If you’re renting, you may think you don’t have as many gardening options as a home owner but don’t be too disheartened.
At Holman we have some great indoor and outdoor gardening solutions for rental properties that will have you growing your own plants and food in no time.
In this blog, we outline our favourite mobile and temporary gardening ideas that will be suitable to you, whether you are limited to a small balcony, a completely paved courtyard or perhaps there is a garden bed but your landlord wouldn’t appreciate you digging it up!
We know that gardening by nature can be a slightly messy hobby too, so we kept this in mind when designing our products so they are low fuss, easy to maintain and keep your rental tidy at inspection times.
Lighting
Before you head to your local hardware store to pick out plants, have a walk around your rental during different parts of the day and familiarise yourself with the amount of light it receives. Most edible plants like 5+ hours of bright sun. As a rule of thumb, if you have a north facing balcony/courtyard (for outdoor plants) or windows (for indoor plants) you will have the most variety of plants to choose from. If you face East or West, you will receive morning or afternoon sun respectively. Take note that afternoon Summer sun can be particularly harsh in some parts of Australia and your plants may require protection with shade-cloth or another shading device. South facing balconies and windows will receive the least amount of sun and are better suited to low-light plants.
Location
The location of your plants should be dictated by the most amount of light they can receive. It may be tempting to grow herbs that love full sun inside you rental on a dark kitchen counter and hope for the best but the better option would be to consider a low light decorative plant. We have attached our handy Plant Selector below, which can help you choose the appropriate plants for your location.
1. Raised Garden Beds
Raised Garden Beds are a fantastic solution for rentals with a backyard or courtyard. They don’t require a lot of space and with a range of sizes available, the smallest Garden Bed requires just over half a metre squared of space. Raised Garden Beds have an open base so bear this in mind if you want to place one on a balcony with limited drainage, as you may not want pools of water sitting on your balcony.
- Indoors or Outdoors: Outdoors
- Mobile or Fixed: Fixed when planted, but easily flat-packed and transported when empty.
- Watering: Included watering system.
- Drainage: Water will drain freely from the base of the garden bed. Consider positioning on lawn or porous bricks where water can drain into
- Tip: Line the inside with weedmat to hold the soil in while watering and to prevent weeds and lawn growing into it if you are placing it on lawn.
2. Vertical GreenWall Range
If you have a generous landlord who won’t mind a few holes drilled into their walls, the Vertical GreenWall creates an impressive vertical garden. Grow impressive trailing plants in the GreenWall or a lush edible herb garden.
- Indoors or Outdoors: Outdoors
- Mobile or Fixed: smaller installs can be hooked over a fence or wall due to their lighter weight load. Mounting on a wall is required for large installs. These can easily be dismounted when you move but you will have wall holes to putty before you vacate your rental.
- Sizes: Variety of sizes and configurations.
- Watering: Included drip irrigation system.
- Drainage: Excess water will drain from the bottom row of your GreenWall. Ideally, the built in watering system will run on a very low pressure and only emit single drops of water so to not over water and flood your GreenWall.
- Tip: The GreenWall system is modular so you can easily join multiple GreenWalls together to create large installs.
3. Mobile GreenWall
The Mobile GreenWall is convenient for small spaces or where sun exposure changes location during the day. It is assembled with different sized pots and troughs which gives you the option to grow small to larger plants depending on their root size. Each pot is removable and the whole GreenWall can be quickly disassembled and transported to a new location – even while the plants are still potted up!
- Indoors or Outdoors: Both
- Mobile or Fixed: Mobile
- Sizes: One size with 5 levels
- Watering: Included drip irrigation system
- Drainage: Water will drain freely from the base of the GreenWall so position it where water can happily drain out and not damage your floor. You can also place a drip tray or saucer to catch water from the base, whether you keep it indoors or outside
- Tip: You can wheel the GreenWall around to expose it to more, or less, sun as required
4. Benchtop GreenWall
The freestanding Benchtop Vertical Planting Kit is perfect for growing herbs on a well lit kitchen counter or window ledge, or small outdoor space. The kit includes removable pots so you don’t have to move the GreenWall from your counter each time you want to replant an individual pot.
- Indoors or Outdoors: Both
- Mobile or Fixed: Mobile
- Sizes: 90 × 420mm
- Watering:
- Drainage: Built in drip tray which catches excess water.
- Tip: Keep one of these close at hand by the kitchen or bbq, so you have easy access to fresh herbs.
Hi, when I bought the mobile green wall kit today my daughter asked me if I had drainage on my balcony which I do. However she failed to ask if I have a water supply which I don’t.
Can you give me any advice on using the mobile green wall without a fixed water supply I.e. Best soil and plants types. My balcony gets morning sun to a varying degree on the side with glass panel which is why I thought the mobile unit would be good, as well as being easy to move when I have to sweep and wash the balcony down …due to road soot. I live in the centre of Sydney,
Whilst I initially thought and still think your assembly instructions are not the best it somehow goes together though one of the rod joiners needed some easing and all benefited from greasing. I am interested to see how it takes the load of plant filled pots and still moves…
Anyway your thoughts on how best to use it with manual watering, usually once a day maximum even in summer for the rest of my potted plants, actually once a week more usually as I have beenn known to kill stuff with too much watering…id be prepared to water 1,2,3 times a day but prefer to check mornings and or evenings and I do mist from a hand pumped can once a week…I have 2 Queensland natives that like plenty of water and mist…
Looking forward to your thoughts
Many thanks David
Hi David,
Happy new year! Using the attached plant selector, we suggest anything requiring low light for the balcony you described, and anything requiring less water to reduce the effort on your schedule.
We’ll actually be releasing a new product in about three weeks called the Smart Water Cell. While it doesn’t solve your problem right now, it is a portable water source coupled with a smartphone controlled tap timer, allowing you the benefits of controlled watering in spaces without a direct water supply.
If you have any further queries, please feel free to get in touch with our customer service team at info@holmanindustries.com.au.
Cheers,
Nathan
Hi, when I bought the mobile green wall kit today my daughter asked me if I had drainage on my balcony which I do. However she failed to ask if I have a water supply which I don’t.
Can you give me any advice on using the mobile green wall without a fixed water supply I.e. Best soil and plants types. My balcony gets morning sun to a varying degree on the side with glass panel which is why I thought the mobile unit would be good, as well as being easy to move when I have to sweep and wash the balcony down …due to road soot. I live in the centre of Sydney,
Whilst I initially thought and still think your assembly instructions are not the best it somehow goes together though one of the rod joiners needed some easing and all benefited from greasing. I am interested to see how it takes the load of plant filled pots and still moves…
Anyway your thoughts on how best to use it with manual watering, usually once a day maximum even in summer for the rest of my potted plants, actually once a week more usually as I have beenn known to kill stuff with too much watering…id be prepared to water 1,2,3 times a day but prefer to check mornings and or evenings and I do mist from a hand pumped can once a week…I have 2 Queensland natives that like plenty of water and mist…
Looking forward to your thoughts
Many thanks David
Hi David,
Happy new year! Using the attached plant selector, we suggest anything requiring low light for the balcony you described, and anything requiring less water to reduce the effort on your schedule.
We’ll actually be releasing a new product in about three weeks called the Smart Water Cell. While it doesn’t solve your problem right now, it is a portable water source coupled with a smartphone controlled tap timer, allowing you the benefits of controlled watering in spaces without a direct water supply.
If you have any further queries, please feel free to get in touch with our customer service team at info@holmanindustries.com.au.
Cheers,
Nathan