No Space to Garden? Pots and Creativity are the Answer!
I love to garden, but my only sun is on the driveway. I live in an apartment with just a small balcony, how can I garden? I downsized to a patio home and have no space to garden. There is no more room in my garden. These are the lamentations of gardeners over their lack of garden space. There is a solution, however, creativity and pots.Hellstrip garden
There are many creative ways to find space. Look closely at side yards and hell strips (the area between the street and sidewalk). Fences are often prime areas to squeeze in more garden space. Consider new methods of gardening, such asespalier, vertical gardening. Rooftops can also provide potential garden space! Once you have found a spot of room, containers may be the answer to providing the soil in which to grow.
Rooftop container garden
Sidewalk alley garden
Sidewalk garden
Pots or any suitable container are ideal for growing ornamentals, veggies, even trees! Container growing offers many potential advantages other than the ability to grow in places you did not think possible. You can control the environment by maneuvering theirplacement relative to the sun, creating perfect soil conditions, watering, and drainage. Your control allows for gardening of plants with special needs, like pitcher plants that want boggy conditions. Pots will protect your plants from many garden pests like voles and moles. Weeding is seldom necessary, and overall water needs are reduced since you are only watering the pot and not the surrounding soil.
It will take some soul searching and extra care to determine what to grow in such a limited space. Is it a homegrown tomato or gardenia that came from your grandmother’s garden? Maybe you would like to maximize the amount of home-grown veg youcan produce. You will need to consider your light situation as well, an apartment with a northern exposure balcony may be too shady for many plants. A bright sunny balcony with southern exposure may still be suitable for shade plants if you provide the shade.
Edge of patio garden
Any container can be used if it holds soil and drains well, an old boot, a wooden box, or a classic pot, the choice is yours. Ceramic containers and traditional clay pots, while beautiful, should be emptied and protected over the winter. Year-roundweatherproof containers include concrete, plastic, fiberglass,and metal. Grow bags get mixed reviews in Memphis. They work well but require a lot more water than other container options. The container size will be determined by what you are planting. The larger the plant at maturity, the bigger the container it will need.
When filling your container, you will be doing yourself a favor by purchasing a high-quality potting mix and paying a bit of a premium over the cheaper alternatives. Container mixes, often referred to as soilless potting mix, typically consist of peat moss, coir, shredded bark, perlite, and vermiculite. They are sterile and have little nutrient value unless the mix also contains a slow-release chemical fertilizer. Organic potting soils contain similar ingredients but generally include compost as a major component.
To these blends, you can consider adding 5-10% of our clay soil after sifting it through a ¼ inch screen. This will help hold nutrients and moisture and help to prevent the potting mix from shrinking away from the side of the pot should it get too dry.
Driveway fence garden
Be sure to raise your pot off the ground using pot feet or bricks. This will ensurethat your pot can drain freely through its drain holes. A pot directly on concrete can result in staining, and on a wooden deck, it can lead to rotting. If it is in a garden bed, it needs to be raised to keep roots from growing down through the hole plugging it and cutting off the drainage. Alternatively, in the garden, if you want it to appear that it has been set on the soil. Dig a hole under the pot and use bricks to support the pot at soil level, leaving a large void under the drainage holes.
