6 Pro Tips for Apartment Gardening for Healthy Plants

It is not because you live in an apartment or another small space that you need to stop cultivating. In fact, with a little creativity and planning, even a small room or a sunny window edge can be transformed into a flourishing garden filled with vegetables, herbs and flowers.

In this guide, gardening professionals share some of their favorite apartment gardening advice that you can use to gain space and grow all the plants you want.

Start small

It is easy to get carried away by your first garden and buy a large number of seeds and nursery plants. But if you have a small space, limit yourself to the plants you love and the herbs and vegetables you use most in your kitchen.

“Start small and build from your success,” says Ivonne Vazquez, owner of Red Bas Farm & amp; Wrought.
You can always add other plants later, and being selective in your choices will give you more room for plants you really want to cultivate.

Choose the right plants

“Cultivating food in apartment requires a change of perspective in relation to traditional gardening,” explains Amy Pennington, author and editor specializing in gardening. “Although many plants can push in pots, their growth is limited by the size of their container. »»

When you garden in an apartment, Pennington recommends choosing plants that lend themselves well to container cultivation, such as lemon balm, green onions and arugula. However, many other herbs, flowers and dwarf or bushy vegetables can also be grown in a pot.

To start, try the determined tomatoes, cucumbers and beans in bush, or compact flowers like thoughts.

Choose the right pots

While outdoor gardeners can plant directly in the floor, apartment gardeners generally cultivate their plants in pots, buckets or planters. However, it is essential to choose the right culture containers if you want your plants to grow well.
“Opt for pots with a depth of at least 15 cm and an equivalent width in order to leave enough space to the roots of the plants,” recommends Mr. Pennington. “Smaller pots can be tempted, but they restrict the growth of the roots and limit the plant’s ability to flourish.

If you grow root plants or larger vegetables, such as tomatoes or potatoes, try to use fabric cultivation bags rather than pots. These spacious containers are available in different sizes and are niggally. However, they must always be kept on plastic platforms or in bins to avoid leaks and water spills.

Think vertical

Many gardeners never envisage vertical gardening, but vertical culture can help you keep many plants in a limited space and allows more light to reach each sheet.

“The use of unusual objects such as boxes, shelves or supports of ancient plants will allow you to easily create vertical culture spaces,” explains Mr. Vazquez.

You can also grow plants in cultivation towers, hanging baskets or on shelves judiciously placed near a sunny window.

Bring the right care

Of course, if you want your interior garden to succeed, always do research on the plants you want to keep before introducing them to your home. Most vegetables and aromatic herbs grow better in full sun; However, many of these plants can prosper on a sunny window rim which receives at least six to eight hours of bright light per day.

If your apartment does not receive enough natural light, invest in a LED culture lamp or, as Vazquez recommend, cultivate plants that tolerate lower light levels, such as leafy green vegetables, beets, radishes, cabbage, darling, coriander or turmeric.

Besides light, most plants need to be watered regularly and fertilized at least once a month during the growth season. To avoid excessive watering must always feel the ground before watering, and not water if the soil is still wet.

Harvest

“Do not underestimate the importance of harvesting regularly to obtain an abundant harvest,” explains Mr. Pennington.

The regular harvest of plants such as lettuce, beans, peas, peppers, tomatoes and even certain cut flowers encourages plants to branch and produce more flowers and fruit. Harvesting calendars vary depending on the type of plants you cultivate, but many high -efficiency edible plants must be harvested every day or every two days during the growth season.

If your harvest is more important than necessary, freeze or keep the surpluses or share your harvest with your friends and neighbors.