Each of the items listed in this section have been designed to enhance your learning experience and provide a foundation for the core lecture.
What are some limiting factors of urban gardening?
What is essential for food production?
How can those essentials be provided in a small or indoor space?
This week, you will learn how to maximize the space you have both indoors and outdoors to grow delicious herbs, fruits, and vegetables.
Your local Coordinator will host a class session in person that will include hands-on activities and discussions. These activities will deepen your understanding of this week's topic and help you connect with your fellow interns and local Association.
These resources will help you dive deeper into this week's topic.
Use these questions and case studies to deepen your understanding of this week's topic. You don't have to turn in your answers, but you may discuss them in class.
Think of yourself as well as your friends, neighbors, coworkers- what are some of the most common issues you have seen with small scale food production? Were they site related? Maybe porches or patios with not enough light or too much heat. Were they material related? Maybe containers that were too small or growing media that didn’t drain well or introduced pathogens? Were they crop selection related? Maybe vining or large crops that were hard to manage or just took too much space or time?
What are some of the pros and cons of small-scale food production indoors versus outdoors? These pros and cons can include cost of materials to get started, knowledge of growing environments, consistency of the environment, ability to automate management, range of crops you can grow in these different environments.
We have talked in several lectures now about soilless media (peat, pine bark, coconut coir, perlite, vermiculite). Now that you know them a little bit more, why do you think these materials are so common in horticultural production and in many types of residential or community food production?
If someone you know wants to get started with small-scale food production, what steps or methods would you suggest to them?