Green Your City Space With an Upcycled Urban Garden.

Living in a high-rise apartment has its pros and cons. On the one hand, it’s convenient, hip and pretty fun overall. On the other hand, it can be a little dreary. All those steel buildings and artificial structures are enough to get anyone down; they don’t call it a concrete jungle for nothing.

So what’s an urbanite to do if they want to spruce up their drab city space? Start an upcycled urban garden, of course!

Many are familiar with the term “upcycled,” but for the uninitiated, here’s a quick definition: rather than recycling old items for their raw materials (recycling,) upcycling takes old items and repurposes them, as is, into fabulous new fixtures.

And as it turns out, gardening goes great with upcycling.

Upcycling Possibilites

Whatever it is, if you can put dirt in it, you can probably upcycle it for use in an urban garden. Old shutters, trashed wine crates, dilapidated license plates, and broken ladders are all fair game.

Potential Botanicals

There’s a plethora of planting options, too. Anything is possible, from a complete herb garden with mint, basil, rosemary and thyme to a low maintenance succulent garden with jade, aloe and various cacti.

Get Started

Your creativity is the only limitation when it comes to building an upcycled urban garden. See a few of the most popular ideas in practice in the graphic below.

Walk the Talk with Waylon Lewis // Green space and free food? I’m in!

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Editor: Emily Bartran

Photos: Travis Modisette/Flickr