How to create an urban garden

Before you can think about planting, you have to consider how much room and light you have. This will determine what kind of container can house your garden, and help you decide what kind of plants you can grow. Here are a few creative suggestions for saving space and your wallet.

Jars make great homes for single plants. You can display them on a shelf or window sill, or mount them on the wall for more vertical storage

Discarded pallets are useful in various ways, but you can also cut them down to size and turn them into a perfect upright solution for your gardening needs.

Don't have a lot of space on the floor or window sill? Most apartments may lack the square footage for gardening, but they may make up for it in ceiling height. Notice the hanging baskets in the photo above are hanging from bars. A sturdy suspension rod could do the same for your plants and keep your landlord happy too.

If you have a bare corner, a stacked garden is a beautiful and economical solution. You can grow some useful plants while also decorating your space.

If you want a lot of plants but don't have enough places to put them, you can easily put individual plants into shoe cubbies.

Now that you have everything you need to create a nice home for your new plants - what are you going to grow? There are quite a few options for renters who want to dig in to urban gardening. 

Tomatoes are an always popular choice for indoor gardening. The best home is a 5-gallon container in a south-facing window that gets about 12 hours of light a day. Water two to three times a week 

Growing salad greens is great. Keep them in bright light for about six hours a day and water so that the soil stays moist but not saturated. Container size may vary. 

You don't even need to start from seeds. Plant cloves 1 and 1/2 inch from the top of the soil in about a 6-inch pot with good drainage Keep them in a sunny spot and water often to keep the soil moist but not wet. 

If you're a first-time gardener, you can't go wrong with mint. It's incredibly easy to care for and it grows like a weed (literally). Keep in in an area that's filled with morning sun and make sure you keep it contained. Water once a day. Container size may vary, but it should be no smaller than 8 to 12 inches. 

These tiny little onions are so easy to care for - you don't even need soil! Just bundle partially cut-off onions with a rubber band and place in an inch of water. Keep them in a sunny area like a window sill and change the water daily. 

Surprisingly, if you have a well-lit room, you can have a fruitful harvest from late spring to early autumn. Hanging baskets that are at least 16 inches wide make good containers, and they require sand/soil mixture. Keep them in the sun for at least 6 hours a day and water every day.