Welcome to the Gardening in Apartments forum! This forum is dedicated to the discussion of gardening in small spaces, apartments, balconies and the like.

Requested at The thread "Apartment/small space planting?" in Site Talk forum

I have a small verandha that is screened to keep cats completely contained. I am trying to put in small pots (which is not easy with curious cats of course). However, I find they can dehydrate quite fast. I use those saucers to catch water and which the pots sit in. They are very much sheltered from rain but I would have thought the shading from the screens would also decrease water loss. I go away for two days at a time and when I return the plants don't look too good. Outside in the garden, I rarely have problems with small pot plants. I wonder if it is the potting mix. The ones in the garden nearly always have garden soil. Or could it be the low humidity?

What kind of plants are they, Glen?

Tee,
At the moment Sturt Desert Pea, cat mint and a variety of coleus. The mint is always the first to wilt. Then the coleus. The pea should not be overwatered but it cannot be allowed to dry out.

I wasn't familiar with the Sturt's Desert Pea so had to look up that one. Very interesting bloom and such a gorgeous color!

Do you have any trays/bowls of pebbles and water to raise humidity? That's what I always used in CA when I had conditions such as yours and still use here in the winter for some of the indoor plants. It can get so dry when it's cold and the heat pump is running a lot.

Mint is definitely a thirsty one! But I love it. I hope I haven't lost too many this winter. They are in containers outside.

>> However, I find they can dehydrate quite fast. I use those saucers to catch water and which the pots sit in.

>> The pea should not be overwatered but it cannot be allowed to dry out.

You might want to modify those saucers a little. Elevate the pots an inch or two so they never sit down IN the water. The thing that the pots sit on needs to be pretty flat where the holes in the bottom of the pot sit on it.

Then set some absorbent fabric like cotton flannel, toweling or denim over the elevating platform and let it dangle into the water. This will wick water up to the bottom of the pot.

The must be contact between the toweling and the soil THOUGH the holes in the bottom of the pot. That allows the dry soil to draw water from the mat, which then draws water up from the saucer.

The soil in the pot does need to "wick", but it no longer needs to hold two days worth of water.

This makes a lot of water available to the plant without drowning the roots. If they can't pull water up fast enough, you might need bigger holes in the pot, more holes, fluffier capillary mat so it touches soil firmly through the holes, a faster-wicking mat, say two thicknesses, or less elevation between the water surface and the base of the pot. And/or top-water heavily just before you leave so that soil is as wet as is safe before you leave. Then the saucer just augments what is available to the roots.

I have not tried this with a big pot, or a deep pot. If all the holes in a deep pot are "smothered" by wet fabric, you might need a few holes in the side of the pot, near the bottom, so that air can still enter the pot "from below". Or leave some of the bottom-holes open to the air, and set the other holes on the wet fabric. (If you have a fine-textured potting mix, air might not be able to diffuse fast enough from the surface all the way to the bottom of the potting mix. Extra holes let air diffuse in where it will do the most good. )

P.S. Another solution is to pot them up into a really big pot that retains a lot of water, perhaps adding "water crystals" to the mix.

Just beware making a potting soil that holds so much water in its fine texture that the water fills the fine channels and void spaces, denying air any path to diffuse through the soil. That would rot your roots.

http://garden.org/ideas/view/R...




Sorry about the double-right-side on the saucer. I couldn't make that appear at all as a WMF, then it showed up TWICE as a JPG. Oh, well.

Thanks for the effort, Dave! I don't have an apartment, but have lived in them, and take all of my plants outside for summer. Will help answer any questions here that I can, and probably ask one occasionally.

Some fun ideas: http://www.motherearthnews.com...

Tee, what excellent ideas for my cat space.

We have a small side deck and I'm thinking that if we ever have to keep our three cats contained, I'm going to enclose that deck.

And at any rate, some of those ideas work well for a small deck space.

Thanks for this forum, @dave ! I only just discovered it, and I DO have a yard, but I'm wanting to expand my indoor growing activities and this will be a good resource.

Just came across this forum - and thought of these pix from the walkway in front of my apt. front door...good thing I live on the end!!

You've got a great little apt. patio garden going there.

Impressive!!!!

I love it!
Some day I will move back into an apartment building - hopefully a high rise.
And I'll NEED a patio (and a good large South facing window) because I can't do without growing things!

Thanks for inspiring!

Thank you so much! Actually we usually share space on a 10 x 7' private balcony - but on this occasion, a few weeks back, I had to move them out of the way of some renovation work being done. Therefore the cramped 4 x 4' space out front.
Here's a pic of our usual area...a little more elbow room here!

(sorry - i couldn't find one taken lengthwise)

hee hee - cramped is BEAUTIFUL!!
It means you're SERIOUS about it!

There is a tiny backyard that I pass when I am on foot on grocery errands in the Southside neighborhood in Pittsburgh.
I've never seen a human out there, but in a space about I dunno, 8x7, with a brick paving (typical of the Southside, no mortar, just red brick laid down many decades ago, and now all wavy) this person has it filled to the brim with things growing in containers - and not fancy containers, either. AND flowers just for the pretty all mixed in with the tomatoes and stuff. I always long to meet whoever lives there - but in almost a decade, have yet to be there at the right time. I LOVE that little garden!!

If I had a camera on my phone, I'd post a picture but I have to remember to bring my SLR with me on the bus and that's not something I tend to think of..... Once a month I buy my HEAVY groceries and take a cab home, maybe I'll remember to take the camera soon....

I'm a fan too!

Wherever you can see soil at the surface of a pot, you're not out of space yet!

Hi CritterG

Maybe leave a potted seedling someday with a card thanking her or him for making your walk so beautiful, and maybe leave an email address or phone number.