Self watering balcony garden

[Greenbeemama]

The title is basically what I’m after and I’m wondering how much of a unicorn this is.

i have a large balcony above my porch which is only accessible via a tiny window. I could perhaps squeeze myself through the window or perhaps get up there with a ladder but not on a regular basis. That being the case, is there any way I can plant some flowers up there that just sustain themselves? I could perhaps manage watering once a month. Would love to see photos of what you all have going on in your balcony gardens.

Do you mean your porch roof? Or is there a balcony on the side of the house I can't see?

If it's the porch roof, are you confident it can take the weight?

I'd be looking at big planters if possible because they dry out less fast and then very drought hardy plants - so probably Mediterranean or cactus types because unless it's a north facing wall it will also be getting a lot of sunlight. Even then getting them to cope with once a month in summer would be a struggle I would imagine.

You can buy water retaining beads and water retaining mats for pots which might help.

I imagine the least bad option might be to set it up with an irrigation system that either goes down to the ground or up to that window and then water through the irrigation system somehow. But not sure how you'd go about that honestly.

That's not going to able to take weight of planters full of soil.
You'd be better off planting a couple of climbers either side of the door and training them to grow at the front of the porch cover

I was wondering that today, when I walked past someone's house. Maybe there is a book about it?

That’s not a balcony. It’s just a porch roof and is very unlikely to be able to take a lot of weight - plant pots and planters are really heavy when full of soil and water.

You could put a sprinkler on it and have the hose end at the window, so to water you just need to connect the hose.