A Garden Doesn't Need a Garden

If you rent a flat with a north-facing balcony, or you're staring at a concrete yard the size of a bath mat, it's easy to assume gardening isn't for you. It is. Some of the most productive, cheerful growing happens in a window box no wider than a forearm, or on a fire escape with three pots and a watering can. The trick isn't space; it's choosing plants that suit the space you've actually got, rather than the one in the magazine.

There's also something quietly satisfying about a few square feet of green when you're paying rent. You can't knock through a wall or dig up a lawn, but you can absolutely grow cut-and-come-again salad, a trailing basket of nasturtiums, and a pot of mint that earns its keep all summer — and take the lot with you when you move.

Read Your Space Before You Buy a Single Pot

Before you spend anything, spend ten minutes watching your patch. Three things matter more than anything else.

• Sunlight. A south-facing spot gets six or more hours of direct sun — tomatoes, basil, thyme and strawberries will thrive. East and west get a few hours, which suits salad leaves, chives and most flowers. North-facing is the tricky one: think leafy greens, mint, ferns and shade-tolerant bedding rather than anything you intend to eat the fruit of.
• Wind. Upper-floor balconies and exposed corners shred soft plants and snap stems. Tender things and tall growers need a sheltered spot, or a low, sturdy pot that won't topple.
• Watering access. Hanging baskets dry out alarmingly fast. If you can't reach them easily with a can, either fit a bracket that lowers for watering or choose something drought-tolerant instead.

One more check: read your tenancy agreement before you drill anything. Most fixed brackets are fine, but removable rail-hooks, clamp-on brackets and freestanding shelving units will keep you on the right side of your deposit.

Window Boxes That Actually Earn Their Keep

A window box is the classic renter's plot, and it's most useful when it's deep. Anything shallower than about 20cm will dry out by mid-morning in July. Aim for 25–30cm if you can, and fix it securely — a fallen box is a nasty surprise for anyone underneath.

Fill it with peat-free multipurpose compost and leave a couple of centimetres of gap below the rim so you can water without it running straight off the top. Add a layer of broken crocks or gravel at the base, and never skip the drainage holes.

For a sunny box, try trailing lobelia or bacopa at the front, bushy pelargoniums or begonias in the middle, and something upright behind. For a kitchen box, plant herbs that like the same conditions: chives, parsley, thyme and oregano together, with mint on its own in a separate pot, as it bullies everything else. On a shady sill, chard, rocket and land cress will quietly keep you in leaves for months.

Hanging Baskets: Free Real Estate at Eye Level

Baskets give you growing space you weren't using, and they're brilliant for renters because they leave no mark. Line them with coir or a shaped liner, and use a lighter compost mix — a basket of soaking-wet soil weighs a startling amount, and the bracket has to take it.

Watering is the whole game here. In high summer, a basket may need watering twice a day, ideally first thing in the morning and again in the evening. A dribble of seaweed feed once a week keeps flowers coming. Good, tough choices include trailing nasturtiums (the leaves and flowers are edible), petunias, calibrachoa and fuchsias. If you want fruit, look for a compact tumbling variety of tomato and keep it well fed.

Containers for Balconies and Paved Corners

Get creative with what holds the compost. Galvanised buckets, old wooden crates, an enamel colander (lined first), a trug, a stack of sturdy stacking pots — all fair game, and all cheap. Just make sure whatever it is has drainage holes, or you'll be growing root rot rather than radishes.

• Tiered planters and shelving turn a flat, narrow balcony into several growing floors, and can be moved when you move.
• Self-watering containers are worth the extra few pounds if you work long days or travel.
• Pots on castors let you chase the sun around a courtyard through the day.
• Tall, slim pots in corners give height without eating floor space — ornamental grasses or a compact bay tree work well.

Bigger containers are almost always easier than small ones. A single 40cm pot holds its moisture far better than five little ones, so fewer, larger containers mean fewer disasters and far less watering.

Keeping It Going Through the Year

Small gardens change fast, and that's part of the pleasure. Spring is the moment for bulbs in pots, which you can layer for a longer show. Summer is for colour and edibles. Autumn is for planting garlic, and for swapping tired bedding for heathers, cyclamen and ornamental cabbages that shrug off the frost. In winter, evergreen herbs, ivy and a few pansies keep things looking alive when everything else has given up.

Feed through the growing season, deadhead regularly to keep flowers coming, and check pots for vine weevil grubs if plants suddenly wilt. Give everything a good clean-up in late winter, top up the compost, and start again. Even a doorstep with three pots in it counts. Get that bit right, and next year you'll be eyeing up the windowsill as well.