I’m a community gardener in Pittsburgh, do container gardening on my porch as well, and have been gardening almost my whole life. I also camp, bicycle, birdwatch and do a lot of other outdoor stuff, so I’m all about the greenery. But stuff has to work.
Anyone who wants to do balcony gardening is welcome to do so now, although you wouldn’t know that looking at all of the new apartment balconies on the Allegheny River. They are pretty bare of greenery. Container gardening is fairly inexpensive especially if you’re not paying a water bill, and the materials including started plants are all available at the Home Despot. It requires very little skill or study, but you have to water the frickin’ plants regularly. The number of otherwise intelligent people who are incapable of doing this, even with houseplants that are in the room with them, continues to confound and astonish me. It’s most people. All cities, including NYC even, have loads of gardening opportunities for people that want to do it now, and gardeners are doing it. I have lots of community gardens surrounding me, but some are inactive because that’s how it goes. It always takes one dedicated person to stick with it, and you don’t always have one. Unless you are selling your produce or services, gardening and landscaping are hobbies and it’s swell to share them with others, but everyone isn’t into it and can’t be made to get into it. So I wish there was gardening everywhere, but it would cost a lot of money just like everything else. You cannot expect people to volunteer to do anything.
