Fill the seedling pots with potting soil, this can be topsoil mixed with manure, rice husks, and other organic materials. Make sure there are some holes in the bottom of the pots so that water doesn’t collect there.

Sawi (Chinese cabbage) seeds.

Pumpkin seeds.

Long beans and snow pea seed pods; peel and remove the seeds.

Plant the seeds with a happy heart and smile on your face. Think of the seed like your child. A child will grow healthy in a family that is filled with love.

Label the seedling containers so you don’t forget what kind of seeds you planted. Place the seedlings in a place that is protected from direct sunlight, strong winds, and heavy rain. Ants love baby seedlings, so to protect them from ant armies, place your seedlings on a raised platform or table and put the table legs in a container of water. Remember to water your seedlings every morning and afternoon.

Some rhizome plants, like ginger, bongkot, and turmeric, can be planted directly in the land. The same goes for plant and root cuttings, such as cassava, bamboo, and banana. Pumpkin and long bean seeds also grow well directly in the lands. Seedlings and extra care is most important for vegetable plants, such as sawi, lettuce, chili, and tomatoes.

After a week, cute baby plants will start to appear :)

After about two weeks the seedlings can be planted in the land. Carefully remove the seedlings from the containers. Make sure to not damage the roots. Add the remaining potting soil around the plant roots so that the seedlings can adapt well to their new environment. Different types of plants can be planted close together, and this diversity is good for your garden.

If your land or garden bed is in direct sunlight or it is too hot during the dry season, you can add some shade, like the netting used here. Netting works well because it still allows some sunlight to pass through. Care for the young seedlings well. Make sure the soil doesn’t dry out and there is enough mulch around the young plants.

A healthy, organic home garden will not only reduce your expenses, but can also provide nutritious food for the whole family. And the area round your house will be greener, cooler, and of course beautiful. Extra vegetable produce can be shared with your neighbors, and they will love you more for that. But, make sure not to make your neighbor’s wife jealous. Remember, urban farming is the realization of the slogan: the neighbor’s garden is always greener.

Welcome to the Urban Farming Syndicate! Follow @BaliUrbanFarm on Twitter.

Click here to read part 1 of this article.

Especially if there is unused land around your house; instead of letting this become a toilet for your dogs, turn it into healthy vegetables. Instead of letting the snakes nest there, plant some snake-like vine plants. Instead of wasting time, roll up your shirtsleeves and get to work: Plant your own food! Lift your hoe, my friend!

Following are a few simple steps on how to plant a vegetable garden behind your house. When you start your garden, please share your farming stories and photos with Akarumput.com. Who knows, maybe you’ll find a love-connection with someone who is on the look out for a do-it-yourself partner, who is kind, passionate, and smells a little like soil.

Prepare the soil. You can start with a small plot and slowly expand slowly.

Loosen up the soil with a hoe and clear away any rocks, plastic trash, or used condoms.

Raise the soil and shape it into garden beds. Use any shape you like, long, square, circular, star shaped, spiral. Leave some space to walk through the garden beds, because you need to avoid walking on top of the beds to make sure you do not compact the soil.

If needed, add some nutrient rich soil which has been mixed with manure. In Denpasar, this soil can be bought at plant-shops for around 250,000-300,000 rupiah for a whole pick up truck full. But it’s even better if you mix your own potting soil with fertilizer, because the kind you can buy usually only contains a small amount of cow manure. Look, my dog Backer wants to donate some manure to the garden ;)

Husss!! Backer!!! Stop following me!!

Add some fertilized soil on top of the garden beds.

Now you can also add a layer of mulch on top of the garden beds. Mulch is made up of organic materials which will protect the soil from too much sunlight and make sure it stays damp underneath, while providing additional nutrients to the soil. Mulch could be rice husks, hay, woodchips, coffee husks, or dry leaves and grass. If you have pets at home, like Backer or chickens, make sure to add a fence around your garden. Use cheap and available materials. The fence could be made from tree cuttings. Legumes like lamtoro, kelor, kayu santan, and dapdap make great living fences. These tree cuttings will grow up to provide shade for your garden and the leaves can be used as a vegetable. Legumes are really useful for the soil, because when they are cut back, the nodules in the legume roots release nitrogen into the soil. In this photo you can see we used kelor and kayu santan as living fence, because kelor leaves are one of my favorite veggies. The garden fence can also be used as a place to grow vine plants.

To save space, use vertical gardening techniques, like pergolas for vine plants such as pumpkin, passion fruit, and long beans. Our garden uses bamboo weaving which leans against our neighbor’s wall so the pumpkin plants will grow vertical, not horizontal which takes up much more space.

While preparing the land, pots or polybags can be used to plant seeds. Again, use materials that are easily available. You can even use left over materials or rubbish as seedling containers, such as old soda cans, sardine containers, water bottles, milk cartons, or broken buckets.

Wow, urban farming serves so many purposes. Mmm, and this article is getting way to long. So stop back soon and follow @BaliUrbanFarm on twitter for more urban farming techniques.