If you are anything like me, you love to garden but also know that
sometimes it can be difficult to know how to start out. This is
especially true if you live in an apartment or don't really have the
space to start a garden, and if money is tight. Luckily, there are
plenty of ways to garden in a small space, all while sticking to your
budget and not breaking the bank. This easy guide for gardening in small
spaces will help point you in the right direction.
1.) Coming Up With A Plan
The first step in gardening in small spaces is to come up with some
sort of game plan. If you live in an apartment and only have a balcony
or patio to garden on, then you are going to have to be a bit more
creative when it comes to finding a way to plant everything, while not
taking up all of your space with plants. The first step to coming up
with a good plan is to find inspiration. I have found that following
gardening, DIY, and landscaping boards on Pinterest
has helped inspire some of the best and most creative ideas when it
comes to gardening! Occasionally, these ideas have also helped me save a
few dollars in the process. If you do not already have a Pinterest
account, I highly recommend you get one and start following a few
gardening boards. They are loaded with all kinds of fun and quirky
ideas!
2.) Collecting Items
Once you have
a plan or at least some sort of idea on where you are going to start
with your garden, or what you would eventually like to achieve, the next
important step in gardening in small spaces is to start collecting the
tools and items you will need to garden in a small space. Reusing and
upcyling household items is a great way to garden efficiently, all while
saving space and money. Looking for items on websites like Craigslist or Freecycle,
or checking for gardening supplies at resale & thrift shops is
another great way to get more bang for your buck, and find unique items
that will work great in any garden! Some of my favorite garden treasures
have come from thrift stores.
Household Items That Work Great To Use As Planters
- Cans
- Milk Crates
- Bottles
- Jars
- Toilet Paper Rolls
- Lanterns
- Fish Tanks
- Fish Bowls
- Tires
- Old Toolboxes, Mailboxes, or Baskets
- Glassware
- Gutters
- Pipes
- Cinderblocks
- Concrete
- Wagons, Wheelbarrows, Wagon Wheels
- Lightbulbs
- Coffee Mugs
- Pallets
- Old Bird Baths
- Laundry Baskets
- Broken Terra Cotta Pots
- Metal Tea Canisters
- Watering Cans
3.) Get To It!
Once
you have a plan and the items you will need to start your garden, you
will want to buy soil, seeds, and plants if you have not already done
so. I have learned from experience that planting flowers, fruits,
veggies and herbs from seeds tends to usually work better than
transplanting plants that are already half grown and sold at the stores.
Seeds are also usually fairly inexpensive to buy, with prices usually
ranging anywhere from $1.00-4.00. I've found a variety of good seed
starters at places like Lowes and Target. Another thing you might
consider when purchasing seeds is trying to find items that you can
re-use later. What I mean by this is being able to save the seeds again
for next year, or replant from recycling plant parts.
(i.e. green onions, celery, pineapples, etc.) Once you've got all your
seeds and everything else you need, its time to get to it! Here are some cool ideas to help get you started:
Savvy Small Space Gardening Tips
Shoe Organizer Garden
- One cost effective and quirky way to garden in a small space is to
invest or recycle a canvas shoe organizer. This shoe organizer can be
hung up and kept off the wall with a few strips of wood. This type of
garden planter works great for growing herbs.
Salad Box -
If you are looking for an ideal way to plant lettuce, kale, or other
greens, then you might consider creating your very own salad box. Raised
beds on table legs or platforms work great for this type of garden
planter, and also require less bending over to tend to your garden,
which is even better. You can create your own simple salad box by
upcycling and hollowing out an old desk, or taking the drawers out of a
dresser. Other items that work well are redwood planter boxes with a few
1 x 4's. Simply piece these items together with a few tools like a
hammer, nails, and some glue, etc. and you're good to go.
Pallet Garden -
One of the easiest and most efficient ways to garden in a small space,
like on a balcony or patio is to get a pallet and set it vertically.
This type of planter works great for herbs like basil or rosemary, or
even to make a "catio" for your feline friend. You can grow some catnip
and other types of cat grasses within the pallets. Check out this easy
DIY guide to build your very own pallet garden.
