Urban Gardening: How to Grow Delicious Things in Your Tiny Apartment

The first thing the gardener needs is resilience. There are a lot of roads to success, but gardening is always a process of trial and error, and even more so in the gloomy corners of a shoebox apartment. If a few pots of herbs wither and die despite your efforts, don’t mourn their loss for too long before trying again with a different plant in a different corner of the apartment and a different watering schedule. “People beat themselves up about not having a successful garden when they’re trying to grow tomatoes in an airshaft,” said Erin Boyle, associate editor at Gardenista.

Sunlight is the single most important factor in your future edible garden. Once you’re committed to developing a green thumb, the first step is to investigate the sunny spots in your apartment. Seriously: Watch the sun float across your space one Saturday when you’re around during the day. “The amount of direct sunlight your space receives will pretty much dictate what you can grow in your apartment garden,” said Marie Viljoen, author of 66 Square Feet, a month-by-month guide to gardening in a small space, including how to use homegrown edibles in recipes and on menus. Kate Payne, author of The Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking, agrees. A common mistake, she said, is “putting plants where they look good in their house, but not where they'll have optimum sun.” Don’t be vain. What qualifies as direct sunlight? That means actual sunshine, shining right on a given spot, for a long time each day. Many vegetables, fruits, and herbs require six full hours of sun to grow well, Viljoen said. So even though watching the shadows doesn’t sound super exciting, your observations will take a lot of the guesswork out of what plants to buy and where to install them.

Let’s apply your new knowledge of your apartment’s sunshine rating to your shopping list. If your space has very little light—i.e., it resembles that airshaft more than a sun-filled loft—look to buy herbs like mint, parsley, oregano, basil, cilantro, and chervil, and greens like arugula. These can grow in light shade. If you are blessed with plentiful direct light, there are more options. Payne has had luck with growing other vegetables and fruit in indoor containers as well. Lettuce, spinach, beans, raspberries, and strawberries have all yielded harvests for her. If space rather than sunshine is the limiting factor, you’re in luck. Over the years, farmers with a scientific bent have cultivated tiny versions of common vegetables, called cultivars, which can yield mini-me editions of your favorite veggies. Thumbelina carrots and fairytale eggplant are two varieties that grow comfortably in small indoor containers.

To get set up with an indoor garden, you’ll need solid containers that have holes in the bottom for drainage. Plastic and composite are good materials, but some gardeners warn against pretty-looking terracotta, which can develop a layer of fungus on the outside and dry out plants. You’ll also need potting soil. (Boyle advocates buying it in small bags, even if the total cost eventually adds up to more than a huge sack, so that you don’t have to store that huge sac of dirt in your apartment.) Some small stones scattered at the bottom of a pot help with drainage. A small watering can makes taking care of the plants less drippy, and garden gloves will keep you from looking like you've been digging around in the dirt when you get to work. According to Payne, it’s best to seek out your local independent garden store or center, which will have specific tips and seeds for growing in your particular situation and climate, as well as well-adapted soils for your area. The shops at local botanic gardens are good options, too. In the end, the equipment you need is pretty basic—improvise from what you find at a local hardware store or Home Depot and avoid the pricy gardening boutiques which will make the whole endeavor more expensive.

To assess how your gardening is going, it's critical to make sure you’re watering the right amount. Too much water can be has harmful as not enough. To check, Boyle recommends the finger test. All that means is that you stick your finger into your plant’s soil. If it’s wet beneath the surface, you’re good. If it’s dry beneath, drench the plant immediately. You can also observe the plant’s leaves and vines. If the vines get really long, without big clusters of leaves amongst them—"leggy," in gardening parlance—and a bit droopy, you’re not watering enough. If they’re not getting enough sun, the plant’s leaves will start to brown and curl up. If this happens, you’re failing—move the plant to a sunnier spot.

When the harvest is ready, you’ve got lots of options for eating the parsley and oregano and fairytale eggplant. If you went with herbs, you can use them slowly and steadily to flavor anything you make, especially sauces, stews, eggs, and pastas. “I’ve been making a lot of oregano-tomato soups and sauces,” says Boyle. This saves you the money of buying big bunches of herbs then tossing the leftovers. Simply pick as many leaves as you need, when you need them. If you have a more varied yield, Viljoen has plenty of suggestions: “Use daily cuttings of herbs in everything you eat. Eat berries fresh or freeze them for later use. I fold my blueberries into cake and pancake batter. Eat salad leaves fresh or wilt for pasta sauces. Nothing beats a real, homegrown tomato with buffalo mozzarella. Grate fresh winter-grown parsnips into salads or roast them with winter hardy rosemary.” You can drink what you sow, too, said Payne, who recommends making Moscow Mules with stoop-grown mint. If the crop exceeds your appetite, herbs can be dried or frozen for winter enjoyment. Ultimately, a hunger for greens, perfect light, the right plants, and well-chosen containers are not the only ingredient you’ll need to make your apartment garden grow. “All gardens require the presence of the gardener,” said Vijoen. "If you can only garden an hour a week, invest in some succulents.” (Succulents are a class of plants that barely need any water or sun. Cactus is another plant that works for those without green thumbs. Neither, however, will feed you.)