A Quick Start Guide To Grow Your Own Micro Food Garden

By Alyson Lundstrom

(Originally published for ZeroMe)

For apartment dwellers and urbanites, creating your own food system isn't as hard as it may seem. With a little space-saving creativity, you can be making brunch from your sustainable micro garden in just a few weeks.

How To Start Your Own Micro Food Garden

For thousands of years, collectives of people in villages have adapted the time-honored practice of dividing and conquering. Where one family was designated the village hunter, another was tasked with building shelter, but the growers are perhaps the most essential part of any community.

Unfortunately, as a society, we have eschewed the farming traditions of our ancestors and become overly dependent on our grocery shelves. To meet a growing global population, our produce is being grown to meet demand which involves the rising use of pesticides, agriculture, and natural resources.

In addition, every grocery store trip has its own environmental footprint, from the type of transportation you use to get there to the packaging that you end up buying alongside the food.

Growing your own micro garden is an act of food rebellion that can reduce both fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions. The truth is, food is built to literally grow itself in the right conditions, and with a little bit of attention, the countertop or back porch can become the new grocery store shelf, so let's get growing!

What Is A Micro Garden?

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines a “micro garden” as an intensely curated small space that supports the cultivation of vegetables, herbs, roots, and tubers in containers or on countertops.

They can be highly productive and efficient tiny gardens that maximize small spaces like apartment balconies, kitchens, and even front yards to create the most local and low impact of all food options.

Space

A back porch repurposed front yard or even a countertop will make a great starting space for your micro garden.

Research by FAO has shown that just 11 square feet can yield up to 200 tomatoes a year,100 onions every 120 days, and a wide variety of herbs, which if nothing else, is an incredible amount of salsa waiting to be made.

Containers

Micro gardens typically utilize upcycled bins, plastic-lined wooden boxes, or even upcycled tires. Upcycled containers are a great resource if you are limited to a countertop.

If you are limited on space in your yard, consider growing up! Vertical gardens are easy to maintain and great solutions for small spaces.

What Can You Grow In a Micro Garden?

If you are new to gardening and need a confidence boost, start with herbs that are generally forgiving, grow quickly, and are versatile. They are also a great starting point for countertop locations that might not offer the depth of soil needed to grow larger vegetables.

Outside you can minimize your space and maximize your yield by choosing dwarf vegetable varieties. These tiny edible plants allow you to have variety without needing an excess of space:

Mini Lettuce
Swizzle Stick Celery
Pot Blueberries
Dwarf Peppers
Fairytale Eggplant
Red Robin Tomatoes
Romeo Baby Carrots

Micro Gardening Tips

Sharing is caring! Once you have your garden set up and growing, consider getting the neighborhood involved. Vegetable swaps are a great way to encourage a local food system that doesn’t leave a significant environmental footprint. It is cost-effective and allows the community to divide and conquer what they grow, making for more overall variety.
Consider starting a compost bin to upcycle food waste and create your own nutrient-dense soil.
Don’t get discouraged! Try different areas, container types, and soil to find your micro gardening sweet spot.