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Can't Grow a Garden in Your Apartment? Think Again!

Is your green thumb itching? Are you dying for home grown vegetables? Don't let living in an apartment stop you!
Feed the Need
When I was living in Oregon, I had planted my first garden in a huge back yard, which grew wonderfully. We had a huge lettuce bed, corn, herbs, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, watermelon, peas and miniature pumpkins. It was the first time I had ever tasted home grown vegetables and I was instantly hooked. A year later we ended up moving to an apartment and I was losing my mind! I couldn't grow! We would make weekend trips to the local Saturday markets and the food was home grown, but it was then that I realized that not only did I love the taste of the food, I loved being a part of the process. One evening I stood on my small balcony and looked around. That's when the idea hit me.

Setting It Up
Before ever planting my first garden, I had researched my tail off. At the house, all of the vegetables were planted in raised beds. This time, I realized, I could use the same process but putting the vegetables into containers instead. The biggest thing you need to do is to first decide what you want to grow. This is the time to be realistic. On an apartment balcony, your space is limited. It is best to grow only the things you know you will eat and not take up your space with thing you think should be in a garden just because.

Next you have to look at your space and pick planters that will fit while giving you room to move around to work with the plants. In my "apartment garden" the planters were different shapes, sizes and colors. You may enjoy having all the same color or shape. The "apartment garden" is truly as individual as the person growing it.

My "Apartment Garden"
In my home we ate a salad with dinner every night so it was important to me to at least be able to grow the vegetables needed to make a decent salad. In one corner, we put a large tomato plant and in the opposite corner, in a round container, I planted three cucumber plants. From a hook above the cucumbers I tied three long pieces of twine and attached them to the planter to give the plants something to climb on. In a third corner, in a square container, I planted six small cornstalks that were made to only grow 5-6 feet tall. In the final corner was a 10 gallon trash can where I planted the potatoes. Between the tomatoes and cucumbers was a mixed lettuce bed that we eventually used for salads.

There were two "strawberry/herb" pots,

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