Apartment Gardening: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started

Gone are the days when gardening was a reality only for those in the country. With so many modern adaptations and available plants, apartment gardening is a lot easier than you’d think. Now, you can easily bring all of the beauty and health benefits of a plant sanctuary into your small space. 

Take a look at this comprehensive guide to learn everything you need to know about apartment gardening: from why you should have one, how to carefully choose plants, our recommendations for plants and products, and how you can keep your plant babies thriving. 

Why Start Apartment Gardening?

After scrolling on Pinterest and Instagram, you’re now convinced that your apartment needs to be converted into an indoor plant sanctuary.

But, do you know that houseplants do more than simply look good? According to NASA’s recent study, houseplants are miracle workers when it comes to getting rid of harmful pollutants in your air–things like cigarette smoke, allergens, and possibly even radon. 

This comes as great news for many apartment dwellers, as it is almost impossible to guarantee that your space is free of harmful chemicals that could be constantly polluting your air. Along with reducing air pollution, the University of Technology, Sydney just produced this extensive study, reporting that plants make a drastic difference in these key areas:

• Reduce stress and negativity
• Prevents unhealthy mould problems
• Raises performance and productivity
• Reduces about 10% of CO2 in the air

In addition, researchers found that plants do amazing things to your mental health and overall state of being. According to the study, “Brief glimpses of living greenery in our immediate environment provide us with unconscious feelings of calm and a wider space, even if we don’t notice the plant presence.” 

What does this mean? Just consider plants to be your own personal therapist. And for those working from home, plants are an even better addition to your workspace as it will greatly help your productivity, reduce fatigue, and even enhance your attention span. 

These factors alone show that creating an indoor plant paradise will have far greater dividends than you might originally think. After seeing why plants are so important in your home, let’s take a look at how you can get started.

Apartment Gardening: First Steps

You’ve found the perfect place for a big Fiddle Leaf tree and already have plans to fill your kitchen windowsill with all the fresh herbs you can get your hands on.

Before you add those plants to your cart, however, there are a few important things that you must assess in your space before getting started.

Light

This is one of the greatest qualities of plants and what makes them so easy to grow–you don’t necessarily need to have a space with lots of windows in order to grow the garden of your dreams. Take a look at the four classifications of light that assess which one most typically fits your space: 

Full Sun – 6+ hours of direct sunlight. Examples of full sun plants are Aloe Vera, Snake Plants, and most Succulents.

Note: The exact time varies for each plant. Some plants that need full sun will require less hours if they are in a window that gets afternoon sun (as this is much brighter than morning sun). Be sure to research how much sun your plant needs before placing it in front of a sunny window. 

Partial Sun – 4-5 hours of direct sun. This is the classification that you will find for most houseplants. Examples are Money Trees, Fiddle Leaf Fig and Hens & Chicks.

Partial Shade (also known as indirect sunlight) – 2-3 hours of direct sun. Examples of these plants include Ferns, Monstera Plants

Full Shade – Less than 1 hour of direct sun. Examples include Peace Lilies, Dracaenas and trailing plants (Ivys and Vines).  

Live in an apartment with minimal natural lighting? Installing some grow lights can help you care for some beautiful plants that require more sun.

Humidity 

While this may sound like an odd factor, you would be surprised to learn just how important humidity is in determining your plants overall health. Every space has a natural level of humidity, and depending where you live, your humidity level could be higher or lower than other places. 

Here are a couple tips to make sure that your space has exactly the level of humidity needed to keep your plants healthy and growing:

Research: This may sound like a no-brainer, but researching is key to being a successful plant parent. Every plant is different in their needs and environments drastically change humidity levels. Make sure to research your plant, optimally before you purchase and bring it home, to see just how much humidity is needed.

Note: It is especially important to research when moving. My husband and I purchased a home in December only 15 minutes away from where we were currently living, and we found that our humidity level in our new home was drastically different from our apartment after almost killing our Monstera plant. 

