If you have never tasted a home-grown tomato, fresh off the vine and warmed by the sun, I have the perfect summer project for you. Cultivating your own garden is not only a great way to spend time outside during the summer months, it also yields amazing produce that you can feel proud to cook and eat. Growing your own produce is a great way to eat more sustainably since it reduces the distance that your food travels from farm to fork.

If you, like me, grew up with parents who meticulously planned their summer vegetable garden starting in December, you may feel that moving to a city like San Francisco means the end to your summer gardening. This does not have to be true! There are plenty of options for city-gardeners, including plots in community gardens for rent and potted gardens.

The USF community garden is a great place to start if you want to increase your gardening proficiency and leave with some fresh produce. The garden has volunteer hours on Thursdays between 11am and 3pm and will certainly need help this summer when many students return home. There are also various community gardens around San Francisco, in which San Francisco residents can rent plot space to plant whatever they please. You can add yourself to the waitlist to have your very own garden plot!

USF student Siobhàn Larkin in the garden.
Source: USF community garden Website

A great resource for student gardeners (both on and off campus) is the USF Seed Library! The seed library is located behind the Thacher Gallery and has many different types of seeds that students can use as well as different books on gardening and seed cultivation. The idea of the seed library is that students can take the seeds for free, plant them, then harvest the seeds from the plant that they grow and return the seeds to the seed library. With that being said, if you are unfamiliar with seed harvesting, feel free to take seeds from the library without feeling a pressure to bring any seeds back.

USF Seed Library.
Source: Gleeson Library Website.

Another great way to garden in the city is by using potted plants or window boxes. You will be surprised by how many plants survive well in pots! In addition to herbs like mint, basil, chives, and cilantro (the list goes on), I will highlight a few heartier crops that do well in pots.

Choosing the right kind of pot for a potted garden is important! For plants other than herbs, you want to pick a large pot (larger than 12 inches in diameter) so that the roots have room to expand. If storing the pot outside, make sure that it is weather-proof and heavy enough that it will not be blown over by the wind. Additionally, it is important that your pot has holes for drainage, and that you place a plate beneath any indoor pots so they don’t leak water into your home.

A plant that survives well in a pot is the tomato plant–it actually prefers pots! Tomato plants are very susceptible to disease that can be carried in the ground, so they generally grow better in planter pots. Tomato plants grow well when surrounded by wire cages, which support vertical growth and keep the plants from drooping onto the ground. You can easily make a wire cage by sticking bamboo rods around the edges of your pot and wrapping wire around the perimeter, or you can buy a wire cage at your local garden store.