What can I grow on a balcony garden?
It seems an easy question to answer but when you are complete newbies to gardening, it is often the best place to start. While these tips say balcony, a lot of them can be applied to any garden. We will share tips that have worked for us based on our experience of starting garden on a balcony, while living in an apartment.
When we started our journey to balcony planting, we never thought it would be feasible to grow anything apart from tomatoes (which we heard were easy to grow). With the initial excitement, we bought pots, seeds and hoped for the best! Which eventually led to our plant garden looking like the picture below. It was not a bad start but, we kept adding seeds without considering much of what we will discuss below.
Over time, we have bought a lot of books and asked friends and family. We are now of the opinion that anything can be grown on a balcony. We have also had some friends ask about our progress and how they can get started. There is so much to say, though, as a start we hope you find these tips helpful.
We have set out some steps for you to follow:
- Measure the area and sunlight levels throughout the day:
We set out by measuring the space we wanted to grow plants and estimated how big our plants will get. There are lots of resources to help you find out the average plant size depending on the variety. This can be found online, in great gardening books or at the back of seed packs.
Another point which goes hand in hand with space is light. Plants need it to photosynthesise, so make sure you know how much light your plants appreciate, to get the most out of their growing potential. We recommend you use an app to let you know where your garden is facing for maximum garden planning.
You can also think about your space creatively and make use of vertical space. Not everything needs to be on the floor. Some plants will appreciate shading, therefore, add a few shelves and get more into your space! This can bring a nice ambiance to your outdoor space too. We enjoy sitting out because the space feels calming, and we can eat the fruit and vegetable produce while we unwind.
2. What do you want to grow the plants in?
Firstly, how will you start off their plant journey? In seed trays, recycled bottles, cans, or sow them directly outside. We grew ours indoors until they were ready to go in our mini greenhouse, as you can see from the picture below.
Then, you might want to think of what to grow them in when they are bigger and ready to transplant; pots, grow bags, boxes, sacks, or beds? This ties into the first point, as you will know how much space they need, or how long they take to germinate.
For some plants however, this is often not an option. Carrots do not like to be transplanted so it is better to sow them directly.
For us, the idea of beds quickly fell apart when we realised how much weight our balcony could take and some of the structural damage which needed to be fixed. If you are renting, this can be found from your landlord.
3. Do your plants require support?
Determine the support your plants need. For example, do they need a trellis or a stick? Vining plants such as cucumbers will appreciate this. When you have a balcony, it is also important to understand how you will secure the base of your trellis or stick. This was a learning curve for us.
Our tomatoes were too heavy to be supported by the sticks last year too and whenever we had a gust of wind, we would find them on the floor. Learn from us. Do not be like us!
Although, we occasionally still make the same mistake when we grow a new plant, or new variety of tomato, so it is an ever-evolving learning curve.
4. What is your budget or estimate budget?
This is a tricky one because often, at least in the United Kingdom (UK), garden centre prices are higher than supermarkets.
Although, often supermarkets will only keep a small selection of gardening items. Therefore, knowing what to get from the supermarket and garden centre or online requires a bit of price comparison.
We would say be realistic and scout out prices ahead of time. Gardening items do not cost much however, it adds up. Before you know it, you have spent hundreds on gloves, gardening tools soil…the list goes on. Keep track. Start small and expand if needed.
5. How will you start the plant journey?
Will you buy all your seeds? Will you use seeds from the fruit you buy from the supermarket, or will you buy seedlings? Will you grow your vegetables from food scraps? We often go for a mixture depending on what we feel is suitable. With herbs you will probably never find an herb plant with seeds, therefore, it makes sense to buy the herb seeds or seedlings.
Other occasions we would buy, seeds fruit and seedlings as an experiment. For example, we bought strawberry seeds. We also planted some seeds from shop bought strawberries. And finally, we bought strawberry seedlings. As we have never grown strawberries before, we wanted to experiment on which was the best way to get fruiting strawberry plants. So far, our seedlings are fruiting. Some of our seeds have shot up both from the shop bought and the seeds from a pack. So, all three methods are doing well. It might come down to cost in the end.
6. Which fertiliser and insecticides do you want to use?
As a vegan who is conscious about animal rights and environmentalism, this is an important question. Fertilisers we tend to stay away from blood and bone-based. We often opt for animal by-products or organic choices such as horse manure or compost. We have not noticed a major difference in the size and quality of harvest compared to other gardeners. This is a subject of debate and will be a future post.
As for insecticides or pesticides, there are many options out there. We opt for making our own- a fermented nettle spray which has been doing the trick! However, it cannot get rid of everything so we have employed other techniques such as finding the pests and throwing them out of our garden. This is especially true for snails and slugs. We will admit, takes a lot of time.
7. How will you water your plants?
Living in a house, you will often have an outside tap. However, you will need to rely on watering cans for your balcony when you are in a flat. So, setting up some clever irrigation system or getting a good-sized water can is the best route to take.
8. Which seeds do you buy?
With so many brands out there, it is always a tricky choice to make. We suggest going for tried and tested seeds. Look out for great reviews! Check out our blog post on some ideas. Click here
9. When should you start planting?
This depends on the seasons in your area. Wherever you are, the seed packet will have instructions to advise you based on your area. So, this makes the process so much easier! Another point is to consider when the seed will flower. From seed to harvest time. You could potentially use that pot for more than one crop per season. Although, as mentioned earlier, some plants are better off sown directly into the soil without transplanting. Carrots therefore, would be sown in the warmer months.
10. Which soil should I use?
And finally, this is a huge topic! We advise to use good quality compost. Often when you buy seedlings, there will be an indication on which is the best soil combination. At times, this can be found in books. We again hope to do a future post on this, as there are so many factors to consider. However, generally, good quality compost will work fine.
And there you have it.
If you don’t remember anything from this post.The biggest take away, is you will make mistakes but that’s ok.
We look forward to your comments. Good luck on your gardening journey!
Check out our YouTube channel on some of the tips we mention here.
Teka
Wow!!! Congrats to you two, Iam very impressed with the initiative of backyard gardening, which is visible for anyone!! , the garden looks so real, attractive and fab, fresh produce is the way forward 👌
C&D
Thank you! We appreciate it. We cannot wait to give you some food from our garden.
Taffy
I love how well detailed this is. So many tips I think I know what I have been doing wrong in my gardening journey now. The type of soil was a really good shout
C&D
Hi Taffy! Thank you for letting us know how helpful this post was to you. We are so glad we could help. Happy gardening! x