Where to start

My missus and I are looking to do a new hobby together and we thought we would get involved in some gardening, however we havent the first clue about it. We have tried before with some chillies but got no where great, now looking to start over.

Basically we live in a flat and we have a couple of outside balconies, wanted to start with some real easy flowering plants and then maybe progress onto herbs and/or vegetables.

Just wanted some pointers on idea of where to start. things that do not require a great deal of equippment, special knowledge etc, just something we can pick up at the local garden centre and have a good chance of success.

Any advise/help is appreciated

Steve

 

You can get all kinds of flowering plants at this time of the year.
And containers, just need some compost, bought in bags and away you go.

Would be interested to know why the chillies were a failure ,but probably not the best plants to start with on a balcony.

 

Welcome, Steve. Most of the annuals sold in Garden Centres (and supermarkets these days) will happily do well in containers on a balcony. Once planted all they need is watering, for the most part. Then the next year you get more ambitious. Then the next year........................

 

Maybe our member @Balc could help you, he only has a balcony but does wonders with it.

 

The chillies, just didnt pan out as i wanted, but then I had no idea what i was doing, put in a pot, water, and tried to keep in the sun.

This time rather than buy a plant so to speak i was thinking of seeds, i dont know why i just figured you would get more satisfaction from growing something from seed than a pre grown plant. There are so many option in the garden centres etc.

 

Bit late for seeds of most things to be honest.
Chilli's need a fair bit of warmth so probably didn't like the balcony, what floor are you on?

 

Hi @steevjp .

All about Chilles in this thread ..

Chilies 2022

 

Hi @steevjp, I garden on a balcony & have done for many years. We have lived in this current flat for the last 20 years!

We live in a ground floor flat & our balcony projects out from the balconies above us about a foot or so more. I'm the one who does all the gardening with my wife hardly setting a foot outside the house!

You say you want some advice on what to grow on your balcony, well, what do you want to use it for? Do you want to grow mostly veg or flowers or perhaps both? I, personally, grow practically only flowers. I do grow about 10 tomato plants in growbags during the summer & have done so almost since we moved in here. Do you want to use it to sit out on during the warmer summer weather?

What direction does your balcony face? Ours face more or less SSW so we get practically all & any sun available from about 11am till sunset! There's practically no shade to speak of.

Is the balcony open to the sides? If you have no side walls, (ours has), you will have no protection from the wind. We live on a very windy road & even though we are at ground level the wind often burns the leaves of some of the more delicate plants. But at least there's some protection in the inside of the balcony so I can put more tender plants further in.
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The balcony this year doesn't look like this at all! :( I put these photos in so you can see what can be done on a balcony at this time of the year!

 

I'll have to find out which way it faces but it does get some sun but not all day as we are close to trees/another property so there is some shade, we are on the 1st floor, i would say size wise approximately the same as yours, we have 2 balconies at different ends to the flat, same shape open on two sides (the pic here has a few small flowers that my missus did a while back) this pic is quite old, but essentially those flowers boxes (or ones like it) are what we would be using.

 

@steevjp Thanks for the picture of your balcony. I think it looks a bit narrower than ours. I see you have panels that stop light from getting in at the front. As plants there would get less light you would need to use plants that are adapted to light shade.

You could get troughs (bigger than those in the photo) to put alongside the panels at the front. Being long & narrow they wouldn't take up so much space widthwise as traditional round pots.

 

Your balcony looks very nice and neat. The flooring is super.

Watering is the main challenge on balcony gardening, the bigger the pots are the easier it is to maintain. The current throughs will probably need watering daily.

A big, permanent planter would allow some good planting. Would it be possible to have a deep (about knee high and 50cm wide), wall-to-wall one, at the end? Then an evergreen permanent climber could be trained up the pillar (Lonicera Henryi is great, unkillable ) with perhaps some annual climbers to compliment it. It's not too late to sow Nastrutiums and Sweat Pea plugs are available just now.

Something evergreen and shade tolerant for base planting, depending on what you like. Ferns always look good, and something slightly trailing would soften the look. Variegated Ivy or Vinca minor perhaps?

Dot some annuals in between for summer, and add small spring bulbs this autumn.

Edibles are fun in balcony, no muddy boots to get a few sprigs of Thyme into your G&T. Most herbs are happy if they get decent light, and a herb pot is super easy to start with supermarket pot plants. Tear the root ball in half and pot on in generous sized pots. Chives are very pretty and flower well, they are perennials and start to produce crop early. Thyme and mint are also perennials and easy, basil needs a bit warmth and is annual. Parsley is biennal and very decorative. Alpine strawberries are pretty plants and more or less evergreen, I just saw plugs in Morrisons for a pound and they are also easy to grow from seed.

Nothing is forbidden, I have grown potatoes with petunias (pretty plants but short lived- but did give my elderly neighbour a chuckle when she realised what they were), cordon tomatoes in a bucket, round carrots in a washing up bowl and so on. As long as the containers are big, balcony can be very good environment for plants.

With restricted space it's nice if plants work hard for their board so evergreens are a good option for base planting.

 

It's so true what @Selleri says about watering!!! I spend an hour or more watering my plants (in summer up to several times a day), even with the bottles on the balcony I still have to fill them up again once I've used them! The day I have to water them with fertilizer can take me a couple of hours!

I can't use watering cans or a hose so I use lots of very old 2lt water bottles which I fill up & keep in a cupboard where the central heating water pipes pass through. Though in the summer they spend all their time out on the balcony behind the tomatoes in growbags. There is a thick plastic ledge a couple of inches above the balcony floor that runs the length of the balcony.

I have to make dozens of trips backwards & forwards from the kitchen to the balcony - through the living room! I can only carry 4 bottles at a time. The floor of our balcony is untreated concrete so it doesn't matter if compost or water falls on it. But I have to be as careful as possible with the carpet in the living room!
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You can see the water bottles of water behind the tomatoes!
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I would imagine watering is a bit more difficult if you are not on the ground floor. The last thing the downstairs neighbour wants is water and wet compost dribbling down while they are sitting out eating breakfast!

I am trying adding water-retaining gel to hanging baskets. I have no idea how efficient it will be.

 

When we lived in a fifth floor flat in Spain I always had to be very careful when watering my plants! I had to check that there were no clothes on the washing lines below us - some days it was really frustrating as the neighbours wouldn't clear their lines for most of the day. :(