How Can I Make a Garden in the Small Space Outside My Apartment?
While many of us would love to plant a big, sprawling garden full of different plants, the reality is that not everyone has the space to do this. Many people live in apartments or condominiums that don’t provide a ton of outdoor space to plant gardens. Thankfully, there are some great methods to plant a garden, even if you only have access to a tiny little slice of outdoor space — or even none at all.
First and foremost, you should start with modest plans, and expand from there. Choose a couple of plant varieties that don’t take up too much room, and grow them in a spot that gets plenty of light. By growing one or two small plants in containers, you can take the first steps toward having an actual garden, without making the leap into a full garden’s worth of commitment.
Speaking of containers, if you only have a small outdoor space to work with, you’ll almost certainly want to do some type of container gardening. For many people who live in apartments or condos, there simply is not enough space to plant a traditional garden plot, even if you have a balcony or deck.
One of our favorite options for growing plants in a small space is organic container gardening. This form of gardening only requires a pail or bucket, some organic potting soil, seeds, water, and light. If this interests you, you’ll want to take a look at our selection of plastic pails. We have a few different sizes available, and all you need to do is drill a few holes for water drainage. They even come with their own handles, so they’re ready to hang wherever you have space!
A fun twist on this idea is to grow an herb garden using canning jars. Here at BottleStore.com, we have dozens of different styles, sizes, and shapes of glass jars that you can use to plant your herb garden. Herbs don’t typically require much soil or water, so you don’t have to worry about using large containers, or even ones that can drain off excess water.
You can really maximize limited space by building tiered planters. You can do this by stacking two or three different sizes of containers on top of each other, with the largest on the bottom and the smallest on the top. As long as your containers have plenty of drainage capacity, you can grow several different types of plants while only taking up a tiny amount of square footage.
Do you only have access to a windowsill or perhaps a Juliet balcony? An option would be to set up planting boxes that can hang from a ledge or railing. You can even attach a gutter to these surfaces, which can allow you to grow relatively large amounts of herbs or other small plants without taking up much space.
Another great option is building a vertical garden. All you need for this setup is to hang up a pallet or purchase a vertical planter. With a vertical garden, you don’t need any horizontal square footage at all — you can simply hang your garden from the external wall outside your apartment or condominium.
If you want to show off a bit of artistic flair, you could plant terrariums. In addition to your plants and soil, you can fill a terrarium with rocks, pebbles, or sand, and you can even integrate fish tank decorations like tiny castles, pieces of driftwood, etc. — just use your imagination! If you want to give this idea a shot, you might want to use our 16-oz or 32-oz round glass jars.
No matter which form of gardening you choose to pursue, BottleStore.com has a wide variety of containers and other accessories available on our Gardening and Hydroponics page. In addition to the aforementioned pails, buckets, and jars, you can find bottles with sprayer pumps to help you keep your plants fed and watered, along with jugs to store fertilizer or compost in.