You don’t need a lot of space (or know-how) to grow an indoor garden. Anyone can grow plants inside, and adding a bit of green, pink, or even bright orange is an easy way to brighten up any living space and make a senior-living apartment feel like home.

Scented geranium

If you close your eyes, certain varieties of scented geranium can smell like lemon, mint, apricot, or cinnamon. The scent comes from the leaves, but the plant also features delicate white, pink, or yellow flowers. Scented geranium works well in small pots and likes lots of light, making it an ideal plant for windowsills. To help your plants thrive, Mother Earth News recommends potting in peat moss or sand mixtures and watering occasionally, when the soil feels dry to the touch.

Snake plant

If you’ve had trouble growing plants before, we have a solution: snake plant. This tall, narrow plant gets its name from its vertical leaves. While the plant doesn’t flower, the foliage is marbled with traces of green, gray, white, and yellow.

Best of all, as an extremely tolerant plant, it will survive well even in low situations and with only the occasional watering. To keep your plant growing strong, Better Homes and Gardens recommends letting the soil dry out completely between waterings.

Boston fern

Ferns are a classic indoor plant, and the Boston fern has long, tender leaves that slope downward, making this variety an ideal plant for a hanging basket. The fern needs a fair amount of light, so try hanging your pot off a curtain rod or along the edge of a cabinet near a window.

Ferns love a tropical climate, so make sure to mist it often rather than just watering the soil.

Dwarf Mandarin orange tree

Nothing beats the taste of fresh citrus fruit, but you don’t need an entire orchard to grow your own. Miniature citrus trees can be grown potted indoors. Mandarin oranges are some of the smallest sweet citrus you can grow, making them ideal for small spaces. To help your tree grow healthy oranges, the Garden Helper says you should keep the soil moist, feed an acid-type fertilizer every three months, and give the tree plenty of sunlight.

Ponytail palm

Adding a ponytail palm to your room is one of the easiest ways to bring the tropics indoors. Ponytail palms are small in size and grow long, curling palmlike leaves. The plant is also extremely easy to care for. If potting it yourself, the Old Farmer’s Almanac recommends using quick-draining soil like the varieties designed for cactus and placing the plant in a brightly lit room. Water throughout the spring, summer, and fall months only when the topsoil feels dry to the touch. In the winter, a ponytail palm can easily survive without watering.