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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Do you have a balcony rather than a garden? Advice please.

14 replies

GrilledCheeseTomatoSoup · 26/02/2023 16:43

We have no garden. We live on the top floor of our block of flats and have a balcony. We have no shade either from the sun or the wind. I would like to grow some plants this year, a bit of colour and a bit of food! The DC would like to grow tomatoes, chillis and strawberries. I have never grown anything before. We have a bamboo that looks dead. We have a juniper my FIL promised would thrive. It hasn't! We had a cherry tree which got covered in lichen and died.

I've read I'll need some kind of tomato greenhouse like picture. Weather wise today is gusting 65km/hr. Would something like this rip in the wind? How can I weight it down? I can't drill into the outside of the building or balcony tiles. Temperatures on the balcony can reach high 40's on a hot summer's day; -15 on a cold winter's day.

What, oh wise mumsnetters, can I try to grow on my balcony? And how?

Do you have a balcony rather than a garden? Advice please.
OP posts:
Beebumble2 · 26/02/2023 18:31

What sort of balcony is it? Is it glass, concrete or made with slat/ railings? Can you tie a plastic grow house to it?

GrilledCheeseTomatoSoup · 26/02/2023 19:42

Balcony tiles are concrete. I'm not allowed to tie anything to the railings.

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Beebumble2 · 26/02/2023 22:10

Hmm, thinking outside the box, could you attach the grow house to the window/ door by tying coed to it then passing the cord through the opening and tying to the handles?

Catmuffin · 26/02/2023 22:13

There's a guy on Facebook called Cloud Gardener UK who was on Gardeners World with his balcony gardening. He lives in a high rise flat in Manchester.

Catmuffin · 26/02/2023 22:19

He's on other social media like Tiktok, Instagram, YouTube. I just follow him on fb

GrilledCheeseTomatoSoup · 27/02/2023 05:59

@Beebumble2 no, I don't think I can do that. We don't have windows, only doors onto the balcony and if it was that close, it would block the doors.

@Catmuffin thanks, I'll take a look. We're rooftop though, so completely open rather than enclosed like his.

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heldinadream · 27/02/2023 06:59

Do any of your neighbours grow stuff? If you can't see from your flat you might be able to see from the ground. Gardeners are usually very generous with advice and no-one's going to understand the conditions or options better than neighbours struggling with the same thing.

Can you put up a windbreak? Some kind of screen, bamboo or similar, with a weighted base? That might help shelter anything you grow. That's your main issue, giving your plants shelter from excessive rain and sun. Good luck! I bet you can grow something OP!

doadeer · 27/02/2023 07:04

I have a very large balcony and my tomatoes fall over quite a lot as they grow so tall but they are quite light so of its windy I think you'll struggle. You could do heavy pots with stuff like basil?

GrilledCheeseTomatoSoup · 27/02/2023 07:07

My direct neighbours have some flowers in hanging baskets but they have shade from the partition between our balconies and have a pergola type roof over part of their balcony.

The block of flats opposite had their balcony redone and plants put in by a gardening firm. They have a (almost as bad looking as our) bamboo, a flowering something and a mini palm tree. I can't see anything else. You can't see any plants on our equivalent balcony in the other block, from the road.

We can't put up a screen. I did want to put up some tall plants to give a bit privacy from the neighbours but we decided not to in the end as we were (are) worried the Dc might stand on the pot edges and put them at a dangerous height compared to the railings.

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GrilledCheeseTomatoSoup · 27/02/2023 07:09

@doadeer I think this will be an issue. We had some success with using a square pot for our cherry tree which got knocked over in a massive normal shaped pot.

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doadeer · 27/02/2023 07:10

Do you have a local gardener you could ask? At first I got some help setting up my balcony then I just maintained it and got stuff myself

gogohmm · 27/02/2023 07:25

I have herbs in pots on mine (bay, rosemary, lavender and 3 others my morning brain doesn't remember) and a small evergreen tree that changes colour. They are in heavy china glazed pots. Top tip, you need to carry everything up separately because they are too heavy to lift once full of soil.

PurpleParrotfish · 27/02/2023 09:53

The easiest way to garden is to think first about what plants would grow naturally in similar conditions. In your case, very exposed, windy, and the pots will dry out quickly in hot weather. So think tough as old boots coastal plants and Mediterranean shrubs like red valerian, sea thrift, lavender, rosemary... Google plants for coastal gardens and windy gardens, there are lots of ideas.

The bigger the pot, the slower it dries out. Try and get ones where the base is the same size as, or not much smaller than, the top for stability. There's always the warning though - remember to check the load bearing capacity on the balcony if you're going for something massive especially if the pot itself is heavy.

I wouldn't go for that plastic greenhouse, it will be like a sail! Tomatoes should be ok outside if you start them off inside in baby pots and then plant out when it's warmer. Against a south-facing wall would be ideal and maybe you can shelter them a bit with strategic use of tougher plants as a wind break. There are trailing varieties used for hanging baskets. I'd try one of those so you don't have to worry about them catching the wind, keep them low.

Chillies really like warmth, have you got a sunny windowsill you could grow one or two plants in pots inside? Not sure how they'd cope with wind. Strawberries - not sure, you'd need to be careful about keeping them watered. It's always worth trying things though! At least you won't need to worry much about pests. though I have bastard aphids all over the little rose bush on my balcony.

Also, about compost. For my own big pots, I used compost that's all organic matter (peat free for environmental reasons but basically the same as peat compost) and not sure it was the best choice, as it shrinks down and doesn't hold water so well, so I'm adding some soil in there to get a better balance. I think what I probably should have used is John Innes compost which has ordinary soil as part of the formulation and is heavier. I'm not an expert on this! Tomatoes need lots of nutrients, but the sort of plants which I suggested for coastal and exposed areas really don't, so I wouldn't add any fertiliser or anything.

Probably a good idea to start off with a few things and then add more as you see what works rather than doing everything all at once. But you could have a lovely collection of mini shrubs and maybe grasses that work together as a medium height windbreak, stick some spring and early summer bulbs in there too, and they wouldn't need too much attention. Good luck!

GrilledCheeseTomatoSoup · 28/02/2023 10:31

So think tough as old boots coastal plants and Mediterranean shrubs like red valerian, sea thrift, lavender, rosemary.
Thank you for the tips. I did kind of try to do this when we moved, it it's tricky with the extremes of heat. We have a baby fir tree that has survived so far. The olive tree died. I have one lavender which is flourishing and one which looks like it's on its last legs. I have never managed to grow a rosemary although I do love it. I might try again. I have invested in some square pots and will see how it goes!

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