Gutter Garden - Gutter Gardens are becoming more and more popular in small gardening spaces. This brilliant solution involves taking gutters
and connecting them to walls in a sunny area, so that they are off the
ground, away from bugs, animals, and a foundation that can sometimes
become too wet. Check out these cool DIY guides for gutter gardens and hanging gutter gardens.
Canning Jar Garden - Making a wall mounted Spice Rack from Canning Jars
is another cheap and easy way to garden in small spaces. This idea can
even be used by those individuals who don't have outdoor space to garden
in, at all. A canning jar garden will work great outdoors on your
patio, fence, balcony, garage wall, etc. or indoors on the wall of your
living room or kitchen.
Terraniums - Terraniums are a fun
idea for any gardener who loves to get creative and have fun while
gardening. Some of my favorite terraniums that I've made came from items
that I thrifted. (i.e. old fish bowls and spice bowls with lids, garden
gnomes, fake flowers and vines, rocks, pebbles, sand, etc.) A terranium
will add flair to any garden that is on a patio or balcony, or any
garden that is indoors.
Rain Boot Planter - Another
cheap and whimsical way to add a bit of style to any garden is to use
old rain boots as a planter. They can be hung from the walls, a fence,
or just sit on top of a table or the ground. This specific planter is a
fun idea to do if you like gardening with your kids.
Window Boxes -
Another cute and simple way to garden some of your favorite flowers or a
few of your favorite herbs is to invest in a window box. These can
usually be found at your local gardening store or a home goods store.
You can even re-use household items like wine boxes, baskets, and wooden
crates to make your very own window box. To add a bit of pizzaz, try
painting your box and distressing it. You can even buy some stencils and
write some cute messages or words on the box, to turn any plain old box
to an adorable window box in no time.
Coffee and Soup Can Garden- A coffee and soup can garden
is another easy idea when it comes to gardening in small spaces. Coffee
cans and soup cans are two everyday items that you probably already
have lying around the house. If you paint them to add a bit of charm and
then plant your favorite flowers or herbs in them, they can be placed
on the ground, window ledges, or tables, or even be hung from ceilings,
rafters, roofs, walls, fences, trees and poles.
Square Foot/Raised Bed Garden - Making your own
raised bed garden
doesn't have to be as difficult as it seems. In fact, you can even
measure out the specific amount of distance and feet you want the garden
to be. You'd be surprised just how many vegetables and flowers you can
manage to fit in just a few square feet. Cinder blocks work great for
this type of garden, especially if you are planting something like
strawberries. If you don't have enough space to build a raised bed
garden, you might even consider just using a few cinder blocks by
themselves and planting a select few plants and inside them.
Laundry Basket Garden - Laundry Baskets work great for gardening things like
potatoes.
They also work great for keeping around your garden when it comes time
to harvest your plants and rinse them off. Even better? A laundry basket
works as a natural strainer. Gone are the days of having to lug
everything in the house one item at a time to rinse and strain.
Conclusion
Feeling inspired yet? Remember, just because a space is small, doesn't
mean it can't have gardening potential. I live in an apartment and for
my garden I literally just went into the woods and collected buckets
full of rocks. Then I dug around our windows where the grass was dead,
and laid down some soil and river pebbles which I got on a summer sale
at Lowes, and then I outlined the landscape with the collected rocks. I
planted from seeds and spread mulch around, bought $2 solar lights from Target, and thrifted gardening tools like watering cans, and materials to make terraniums and gnome gardens.
I also bought 6 red bricks from Lowes for less than $20 and just dug
up a bit of grass in front of our patio where I wanted to place them,
placed them down in a curved path and patted the dirt back down. It took
about a year for the grass to grow in around it (I could have bought
grass seed and planted, but I was lazy) within a year's time, we now
have a cute DIY path leading from our patio do our small garden. With a
little bit of imagination, and creativity, and a bit of hard work, your
small garden space can be thriving in no time, and you don't even have
to spend outside your budget to make it all happen. Best of luck!
