Secrets to Revitalize Your Urban Backyard: Cultivating Efficient Gardens

Most North American cities have seen massive population increases over the last couple decades, and if one thing’s for certain, it’s not going to slow down any time soon. Real estate is tough to acquire. If you’re looking for a property big enough to be able to start a garden in, it can seem daunting. But here at BigYellowBag, we like to think on the brightside! You may be working with less space than you’d hope to create your backyard sanctuary, but we’re here to tell you that you can revitalize your backyard with small-footprint urban gardens! If you get a little creative, you can create a small garden that not only looks great, but that can help lower your grocery costs and keep your family eating fresh, healthy veggies throughout the growing season!

Container Gardening

A great way to utilize a small backyard space for growing is by using containers to grow in! Everything from tomatoes to lilies can be grown in containers. If you take the time to properly plan and layout your container garden, you can become the envy of every gardener in your neighbourhood. When choosing containers you have a lot of options. There are so many cheap options if you’re okay with growing in plastic. Many environmentally conscious gardeners opt to avoid plastic though, and instead will turn to materials like wood to construct containers for gardening.

Use a simple design, and try to select inexpensive wood especially if this is your first time making your own containers. Simple wood boxes can be great for growing vegetables, herbs, or flowers. No matter what you’re growing, be sure to design an appropriate way of draining your wood containers. Including some drain holes as well as using a layer of crushed stone on the bottom of your boxes will go a long way ensuring that your containers drain properly.

If you’re feeling confident in your container building abilities, get creative with your designs! There’s so many ways you can optimize your gardening space with containers. Consider building a rack that you can hang multiple boxes on. We’ll get more into this concept in our next section about vertical gardening. The beauty of container gardening is that it’s modular! You can continue to adapt and evolve your container garden throughout the year to make your setup ideal for what you’re growing. Always consider sunlight exposure when you’re placing your containers, and be aware of plants that need more shade or more sun. It’s worthwhile to put together a garden plan and carefully choose containers and placements depending on what you’re planting.

Vertical Gardening to Revitalize Your Backyard

Small backyard spaces can offer unique challenges to the modern gardener. So many pre-built raised garden beds simply don’t fit in yards with small footprints! While homeowners with traditional sized yards can start with a small garden and build it out, if you’ve got a small yard you should consider building up instead. The most common tool when vertical gardening is the trellis. So many common North American plants take to growing on trellis’ very easily. Get some smaller garden beds installed near fences, and setup some trellis against the fence. Choose trellis-climbing veggies like snow peas, cucumbers, or some smaller tomato varieties. If it’s flowers that you’re hoping to fill your trellis with, check out morning glories, honeysuckle, clematis, or black-eyed susan vines.

Trellis’ aren’t the only structure that will help you grow up! Wall-mounted planters are another common way of expanding your small gardening footprint. Hang planters from fences, or on bare walls when it’s possible. Many vertical-gardeners like wall-mounted planters for growing herbs and flowers. Imagine being able to step into your backyard to grab herbs off the wall any time you need something fresh for your latest recipe! You could also plant several vegetable varieties in wall-mounted or hanging planters. Cherry tomatoes, lettuce, and small varieties of peppers can thrive in these kinds of planters.

Use Stackable Containers to Revitalize Your Backyard!

Stackable containers can also be a great tool for growing-upwards when you revitalize your backyard. This option typically provides the most amount of growing space. Stackable containers can multiply the area you’re growing in by stacking. There’s many different types of stackable garden containers and you should choose the type that fits best in your space. Mix-it up in your stackable garden containers and take advantage of companion planting benefits! This will be the closest thing to a traditional garden that many people can achieve in small backyards. Get creative and think about different ways you can lay out your containers, or combine a container structure with a small raised bed. You can change the entire dynamic of your backyard with vertical gardening!

BigYellowBag Black Garden Soil for Urban Gardening

One of the most crucial parts of your 2025 urban gardening success is the growing medium you choose. Our Black Garden Soil is engineered to grow everything better, and plants in containers are no exception. BigYellowBag Black Garden Soil is rigorously tested to maintain high organic matter content as well as nutrient levels. No matter what you’re growing in your small urban garden, our Black Garden Soil will make sure your plants have the best chance for success.

When it comes to container gardening, you may want to consider amending your Black Garden Soil with some vermiculite. Vermiculite retains a little more moisture so that in well draining pots or containers, there will still be plenty of water to keep your plants hydrated. Typically a 30% ratio of vermiculite to Black Garden Soil is sufficient to boost the moisture retention a little. To mix that ratio approximately, do one shovel of vermiculite for every two shovels of Black Garden Soil!

Be careful when selecting your vermiculite variety. It’s easy to confuse horticultural vermiculite with vermiculite insulation granules. It may seem obvious, but you’ll want to select the horticultural vermiculite for amending your Black Garden Soil with. The insulation granules can be vulnerable to contamination. This vermiculite mixture, along with the crushed stone at the bottom of your containers, will help ensure the right moisture/air/soil combination to boost plant performance.

Let Us Know Your Secrets to Revitalize Your Backyard!

We’re confident that with the proper planning, layout, and of course BigYellowBag Black Garden Soil, your 2025 urban garden is going to look incredible. There’s so many variables when it comes to gardening. I’m sure we’ve left out many helpful tips and tricks. Let us know in the comments what “secrets” you can share to help other urban gardeners this year.

BigYellowBag Black Garden Soil is the secret you need to revitalize your backyard! No lugging, no mess, and the BigYellowBag keeps the weather out and your soil in, so you can work with it at your pace. Order yours today at BigYellowBag.com!