the road strip, that piece of lawn or dirt in between the sidewalk and the road. Although it is actually owned (in most cases) by the city you reside in, you are normally considered to be responsible for maintaining it, which could easily include planting a garden! Although some people have had issues over permitting and such, most cities aren’t likely to mind too much, especially if you plant drought-tolerant plants that could end up reducing their water bill. On that note, road strips are different from the other kinds of gardens mentioned in this article in that you shouldn’t plant edible (for humans) plants there, unless they have a protective skin you won’t eat (like a lemon or orange, for instance). This is because particulate matter from passing cars will accumulate on the plants closest to the road, and consuming them could cause health problems later on. It is the perfect place, however to plant a pollinator garden.

Many essential pollinators, from birds to butterflies to bees, are threatened by habitat loss and degradation. Building a pollinator garden with California native plants will not only provide a place for pollinators to eat, and maybe even have young, but it will has the potential to provide lots of color outside your house, condo, or apartment while reducing water use. Here is a link to most of the nurseries and vendors that sell native plants throughout the state; all you need to do is put your zip code into Calscape for information on what plants are native specifically to the area and conditions where you live and you’re ready to start.

 

Yard Gardening: Potatoes and Raised Beds

If you’re fortunate enough to have access to a front or back yard where you can grow plants, then the possibilities are nearly endless. First of all, you will need to investigate the health and structure of the soil; some plants are better adapted to sand- or clay-heavy soils than others. If the soil seems to have decent drainage, but isn’t quite the right structure or pH (which you can measure with aquarium water quality kits), then raised beds are a great option, especially if you live with someone who may find it hard to bend down or be on their hands and knees for an extended length of time. Most hardware stores that sell lumber have either 2”x6” or 2”x12” boards, which I’ve found to be best for building raised beds. Your exact design is only constrained by the space in your yard, but I would suggest keeping it under four feet across, as it’s hard to reach the middle if it’s larger than that. 

In terms of picking plants to grow in the soil or raised beds, you need to look at two things (beyond soil health): the light requirements of the plants and the cultural requirements of each one (i.e., fertilizer, how frequently it needs to be watered, spacing, etc.). It will be nearly impossible to grow healthy full-sun crops in an area that is shaded for half of the day, and while it is possible to grow plants with wildly different cultural requirements next to each other, it is much easier if they are similar. Most seed packets explain the plant’s requirements on the back, as do most online seed distributors, so you should be able to determine what combinations will work well before you put anything in the ground.

 

Community Gardening: Corn and Reciprocity

Community gardens are a wonderful way to build stronger connections with your neighbors and your food at the same time. While the exact details of how the garden is laid out will depend heavily on the space that is available, the principles of how it is run are pretty much universal. Most community gardens are apportioned into plots, and different families can sign up to take care of them. The trick for keeping people involved, and getting them interested in the first place, is to build a culture of fun around the garden space. At the high school where I run a community garden, we host “Garden Parties” every other month, fundraisers where we provide free food, music, and karaoke for an entrance fee of $5. It’s a great opportunity to reach out to local artists, musicians, and restaurants or culinary programs. With the latter especially, you can offer to grow a selection of herbs, fruit, and vegetables for them to use in exchange for their donation of time or food, while many visual artists may be interested in painting a mural or sculpture for the garden space. 

If your community is able to maintain a garden, then it is also your responsibility to help ensure that all of your neighbors, in the broadest sense of the word, have access to fresh food. Whether you do this through seasonal donations to food banks or a CSA-type program, or another way, is up to your group to decide. If you come from a place of privilege and you’re truly passionate about saving the environment, then the first thing you should do is make sure that no one has to fight injustice on an empty stomach.