Grower's Guide

What fruits and vegetables should you grow on an urban farm? The options are nearly limitless, especially if your urban farming business is using greenhouses to facilitate growing. When you launch an urban farming business, you will want to grow what your community wants in terms of vegetables and fruits. Before you plant crops, it’s important to canvas the community and find out what types of produce they consume. This may dictate certain vegetables, spices, and herbs that are not native to your region. If you have a high tunnel greenhouse, the possibilities are endless. You can go beyond what the USDA’s hardiness zone map indicates. However, while thinking outside the box to please your community is great for business, you should also grow the basics that thrive well in your specific climate conditions, too.

What Fruits and Vegetables Can Your Urban Farming Business Grow?

There are many everyday staples you can grow on an urban farm throughout the year. For example, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and squash can grow in the summer in just about any region. Leafy greens like lettuce, cabbage, kale, and collards have strong leaves that can withstand the frost. You can grow just about any type of potato in the ground or in buckets at any time of year. And you can grow strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries in the spring for high summer demand. Let’s look at some of the various fruits and vegetables your urban farming business can produce.

Root Vegetables and Tubers: Simply put, root vegetables such as carrots are vegetables with edible roots. Tubers are s

Urban farming is becoming more popular in America as people are turning to growing their own food in densely populated areas. What exactly is urban farming? According to Greensgrow.org, it’s any growing operation within a city that sells the food it produces. While there are many different techniques to creating the perfect environment for growing crops, here are some proven solutions to successful urban farming.

Finding the Right Location

Maybe you already own a plot of land and want to convert your backyard into an urban farm. Or if you don’t want to dig your yard up, you can rent or buy a plot of land. But before you get those seeds in the ground, look at the site’s security, access to water, soil quality and the distance you’ll have to travel to get there. Additionally, how close are you to a food dessert, and can urban farming help the community thrive? Also, check for zoning laws in your state: some states prohibit land use within city limits for agricultural use. Size doesn’t matter. Efficient landscaping techniques can help you carve out a garden in your small space. If you’re a first-time farmer, you may want to use less than a quarter acre to start. However, more land will give you room to expand, store equipment, add a greenhouse, and even ro