How To Grow Food At Home (Even In A Tiny Apartment)

More people turn to home-farming this year — whether as a hobby, more self-sufficiency and sustainability, or craving for fresh fruits and vegetables. Thanks to the rising popularity of smart indoor gardens and hydroponic kits, growing your produce doesn’t require as much space as you think.

But if you want your crops to develop well, you must know how different conditions — in a small city apartment, on a balcony of a city home, at a backyard of a house — can affect how and what to plant.

That’s why I asked Tucker Taylor — Master Culinary Gardener at Kendall-Jackson Wine Estate & Gardens and former Grower at Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry — to share his concerns for each condition and how he tackles them.

Here’s his take:  

Small city apartment without a balcony

When it comes to growing your produce indoors, watch out for irregular watering, bad ventilation, and poor lighting. Letting a plant dry out excessively can cause root hairs to die, which feed fungal pathogens that can ultimately kill your plant. This isn’t something you can make up with overwatering later, since that — plus not having fresh (or at least moving) air and lack of light — could make things worse!

WHAT YOU CAN DO: There’s no hard and fast rule for regular watering, so you have to “develop a ‘feel’” like you would in cooking. To start, Taylor suggests watering the pots or flats till they’re saturated. Pick them up to feel how heavy they are before and after you water the plant, so you have a sense of the range of weight when the plant is hydrated enough. (If the soil looks powdery, it’s too dry!)

As for ventilation and lighting, of course, opening your sunny windows for fresh air and natural light work best. But grow lights and rotating fans are effective too. Make sure the plants barely move when you use the fan. Set it on low speed or keep it far enough from the produce.  

Ultimately, you need fertile and disease-free soil for your plants to grow. Try organic “professional” potting mixes (or “soilless” mixes). Taylor adds worm castings (and compost at times) “to help inoculate the mix” and for extra nutrients.

BEST PRODUCE TO TRY: Herbs and fast-growing greens — such as “soft herbs” like basil, chives and cilantro; and greens like lettuce mix, mustard mix, arugula, spinach and chard. Avoid Mediterranean herbs “like rosemary can be a bit tricky indoors as they are more susceptible to root rot from overwatering.”

Urban apartment with a balcony

Beyond the balcony’s sun exposure, weather condition, rules and regulations of your building and other factors you should consider — according to The Spruce, some of Taylor’s key concerns are the balcony’s weight limit and size. “Whether you have large pots or raised beds, once everything has been watered, it can weigh a lot (one gallon of water weighs just over eight pounds).”

Space-wise, many people enjoy variety, so they “tend to cram plants in their pots and raised beds” and end up overcrowding their plants. Bear in mind that some crops could grow quite large relatively quickly (such as summer squashes), so they can “shade other crops if they’re planted too close.”

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Make sure you understand each crop’s mature sizes when figuring out the space requirements, suggests Taylor.

Picking the right container matters, especially its material. Plastic pots are light and glazed ones hold in moisture, but if you want something more breathable, the gardening expert recommends terra cotta. Due to its porous nature, “you will need to water your plants more frequently, but they will grow better as a result.”

Taylor prefers raised bed mixes or nutrient-rich organic soil mixes for balcony ‘gardens.’ To improve root growth, he adds volcanic pomace to increase drainage and aeration in the soil. Get shade sails if there’s too much sunlight for crops such as tender lettuces.

BEST PRODUCE TO TRY: Greens and root crops such as beets, carrots, leeks, onions, radishes and turnips. During spring, go for sprouting broccoli, green garlic and peas. As for summer, try cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, summer squash and tomatoes.

Suburban house with a yard

When you live in a suburban home with a full garden, look out for animal pests and weeds, which can turn your hard work into chaos. Beware of gophers, especially if you have raised beds since the rodent loves them for the water, food and protection from most predators, says the gardening expert.

Aside from pests, weeds can also compromise the condition of your yard. According to Realty Landscaping, when you don’t get rid of the weeds, they can fight for space and food supply against your plants. What’s more, removing overgrown weeds can disturb the roots of your crops. That’s why not weeding in a timely fashion is a big no-no in Taylor’s book.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: What you do for pest control depends on the animal pest involved. If you’re dealing with deer and rabbits, the gardening expert recommends fencing in the growing area, installing hoops over the raised beds and covering them with netting. Generally, he suggests using a hardware cloth (that’s “a rugged galvanized screening”). Place it at the bottom of raised beds before filling them with soil.

As for getting rid of weeds, remember it’s much easier to do it when they’re small or recently sprouted. Do it more frequently at first, so you don’t have to spend hours on it later. If you don’t want back pains from taking care of the yard, Taylor recommends the Long-Handled Wire Weeder by Johnny Seeds. “This is perfect for precision weeding while standing upright, which is better for your back.”

BEST PRODUCE TO TRY: “Your choices for what to grow are practically limitless” — whether it’s winter squashes, melons and corn; or fruit trees and berries like blackberries, blueberries and raspberries.