Startup #4: Urban Garden Tools and Supplies website

It has been widely reported that the current recession is creating a home gardening boom. This AP article includes a graphic which shows 43 million households will grow their own produce in 2009, up from 36 million in 2008. Of those surveyed, 54% of those are doing it to save money, and 21% are doing it for the first time in 2009. That means there is a significant portion of Americans who have no idea what they are doing and yet are still trying to build their own home garden. Someone enterprising with a green thumb could really capitalize on this market, especially in urban areas.

Even I have been bitten by the urban gardening bug, but I have no idea how to get started. Usually I try to take a DIY approach to things (especially with computers/technology/programming), but I'm not about to try to build a self-irrigating planter out of a soda bottle to put on my windowsill and hope for ripe tomatoes. I would much rather go to some central urban gardening website and have the necessary supplies mailed to my apartment with helpful and friendly instructions. I would also like the urban gardening website to have some type of community forum for complete idiots. I can't be alone in this (and in fact, I know I'm not because I've talked to many other young urban dwellers with the exact same want/need).

Someone please get on this so I can make my own pesto.

UPDATE: This urban gardening blog is awesome. But they're just giving away free info; there's still a need for a sales-based urban gardening product site.