Gardening in small spaces is definitely a big theme with our homes becoming ever smaller and it is often a challenge to satisfy our need to have greenery in our surroundings. While actually starting our spring garden planters is still a few weeks away in most regions, there’s lots than can be done to get the season underway. Planning is always the key to success, so while we wait for the sun to shine and the air to warm, we can explore some great ideas to try this year in our container gardens. 

One of my favorite lifestyle websites is Apartment Therapy where I’m always finding wonderful design ideas for both inside and outside the home. Their article titled, ‘Gardening Without a Garden: 10 ideas for your patio or balcony has some terrific solutions for gardening in small, and perhaps temporary, spaces.  You can even try out the latest trend in ‘living walls’ with these ideas. The vertical ‘salad planter’ is a great solution when you love to grow your own.

The first photo above is from an excellent site called ‘Life on a Balcony‘ by Fern Richardson which has the instructions of how to turn a pallet into a vertical garden. Start building it now and it will be ready just in time to plant!  The ‘salad planter’ is from Anne Phillip’s of Go Green Gardeners. Finding the vintage wine rack may be tough, but with a few handy tools you can re-create this style.

In my world there’s two things you can never have too many of—sunny days and gardening books. Here’s two great books I’m reading now as I wait out these last few weeks before the container gardening season begins:

Small-Space Container Gardens: Transform Your Balcony, Porch, or Patio with Fruits, Flowers, Foliage & Herbs by Fern Richardson for many wonderful ideas.

And, happy gardening!

Succulent Container Gardens: Design Eye-Catching Displays with 350 Easy-Care Plants by Debra Lee Baldwin

With more than 300 inspiring photographs and  A-to-Z descriptions of 350 of the best succulents, plus companion plants, this book is my guide for a lot of designing with succulents this year.