Vegetable Gardens for Apartment Living - You Can Do It

Living in an apartment can put a damper on the fledgling urban gardener, but a vegetable garden for apartment dwellers is not out of the question. You can put a vegetable garden on a balcony, tucked in along a fence, or even in a few containers in your apartment window. It’s not the usual approach so it takes some research, you can enjoy fresh herbs and vegetables even in your own apartment or condo. The key is to understand this unique environment, and select plants and herbs that require less space (and maybe sunlight) to grow. Doing this can provide you own little oasis of natural living in an otherwise urban setting.

Look at your Unique Conditions

When starting a vegetable garden for an apartment dweller you must determine the conditions on the balcony or window where you plan to put the garden. The availability of sunlight will be the biggest factor in determining which plants will dow well in your urban environment. If you live in an apartment or condo that is surrounded by other high rise buildings, it may be that your patio area is in the shade for most of the day and you will need to choose your plants accordingly. One other alternative in this case is to look into artficial lighting of some sort.  If you are lucky enough to have a sunny spot in your apartment, you can select from a much wider variety of choices of plants. It’s wise to spend a few days watching the pattern of the sunlight on your deck or patio before beginning the process of plant selection.  Also, keep in mind that this will change somewhat over the course of the year, sometimes in unexpected ways.  Foe example, if your window has an overhanging shade, you may find that you actually get more sunshine in the winter as the sun gets lower in the sky during the winter months.

Small Spaces May Call for Small Plants

It may be obvious that large vines like pumpkins and squash may not be the best choice in a vegetable garden for apartment dwellers, the space taken by plants will be a primary concern in any choice. Tomatoes and peppers can do well in containers, as long as they you provide support for their tall stalks and plenty of sunshine to keep them happy. For tomatoes you may do well with determinate varieties, as they will tend to be more compact in their growth. The basic ingedients for salads are often a good choice for apartment dwellers, including leafy vegetables like lettuce, cabbage and mustard greens. This type of plant often do well with limited sunlight, and so might be good choices for your spots without as much sunlight. Root vegetables can do well in containers. Carrots will do especially well in this environment, as long as the container is deep enough to accommodate them.  Radishes are another salad favorite that are quick to mature and don’t need a lot of container depth.

Fertilizing Your Plants

More so than in many other gardens,  in vegetable gardens for apartment dwellers the soil content needs to be considered up front. Since these plants will be growing in containers, the containers will have to be fertilized more frequently than plants outdoors, where they can draw nutrients from the soil around them. One excellent choice is to add worm compost to the soil mix, as it will buffer the pH of the soil, and compost generally improves the soil structure and helps drainage.  You can talk to your local garden center about the best type of soil and fertilizer for the plants that you are choosing to grow.  There are even kitchen composters being sold these days, so you can even recycle your kitchen waste back into your vegetable garden.