Mike Lieberman is the Urban Organic Gardener. Living in the concrete jungle that is New York city hasn’t stopped Mike from growing his own food and composting his own food waste. Here’s how he did it.
Mike Lieberman - The Urban Organic Gardener
One of the biggest obstacles that I had in getting started in urban gardening was getting started. That’s probably the biggest obstacle for others as well. I’ve never taken on such a project and was pretty intimidated. I got over that quickly though. Hopefully, you will too.
At first, I began reading some blogs and took out books from the library. After about five minutes of reading my interest waned, but still wanted to grow my own. I then decided that I was just going to start a vegetable garden. Forget the experts and the books.
Think about it. What did people do hundreds of years ago? They didn’t have fancy certificates and take courses. They just planted. That’s what I wanted to do. Make it simple again.
The small reading and research that I did do was on what to grow the vegetables in. After coming across self watering containers, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. Not only would they fit nicely on my fire escape, but it’s earth-friendly and could build using recycled materials for under $5.
So I got everything set up and planted on my fire escape garden at the end of May and was able to get my first lettuce harvest in June.
We’ve become so disconnected with our food source that on the average it travels 1,500 miles from farm to plate. So I got pretty overwhelmed when I had my first fire escape salad. Forget the travel, I was able to trace my produce from fire escape to bowl.
In addition to the fire escape garden, I also built up my own indoor compost bin in my kitchen. Most of the trash that I generate is food scraps. This was the perfect way to reduce my waste and reuse it as a part of my garden.
The lesson that I quickly learned with composting is to be easy on the food scraps. The smell was horrific, but quickly resolved and haven’t had it since.
Overall this has been one of the most fun and rewarding projects that I’ve ever taken on. It’s one that I encourage all of you to take on as well. There’s no excuses.
Photos
On fire escape
Thanks to Mike for his contribution. You can keep up with Mike’s antics on Twitter too: @CanarsieBK
