8 Tips for Successful Apartment Gardening

Apartment gardening has become even more popular in the last year, and for good reason. While we were all staying at home, there was time to explore new hobbies! If you’ve wanted to start gardening but feel limited by your apartment (or by your less-than-green thumb), this article is for you. 

Check out our tips and tricks for turning your apartment rental into an oasis of greenery.

Start with hardy plants. 

While you may love the look of that fiddle leaf fig, if you’d like to avoid frustration, you may want to start your apartment gardening adventure with something a little easier to care for. If you like the look of desert plants, try creating a succulent garden. All you need is well draining soil, a few plants from your local nursery, and a wide, shallow dish or planter. If you’re really in a hurry to have the look of greenery, you can even find some succulents pre-planted in a nice planter at many nurseries.

Another option is a plant like a pothos, spider plant, air plant, or rubber plant in a nice pot. These types of plants usually just need occasional water and are flexible on the amount of light they need, so they do well in many locations in your apartment. Plus, if you’re a little forgetful on the watering, they’ll be more forgiving.

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Take a look at your natural light situation.

Do you have a lot of windows in your apartment? What about a sliding door? Do you get morning or afternoon light? All of these factors will come into play for your apartment garden. You’ll want to choose plants that will thrive in your light conditions, and make sure to place them accordingly. For example, in your bedroom, you may want a plant that does well in low-light conditions, like a snake plant. But if you have a nice, well-lit area of your home, like a den with a sliding door, you could get a plant that requires more light throughout the day, like a ponytail palm.  

Consider your lifestyle.

Depending on how you spend your time, you may want to opt for more low-maintenance plant options. If you’re travelling quite a bit, opt for plants that need water at most once per week. If you’re going to be home often, you can branch out into plants that require a bit more care. No matter what you choose, as long as you follow along with what your plants need, you’ll be rewarded with a beautiful indoor space.

Try growing ingredients for your kitchen.

Do you love to cook? Then your apartment garden can help you bring the flavor to each meal! Plant herbs you’ll use often, like basil, dill, chives, rosemary, and more. Plus, if you’ve got room, you can plant the veggies you use most in planters! Try lettuces, radishes, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers—you can plant them indoors or even take your containers onto your patio space to maximize your harvest. 

Take your apartment garden vertical.

Apartments tend to be painted neutral colors, which means that there’s usually a lot of wall space without a lot of character. Adding a vertical plant shelf can bring some visual interest to your home in a different way than wall art does, keeping your décor fresh while still being functional. Plus, having a shelf gives you the space to have more plants without tripping over them!

Don’t apartment gardening too seriously.

Starting an apartment garden is going to involve a little trial and error at different points in the process. But the nice thing about starting an apartment garden? There are tons of resources out there to help you trouble shoot! Sites like The Sill not only offer shopping options, they have great advice on how to keep your new plants alive and thriving. 

If you’re looking for more ideas about how to display your house plants, check out this article.

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