March 20th is the start of spring so what better day for a World Planting Day than March 21st! the days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising and it’s time to turn our minds to gardening, both inside and outside. Let’s the gardening begin!  

World Planting Day reminds us to start thinking about gardening and growing healthy, nutritious foods. As the days get longer and the temperatures begin to rise, focus shifts to thinking about outdoor activities, including getting your hands dirty reinvigorating or starting a garden.

Urban Gardening Brings Planting Back To The Cities

Recently, the aim of many young people and families with small children is to inspire city dwellers to start gardening in or around villages, towns, or cities. To make urban areas greener again. This so called ‘Urban gardening movement’ is the practice of growing food in an urban environment. But urban gardening is much more than that. It is a way for people to reunite with nature and the act of eating, and it is also a movement through which people are gaining more independence from the current industrial food system.

Think Global, Act Local

Ideally, urban gardening (sometimes also referred to as ‘urban agriculture’) represents the place where environmentally sustainable methods, the local economy, and relationships between people intersect, creating a thriving local food system and ensuring greater access to healthy food. And while the Plant wise program me, through the establishment of plant clinics, aims to reduce crop losses by tackling pests with the right knowledge, intending to improve food security of smallholder farmers in developing countries, urban gardening is a very powerful movement that can contribute to community food security in our urban village.

Urban gardening has led to a new trend and more and more people grow their own vegetables- for instance on their balconies. Mini-vegetables like small tomatoes, small cucumbers or zucchini can be planted on urban balconies. By using small wooden boxes, plastic buckets or clay pots, a biological vegetable garden can be created on a very space. Season and month are important factors for the sowing of vegetables. In order to catch the right moment for the sowing we share here a sowing calendar with some popular garden-grown vegetables.
Celebrate World Planting Day and contribute to a greener future by growing on your balconies and gardens!

About the Author : Hajra Ashfaq is doing BS In Environmental Science from GCWUS. She is also a green blogger and an executive member of marketing team of “The Earth Needs Love”