How to live green in a small apartment

Advice on home sustainability is often based on unlimited space and a mortgage, with chicken coops, vegetable patches and solar systems among those frequently listed options.

A host of innovative startups are now working to change the industry, inventing new products to suit renters and apartment dwellers.

Glowpear

Australian company Glowpear specialises in gardening solutions for small spaces, giving renters and apartment dwellers the ability to create their own mini gardens.   

Glowpear’s planters are compact, stylish, self-watering units ideal for growing herbs, fruit, vegetables and flowers inside or out.

The company will soon launch a crowdfunding campaign to fund a mini version of their signature plants for about $130. This mini version can be easily placed on a benchtop as a kitchen garden, hung along a balcony balustrade, or run up a wall as a vertical garden. 

Soil-less vertical gardens are a great solution for inner-city homes.

The Greenwall Company

Soil-less vertical gardens known as “greenwalls” are an attractive, low-maintenance way to improve air quality and reduce noise.

Because of greenwall plants’ adaptive survival abilities, these can be installed on a building facade or wall where soil isn’t a possibility.

The Green Wall Company is an Australian-owned business that has installed more than 5000 square metres of greenwalls across Australia, New Zealand and Brazil.

Not only are the walls easy to maintain, the lush greenery is a beautiful way to soften a space and bring nature indoors. 

Most greenwalls are watered with drip irrigation and use timed automatic irrigation to reduce waste, manual watering and time spent on maintenance.

The mini Glowpear planter.

Composting

Contrary to common practice, composting is not restricted to the farm or a suburban backyard. 

By including even a small compost bin in your apartment or balcony, residents can help reduce the huge quantities of food organics thrown away – about two-thirds of all waste sent to landfill, according to Suez.

It’s as easy as purchasing a plastic container, poking some holes in the base for drainage, filling with appropriate matter (nitrogen, carbon, oxygen and water) and placing in a cool spot with plenty of light.

To simplify the process even further, US product The Greenlid is a completely compostable organic waste container able to be disposed directly into an outdoor bin or garden. The container is leak-resistant for 10 days and able to be reused multiple times.

Automatic watering

For apartment dwellers who travel frequently or simply forget to water their plants, using a non-electronic, automatic watering system is an ideal solution.

Newly launched product EasiOyYa is based on the concept of “Olla” (pronounced ‘oy-yah), a subsurface irrigation technique that originated more than 4000 years ago. The technique involves burying water-filled ollas (unglazed terracotta/clay pots) into plant soil to be absorbed via the roots.

EasiOyYa is the modern-day equivalent of an olla, connected by tubing to form an automatic watering system. This system has one central tank requiring the occasional top up, otherwise EasiOyYa takes care of itself.