Balcony gardening

Any balcony can become a small-scale garden. Anything is possible – from a few pots of parsley to a small apple tree. Conjure up a happy place for summer scents, relaxation and harvest.

Design your own oasis

When gardening in a small space, it’s important to be selective. Start from your desires and needs. Is your dream to be self-sufficient in leafy greens, squash and strawberries? Are you a seed-collecting tomato nerd who wants to crossbreed new varieties? Or are you aiming to add a splash of colour to the neighbourhood with flowing vines of floral delight?

Are you looking for inviting seating for socialising? Or is a meditation cushion where you can recharge your batteries in privacy enough?

Get clear on your vision, and you’ll find it easier to make the best use of your space.

Keep an eye on the situation

Notice how the sun moves across the balcony during the day. This makes it easy to see where to place light-demanding plants and which corners are suitable for those that thrive in a little shade.

• Plants that need a lot of sun

Tomatoes, chillies, cucumbers, strawberries, lavender, berry bushes, geraniums, petunias, roses, Mediterranean plants.

• Plants that tolerate or thrive in shade

Spinach, chard, lettuce, herbs, cabbage plants, blueberries, funkia, ferns, ivy, small-flowered clematis, fuchsia, diligent lisa, flower tobacco, Prince Gustav’s eye.

Choose the right varieties for balcony cultivation

In today’s fantastic range of cultivars, you can find many seed varieties that are particularly suitable for the balcony. Bush tomatoes and vine tomatoes with bunches of delicious red berries are of course a better choice than beefsteak tomatoes. Potted cucumbers produce fruit on the windowsill as early as May and thrive when they move out onto the balcony after the last frost. Aubergines are also available in a smaller variety.

Among flowering plants, too, many varieties are specially adapted for pot cultivation. For example, small-flowered clematis works better than large-flowered clematis.

Upright berry bushes and weak-growing fruit trees are also happy to move onto the balcony.

Invest in large containers

Large containers give plants with deep roots room to develop. A larger pot also reduces the need for watering. Remember to put leca balls in the bottom, so the plants don’t have to stand with their roots soaking wet.

Co-grow several plants in one pot. Perennial herbs such as sage, thyme and rosemary, for example, thrive together.

If your balcony has space for a pallet collar, this is an excellent way to grow plants. Wrap the inside of the pallet collar in plastic to prevent excess water from reaching the neighbour.

Look at the rules

Find out what rules apply, if any. Often, grow boxes must be hung on the inside of the railing. It can be useful to know how much weight the balcony can bear. Wet soil in large pots weighs a lot. Plastic pots and grow bags are lighter than clay and terracotta pots.

Have a watering plan

Friendly neighbours who are not on holiday while you solve the problem. Otherwise, there is a range of techniques for long-term irrigation. Everything from putting the pots in water-filled barrels to solar-powered irrigation systems. The bigger the pot, the less need for watering.

Balcony growing on the vertical

Grow at height to utilise the space to the max. A trellis dotted with sweet peas or a bunch of runner beans climbing on strings makes for a lot of growing in a small space. It also creates great wind and privacy protection.

Some ways to grow at height

• Hanging baskets
• Wall pots
• Multi-storey cultivation bench
• Chicken wire on the short side of the balcony
• Trellis, bamboo sticks or strings
• Plant wall for vertical cultivation

Some plants to grow at height

• Tomato
• High-growing peas and beans
• Creeping cress
• Clematis
• Flower of the day
• Creeping rose
• Honeysuckle

Growing on a glazed balcony

A glazed balcony with additional heating in winter opens up even more possibilities. Lemon trees, olives, figs, grapes. Just be careful with the ventilation, so that it doesn’t get too humid and hot in summer. Fruit-setting plants may need to be support-pollinated. This is done by moving a brush from flower to flower as if a bumblebee were flying around the balcony.

The balcony – the magnet of the home

A well-planned and well-tended balcony garden quickly becomes a magnet for the home and a daily garden therapy. A refreshing outdoor space makes it easy to spend more of the summer outdoors – with an inviting book, a work session at the computer or a social evening amidst the scent of flowers and meandering greenery.

Author: Johanna Damm

Fact-checked by Erik Hoekstra

Last updated 2022-10-14