The Great Green Indoors: Stave Off the Cooler Weather with a Lush Urban Garden

Kyle Mullin | Sep 6, 2016 2:30 pm | Add a comment | 1640 reads

As the heat of the summer fades, many Beijingers begin fretting about how to brace themselves for the capital’s drafty winters and stifling pollution. Sahra Malik says one of the best way to stave off those winter blues is to prepare early throughout the fall with your very own urban garden, so that some fresh sprouting greens can sustain you until the warmer weather returns. Malik, the CEO of Shangrila Farms has maintained her own urban garden for years, and has also worked to make her business an indispensable resource for fellow Beijingers who long natural products.

What tips would you give to someone planting an urban garden for the first time this fall?
Especially for beginners, I would advise that you look for plants that are easy to grow, lower maintenance plants. Some need a lot more care and attention than others. Quite often with an urban garden, people like to grow herbs and vegetables, things you can harvest and things that are easy to grow. They're fun, because you can plant them and wait awhile and you can see the fruits of your labor.

Can you give us some examples that are both entry level and more challenging?
I'd suggest starting with basil, rosemary and thyme, even peppers, lettuce and carrots, those kinds of vegetables. Tomatoes are a very popular choice, but they're not so easy. They grow well and abundantly, but I found my tomato plant to be quite time consuming, because when they start growing they grow fast, and you need to constantly prune them. You also need to make some sort of structure that holds your tomato plant together, otherwise it'll flop over.

Do you think autumn is a good time to begin urban gardening?
Yes, but keep in mind that Beijing gets very cold in the winter, and many plants won't survive outside. So if you have a garden or patio in the spring through early fall you can keep your plants outside, but you’d want to have them in movable pots, so you can bring them indoors during the winter. That's what we did – we had very good sunlight, and brought our plants indoors in the winter, and they did just fine.

In order for that to work though, you want to make sure you have a sunny area inside that you can put your plants in. Also, this will require a bit of research to be successful, because some plants love a lot of sun and some don't. Some require trial and error. That was the case for my orchids – in direct sunlight they didn’t do so well, but they also didn’t like too much shade. Some plants are temperamental. So it’s good to chat up the person selling you your plants, or do some research online, so you can figure out what's the best for your setup in your home.

What other urban gardening tips do you have?
I, like most people who grow things in their house, really advise against pesticides or fertilizers, seeing as you're not doing heavy farming or agriculture. There are lots of natural alternatives.

What are some examples of that?
Let’s say you have lots of small bugs. The first thing you can try is homemade recipes like soap water, which you can put in a bottle and spray it on the plants. Hot sauce also works. That’s much better for indoor crops than chemically based alternatives.

I'd also recommend using coffee grounds or tea in the soil, which is a nice way to make them nutrient rich. Simply sprinkling some coffee grounds in the soil, then pouring water on top, will create really lovely soil.

But above all – if this is your first time trying urban gardening – I have to recommend again that starting with herbs or simple vegetables is the best way to go. Also consider the difference between planting seeds and seedlings that have already begun to grow – the latter is easier, rather than starting form the very beginning with seeds. You can try some more high maintenance vegetables, once you start feeling more ambitious.

All of this will help give you a beautiful urban garden. And that’s great because I think – especially in Beijing in the autumn or winter, when it can get quite grey outside – having an indoor garden is a great way to add color to your life.

If you like this article, but are still intimidated by the prospect of growing indoors, check out this article, “How to Make Your Own Aquaponic Garden” by Robynne Tindall.

This article first appeared in the September/October issue of our magazine. Read the rest of the issue here.