Mist Lightly and Often: Ferns, Succulents, and Tropical Plants need misted more than you would think. To avoid overwatering, research your plant and create a misting schedule (typically plants only need misting once a week).

Use a Humidifier in the Winter: Humidity naturally drops during the winter, so it’s important that you boost the humidity level in rooms with high-humidity needing plants. I ran a humidifier from December-March in my front room, as I found that this kept my Monstera plant from drooping. 

Pets

It’s important to note that not all house plants and herbs are pet-friendly.

Make sure to thoroughly research if the plant you are interested in is safe for pets, as some plants emit toxins that are harmful for pets, as well as being toxic when ingested.

---

Apartment Gardening: Herbs & Veggies

When starting an apartment garden, we can’t forget about herbs and veggies. It’s easy to grow many types of herbs and veggies in your home, and there’s nothing quite as satisfying as cooking a meal with ingredients you grew yourself.

Herbs

When it comes to herbs, our biggest suggestion is to start small. Herbs like sweet basil and lavender are the perfect pick for beginners, as they grow fast and are easy to care for.

The basic rule for growing herbs is two-fold:

1) They need lots of sun. Herbs love to bake, so the more direct sunlight you give them, the better! A sunny windowsill is perfect for your apartment herb garden.

2) They don’t typically need a ton of water. Herbs don’t like being watered a lot, so make sure to check the first few inches of your soil before watering. 

If you’ve read the best places to buy plants, you already know our top recommendation for indoor herb gardening is Modern Sprout.

They have the best selection of affordable indoor herbs that are both easy to grow and self-sustainable. Using hydroponics, each plant is able to grow and reproduce all on its own.

And, if that wasn’t enough, they also come in adorable mason jars that will make your kitchen look like it came straight from a magazine. My personal recommendation? Their Indoor Garden Essential Kit, featuring an individual Rosemary, Mint and Parsley jar.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you don’t have a green thumb, an Aerogarden is a great tool for beginners. It comes with an automatic grow light and tells you when your plants need water and fertilizer, so you’ll truly have a hard time killing your herbs and veggies with this device!

Veggies

Indoor vegetable gardens utilize hydroponics to provide you with self-sustaining, easy-to-manage vegetables that you can grow right in your own home.

Vegetable kits are sold almost everywhere and allow you to grow everything: from bell peppers, heirloom tomatoes and all the fresh lettuce you think you will ever need.

NOTE: If you haven’t done so already, be sure to check out our article on gardening hacks for tips and tricks on everything from handy gardening gadgets to tricks that help your plants drain properly. 

---

Add-to-Cart Houseplants

Now that you’ve assessed how much light and humidity you have in your current space, you are ready for the fun part: purchasing and bringing home your new plant babies. 

To make this step as easy as possible, we’ve made a list of houseplants that are great for your apartment garden (we will tackle herbs and vegetables later) categorized by levels of natural sunlight. We know you are going to love our recommendation–not just because we put time into researching each one, but because they are in our gardens, too.

RELATED: 9 Best Places to Buy Plants Online (Insta-Worthy Plant Stores)

Full Sun 

Get ready to grace your sunny window sills with these gorgeous plants.

---

---

---

Partial Sun

Prepare to turn your apartment into an indoor jungle with these easy plants that do wonders in upping the wow-factor of your home.

---

---

Partial Shade

Bring these beauties home and prove to your friends that you don’t need lots of sun to have a thriving indoor plant paradise.

---

---

---

Full Shade

Proving that yes, even in a basement apartment with little sunlight you can still have a thriving garden.

---

To Wrap It Up..

Creating a thriving jungle in your apartment is not actually as hard or unattainable as you may think. We hope this guide to apartment gardening gives you all the confidence you need to grow a thriving indoor garden in the comfort of your own home. Just remember to research, don’t overwater, and make sure to have adequate amounts of humidity and sunshine and you are well on your way to being an all-star plant parent!