10 Ideas For Urban Gardening In Small Spaces

These 10 ideas for urban gardening in small spaces will greenify your life, no matter where you live!

By Chere Di Boscio

In 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population was reported to be living in cities. By 2030 this number will swell to almost 5 billion, with most of this urban growth expected to be concentrated in Africa and Asia.

What that means is that over half the world’s population is unlikely to have any private outdoor space. It’s sad, because being in nature has so many benefits! Even just being surrounded by plants can help clean the air around you and calm your mood. Plants, of course, are also beautiful to look at, and can be a source of food, too.

Just because you live in a city doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some urban gardening. It just takes a little imagination and creativity! If you’re stuck for inspiration, read on, below.

We’ve found 10 ideas for urban gardening, keeping in mind the small outdoor spaces city folks need to work in. And best of all, some of these ideas even work when there’s no outdoor space whatsoever.

Main image: realhomes.com Image below: apple news

10 Ideas For Urban Gardening In Small Spaces

1. Grow a Green Wall

Companies like Perch and ELT Living Walls allow even the laziest gardeners to grow thriving interior green walls. But you don’t need to go to a company to make this happen in your home: all you need to do is make a basic frame from wood, and then hang a shoe rack or purpose-made plant hanging pockets inside the frame. Make sure the frame is secured on a solid, structural wall. Plant your favourite greens, and watch them grow over and hide the frame.

Green walls not only look awesome and clean the air, they act as soundproofing from the neighbours, too! Just about any kind of plant you fancy will work with these systems, and best of all, their construction means that root rot and overwatering is almost impossible.

ideas for urban gardening in small spaces

2. Create Classic Window Boxes

Not all of us have garden sheds complete with loads of hoes, shovels, and rakes. But it doesn’t matter! Even if your apartment has zero outdoor space, it will at least have a window. And that means you can have a window box! For those without window sills, options like these that hang from a bar you install between the walls of your window are perfect and add some colour to your home, indoors and out.

Geraniums, dwarf cedars and daisies are just a few of the many gorgeous plants that grow well in window boxes all year round.

ideas for urban gardening in small spaces

3. Add An Indoor Moss Wall

This indoor gardening idea looks super fancy, but it’s easier to do than you think! It doesn’t need much natural light, either. In fact, it doesn’t like even direct sunlight at all, and what’s more: it doesn’t need watering, fertilising, or pruning. Incredibly, it comes ready to install on any surface.

So, what is this amazing product? MossTile, from Benetti Stone. These easy to install tiles provide a virtually maintenance-free vertical garden indoors that is as dense as you like. The design possibilities are endless!

ideas for urban gardening in small spaces

4. Stack Them Up!

Want to have fresh herbs, sprouts and even lettuces all throughout the year? Create this easy DIY stacking garden! It’s one of the tastiest ideas for urban gardening in small spaces!

It works perfectly indoors, and you don’t even need the fancy frame, below. A small, simple bookshelf will do! Just ensure you have several pots in the same style, that drain well. You’ll also need a small plate below the pot to catch excess water.

Image credit: revistaartesanato.com.br

5. Give Old Tyres a New Life

It’s a sad fact of urban life that there’s an abundance of abandoned car tyres. You’ll see them a the sides of roads, in people’s yards, and even find them in rivers and streams!

Tyres can be pretty toxic – many get burned in landfill, creating cancerous smoke. Keep the air clean by reusing busted tyres as planters. Just stack the tyres up in a staggered pyramid shape to create a solid ‘wall’ of plants. This idea looks even lovelier when the tyres are painted bright colours.

tyre_planters_tjov8

6. Go Potty in the Kitchen

Potted plants are fine and well for urban gardening in small spaces. But those plastic containers they come in can be a bit depressing. Solve the problem by either painting them all white, such as the pots below, with a non-toxic paint. White, black or gold look especially elegant.

Other options include repotting them into ceramic containers, or even better yet, upcycling some unused tea tins, broken cups or biscuit tins into planters.

Image credit: mykukun.com

ideas for urban gardening in small spaces

7. Awash in Beauty: Bathtub Planters

Lucky enough to have a balcony? Should you also happen to be renovating and come into possession of an unwanted bathtub, it could make the perfect potter!

Larger than most store-bought ceramic pots, it allows you to make your balcony all the greener with more space for planting. This also looks more attractive than a bunch of random, non-matching pots. Just don’t forget to drill in the draining holes at the bottom!

Image: urbankitchengroup

ideas for urban gardening in small spaces

8. Get the Hang of String Gardens

This is one of my personal favourite ideas for urban gardening in small spaces! Based on traditional Japanese techniques, string gardens are easy to maintain: just spray the roots occasionally with a plant mister. By binding the roots in a mossy soil mixture and hanging the plant from the ceiling, many varieties of plants can grow this way, from small fruit trees to flowers. Incredible, right?

Image credit here.

9. Hit The Roof!

If you live in an apartment, why not meet with your neighbours to organise a communal roof garden? This is becoming an increasingly popular option. It creates a green space for the entire building, cleans the air, and you can even grow food. We love the fact that many cities are now passing by-laws saying that all new buildings have to have a green roof!

Image credit: siouxfalls.business

ideas for urban gardening in small spaces

10. Get Vertical

One of the easiest ideas for urban gardening in small spaces is using vertical gardens. These have become all the rage because of their compact design, ease of care and maintenance. A they can even help you stock your fridge!

A Strawberry Tree Vertical Hanging Grow Bag, for example, will allow you to grow not only strawberries, but tomatoes, blueberries, herbs and other plant varieties, all in the form of a pillar.

These unique planters quickly and easily grows delicious food for you, right there on your patio, deck or balcony and makes gardening so much easier and cleaner when you can water, trim, feed and harvest while standing up.

This is a great hanging container gardening solution for fresh food lovers who live in apartments and flats, or for anyone who has limited yard space or just wants to eliminate the hassles of traditional gardening. They can also be used indoors or outside, and of course, you can also grow flowers or succulents in these.

Image: sanctuaryhomedecor.com

Chere Di Boscio
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