What can you grow on a balcony garden in the UK?
This question really depends on how much sunlight you are likely to get. Once you know roughly, how much light you can get in the day, the rest is easy! We live in England, United Kingdom (UK) and our balcony is southeast facing, with very little shade from the balcony above so we can get away with plants which need up to 5 to 8 hours of sun per day. There is a surprising amount, which you can comfortably grow and the satisfaction of knowing you have natured it to that point is incredible. Not forgetting the fresh taste too!
How do I know which plants I can grow on my balcony?
Size and shape of a full-size plant can give you an idea of what you can squeeze in. Space is always at a premium on a balcony therefore, measuring the area can save a lot of time and money.
After that you can start to consider what you like to eat. A small space lends itself well to some vertical shelving or hanging baskets on the balcony ledge. This can maximise the number of plants you can squeeze in the small space. In addition, a good trellis can help support plants which tend to spread across the ground. This can allow for more items to be grown on the balcony. After this step is complete, you can invest in items to grow your plants in. Another idea for a trellis is to plant tall plants next to climbers so they can climb along. We often have sunflowers as our cucumber trellis. This is a winning combination!
What are the best pots to use on a balcony?
Often very light plant pots are ideal. For example, clay pots are not ideal because they are heavy and even heavier with the soil and water which will fill them. Often a balcony garden is not only limited for space but for weight too. Anything light, is great and old boxes can be a great idea too. Don’t move the box until you have harvested your crops, otherwise the box will fall apart.
This year, we are loving hessian sacks which can be found on Amazon. They are not usually meant for growing but have worked really well for us so, we will continue to use them.
Biggest tips are:
a) Make sure you know how big your plant will get. This will help you decide how much soil you need to fill the sack with.
b) Secondly, the sack can split through the growing season so make sure you place it exactly where you want it for that growing season or place it on a moveable bed.
We mention this topic and show you how in our video. Check it out below.
We equally love the pots and grow bags pictured which we have had for a while. Some of the pots we purchased were bins. We then drilled drainage holes into them making them suitable for growing crops! Do think out of the box when you see any kind of containers.
As you can see, from our planters, they have some tape around them. This was last year’s slug repellent, which worked quite well. You can get that on Amazon too! Click here. The only negative, we would say is, after a good rainy day the tape loses its shine and goes patchy (as pictured below), therefore, it does not work quite as well. You will need to keep adding more tape or cover the patchy tape on a rainy day.
Finally, on the point of planters, grow bags and hessian sacks will all require you to water the plants quite a lot. Therefore, do consider how much watering time you can dedicate to your plants. Another way to help with this is to have mulch (wood chips) or mulching over the top of your soil to avoid watering too frequently and to add extra nutrients to the garden.
What can you plant in the UK?
During the summer months in the UK, it is possible to get up to 5-8 hours of good sunlight a day as mentioned earlier. This is a good amount of sunlight for most plants such as tomatoes or peppers. Often for complete beginners seed packs are the best place to give you an idea of how much light the plant needs. This can inform your decisions on what to grow. We have a list of plants we have grown from seed. Just to note, we started our plants indoors when it was colder outside and gradually, the seedlings went into a mini greenhouse outside. Currently, we have transplanted our seedlings into pots or bags on the balcony.
A lot of these plants can be sown directly outdoors in England from April onwards. Even though it is June, there is plenty of time to get your seeds and get planting, if you haven’t already.
This year we conducted a little experiment where we planted seeds from a pack and some from the fruit we bought in the shop. We tried this with squash and strawberries which are both doing incredible. So, if you would like to try this experiment with us, and have access to the fruit in the shop, then this is also a good option.
Below are seed recommendations of what we bought from Amazon. These have grown into fruitful plants and in some cases, we have had some seeds left over for another growing season.
Seed recommendations:
- Strawberries -these are particularly fussy. Do not get disheartened. Try again.
- Tomatoes-this is a variety pack. All the plants are very easy to grow.
- Lettuce
- Sunflowers
- Cucumber
- Cucamelons
- Sweet peppers
- Hot chilli
- Mixed herbs are quite fussy plants to grow from seed, so, make sure you follow the instructions and do not get deflated if they do not grow. Try again.
- Cauliflower
- Dwarf French bean
- Rocket
- Corn
- Marigold
Happy gardening!
Check out our other gardening post for more tips! Click here for a quick link.
Love,
Chris & Dale
Xxx
נערות ליווי - israel lady
Greetings! Very helpful advice within this article! It is the little changes that will make the most significant changes. Thanks a lot for sharing!