With some creativity and hard work, urban preppers who live in apartments can also enjoy the many benefits of gardening.
Indoor gardening is one way to combine nature's beauty with the comfort of your apartment. Additionally, you can use design opportunities to your advantage and improve your living space with various plants. With a well-thought-out design plan for your apartment, you can have an indoor garden that will beautify your apartment and even offer health benefits. (h/t to ApartmentPrepper.com.)
Planning and setting up your indoor garden
Before you start planting herbs and vegetables in your apartment willy-nilly, sit down and plan where you're going to set up your indoor garden. Here are some things to consider:
- Do you want to cultivate a vegetable garden? Or is it purely for aesthetic purposes? Are you looking to plant herbs and organic vegetables? Answer these questions first before you do anything else.
- Take note of your apartment's natural light sources, so you will know where to place plants that need sunlight.
- Check if there's enough free space by the apartment’s windows because this is where most of your plants will go, especially if you want to cultivate some vegetables.
- Get ready to do a bit of heavy lifting. To ensure that your indoor garden thrives, you may have to rearrange furniture to clear the window area, so your new plants can grow properly.
With that taken care of, decide on the containers that you'll use for your indoor garden. Wall shelves are a good option, but you can repurpose old containers if you want to display your plants creatively.
Even old furniture like dressers, old ladders, steel tubs, or wooden crates can be repurposed to set up a unique garden centerpiece for your apartment.
Hanging pots from the ceiling can help save space, just make sure that the pots receive enough sunlight and are placed, so they don't create a safety hazard. Terrariums are best suited for growing herbs in a sunny spot.
What to plant in your indoor garden
If you want to cultivate an ornamental garden, you can get different kinds of houseplants. Some of the easiest houseplants that you can grow in an indoor garden include:
- Cacti
- Jade plants
- Philodendrons
- Spider plants
You don't need a whole plot of land to grow edible plants in your apartment. Many salad greens and herbs can be planted in small containers all over your living space.
Utilize your apartment's balcony and plant some herbs on a sunny windowsill. Some plants, like kale, lettuce, and spinach, can also grow on a balcony since they usually need just three to four hours of direct sunlight daily.
If you're planting herbs and vegetables in pots, you can easily move your plants if you have to. Since you have an indoor garden, it won't take too much time to move pots out of the cold or out into more sunlight.
If your apartment gets plenty of sunlight, consider planting some tomatoes or strawberries. Use several deep containers to plant some carrots, potatoes, and radishes. (Related: Community gardens: Why urban preppers are building these gardening plots.)
Aside from giving you a readily accessible source of fresh produce and naturally beautifying your home, indoor gardening can help improve your mood. Houseplants can also help eliminate dust and air pollutants in your living space.
You can learn more about the many benefits of urban gardening at GreenLivingNews.com.
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