Urban Container Gardening Classes

Posted in Adult Education on April 24 2013, by Lansing Moore

In New York City, where space comes at a premium, it helps to live by the mantra “Great things come in small packages,” even when it comes to gardening. Container gardens, tree well plantings, and terrace gardens are the easiest way to add a small-scale garden to the average city apartment, and they can be beautiful, too.

Over the course of two sessions in March, Daryl Beyers showed his class how to get the most out of placing a few plants in a simple pot. The results were these charming, self-contained gardens, perfect for even the most space-starved New Yorker.

If you would like to try your hand at container gardening, the Garden’s Adult Education program is offering two special Saturday sessions in May! “All About Containers” is a daylong boot camp on May 4 in the Bronx and will cover all the basics of container gardening.

Growing your own vegetables in the city may seem like a daydream, but it is possible, especially if you have a good teacher. “Contain Your Urban Enthusiasm,” held in Manhattan at the Midtown Education Center on May 18, will introduce novices to the joy of vegetable gardening in containers, even for people with more shade than sun.

Urban growing conditions like wind and baking sun can make container-bound plants especially thirsty. Adding drip irrigation to your container gardens can significantly improve the health of your plants, and our upcoming class “Drip Irrigation for Containers” on May 11 at the Midtown Center will instruct you in the basics of installing this time- and money-saving system.

So if you’d like to flex your green thumb in the city this summer, the Garden is the place to learn the essentials for having a healthy, happy container garden.