How to Start a Garden When You Live in an Apartment

Just because you live in a small space or lack a private yard doesn’t mean you have to give up on all of your gardening dreams! No matter your situation, you don’t have to have a huge yard and tons of time on your hands. You simply have to think small and get creative with the available space at your disposal. Here are some tricks on how to maximize the potential of your apartment for growing your garden!

1. Observe how much light each room or outdoor space receives during the day

Depending on how much sun your apartment gets everyday will determine what kind of plants will thrive in the space. Plants usually come in three varieties: full sun, partial sun, or shade. If you don’t get a lot of sun, you may want to consider shade-living plants. If your apartment has tons of windows that bring in lots of natural sunlight, plants that love partial or full sun will thrive in this environment.

Don’t have enough sunlight but love sun-loving plants? Bring in some artificial sun! Plant sunlight lamps allow you to supplement the sunlight your plants are missing. Sunlight lamps are especially handy when you are trying to grow flowers, herbs, or vegetables from seeds or seedlings. You can even put the lamp on a timer so you can shut off the light at the same time every night.

2. How much of your living space are you willing to sacrifice?

The average apartment size in America is 941 square feet. That’s not a lot of space if you have a lot of furniture and other belongings. Now, there are ways to maximize the available space in your apartment so you can still have tons of plants. Add wall mounted shelves to the wall and line them with your favorite potted plants. This is perfect for smaller flowers such as African violets or even common cooking herbs.

You can even create a modern floating effect by mounting terra cotta planters directly to the wall. Check out this DIY Terra Cotta Pots Planter Wall blog for step-by-step instructions on how to create an entire garden space right on your living room wall! This not only saves space in your apartment – but it also saves you money since you won’t have to buy any decor!

3. Buy the appropriate pots or raised gardening beds for your plants

Here is the fun part, buying all the pretty pots to plant your flowers in! If you already have planters or flower pots no problem, but if you don’t, now is the perfect time to consider creating a cohesive design. For example, choose flower pots of all one type such as the traditional terra cotta pots. Or you can choose planters of all one color to complement your home decor. Whatever you choose, make sure you have the right planter for the job.

Do you want to grow vegetables? Depending on the type of vegetable you may want to consider specially made containers or raised garden beds. Raised planters give you ample surface area while keeping the dirt and plants raised to a comfortable height so you can easily weed or prune as needed.

Bonus Idea: Consider purchasing a free-standing shelving unit where you can arrange all of your potted plants and herbs. This allows you to keep your garden in one convenient location, and it takes advantage of unused vertical height.

4. Plan Ahead for the winter months

If you live in sunny California or temperate Florida, this may not be a problem for you. But if you’re like the rest of us, cold weather hits once a year and seems to last forever. So you should plan ahead what you want to do with any potted plants you have on your balcony or patio. Annual plants only last for one growing season, so by the time winter hits they don’t need to be brought inside. Simply store the planters for next season!

Perennial plants last for more than one growing season, so you will probably want to bring these plants inside for the winter months. So before you decorate your patio with tons of perennial flowers, please be aware you will have to bring these plants indoors for the winter months so they don’t die in the cold weather. Make sure you plan ahead and have space for these planters once the snow starts to fly.

5. Most importantly – don’t go overboard!

Remember, this is how to garden while living in a small space. Your space will get even smaller if you go overboard and fill your home with tons of plants! Pick the flowers that are most important to you and bring you joy, and have some fun tending them this summer!

Subscribe to the Organize-It blog for more organization tips and tricks. Learn more at Organize-It.com.