Gardening Without A Garden

I love gardening. Growing and nurturing seeds into plants is one of my favourite things about summer. Nature really is amazing and I've been spoiled by years of living with my parents, their large garden and three vegetable patches. Now living in my first floor flat, we don't have a garden, or a balcony, so I had to get creative. We do have a fire escape however, a big metal structure at the back of our flat, which comes in handy for drying washing and sitting on when the sun's shining. 

Primarily, I'm growing vegetables - I love being able to eat home grown food, lettuce, tomatoes, spring onions and runner beans. As well as rosemary and coriander - two of the herbs I use the most. 

I love this wire pot holder - I bought it from Tiger (a Scandinavian shop that sells all sorts of quirky homeware, office supplies and all sorts).

If you're interested in container gardening or gardening on a budget - here are a few tips:

- Save the plastic trays you get mince or strawberries or grapes in - washed up, they make great seed trays - make sure to put a few holes in the bottom with a skewer if they don't have any already.

- Start your plants off inside, on windowsills so they get plenty of light, stand your trays in shallow dishes so water doesn't leak onto your floors.

- You can get really cheap gardening supplies like flower pots, flower canes, seeds and even bags of soil in money saving shops like the 99p Store. Supermarkets are really good for bigger plant pots too.

- Plants that grow upwards are perfect if you don't have much ground space - flowers like sweetpeas, vegetables like runner beans or peas wind round canes or railings - good for balconies.

So far all of the plants I have are grown from scratch, but the church around the corner from my university is having a Plant and Produce sale this Saturday and I'm hoping to pick up some geraniums for a reasonable price. I tend to avoid garden centres because they're pricey - but you can pick up plants from car boot sales and all sorts of other unlikely places and I swap my extra plants with friends - because no one needs 15 tomato plants!

A ♥

For more updates on my garden project search #gardeningwithoutagarden on instagram.