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Post by sortilegio on Apr 14, 2015 17:35:51 GMT
So. Last year I moved out of shared living and into my very first, very own apartment. Now that the sun decided to delight us again, I thought alot about what to do with my balcony. I am not really a balcony sitter, so I want to turn it into a miniature vegetable and herb garden. Unfortunatly I have never done anything with gardening. So I started to read and read and read.
But I know that usually the most awesome tipps are not found on a website or in a book but by someone who loves doing what he/ she does. And where better to do that then troutnation. Awesome and resourceful since 2015!
So any tipps on putting on my very first balcony garden?
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Post by wonderbink on Apr 14, 2015 18:29:50 GMT
I grow tomatoes and herbs on my balcony every summer with a little help from my mom (she establishes the plants in their pots and I take them home and set them up.) The only advice I feel qualified to give is to use pots that are designed for outdoors (indoor pots can crack in the sun) and make sure to keep them properly watered since what's in the pot is all the moisture they get. Full disclosure--I've not always been great about that latter bit of advice (as a chronic procrastinator) but the rain has saved my bacon enough times.
Hope that helps. What are you thinking about growing?
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Post by Lyn Never on Apr 14, 2015 19:59:45 GMT
How much sun does your balcony get, for what part of the day? What direction does it face? How hot is the climate you're in? I really like planters with a reservoir, so you don't have to be quite so perfect with watering. Depending on how much room you have, I love love love my knock-off Earth boxes ( Lowes and Home Depot each have their own version - I have 8 of them, but I rent a house with a yard) because you can roll them around if they end up in the wrong place, and they hold a respectable amount of plants and water, but there are smaller pots with reservoirs as well. |
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Post by glasschmetterling on Apr 14, 2015 20:29:15 GMT
I'm rather shitty at gardening (I kill what my dad brings to my place and nurses for the 1-2 weeks he usually stays over), but what has considerably raised my plants' survival rate is a) big pots (means they can hold more water means that I can fudge on watering more) b) turn off the damned radiator under the windowsill where my plants are at (it's not even been a week and my scented geranium is getting TONS of new leaves) and most importantly c) get the poor buggers out of their usually too-tiny pots and into new pots with new soil. Especially when you buy herbs at the supermarket, they usually use the cheapest stuff they can get and they wither and die after a few weeks because they don't have enough nutrition. I usually put them into some kind of clay pellets that can hold the water very well and change their colour when it's time for watering them again (my brand is Seramis), downside is that you have to fertilise them.
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Post by sortilegio on Apr 14, 2015 20:36:58 GMT
Well... I live in northern germany, so right now it is nice and sunny. I think most of the rainy season is over for now. My balcony faces south west and gets some sun but since I live on the first floor not too much.
I want to plant some tomatoes, paprika and chilis. Maybe some strawberries. As for herbs, the usual I suppose. Coriander, parsley, thyme and so on. Maybe some rocket. My balcony is rather small, maybe 5 m². But I don't plan to sit on there and use as much space as possible. So also use the space up.
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Post by Lyn Never on Apr 15, 2015 16:23:56 GMT
I think even a northern-variety (in the US, I usually see them marketed as Siberian, Russian, or Alaskan) tomato is going to demand at least 6 hours of direct sunshine or they won't bloom, but your long days and SW exposure might mean that won't be a problem. Peppers have the same general requirements, though I find them less fussy about their conditions (I have a jalapeno plant that I didn't water for 4 months, and then it rained and it grew new leaves, and I started watering it again and it's now got 40 baby peppers on it). I can't get full-size tomatoes to grow in containers very well, but get excellent harvests of grape and cherry tomatoes.
As long as you can get them into some direct sunshine, your herbs should do okay. Your summers may be cool enough for rocket (or a similar green) - if you have a good local garden center, that's the best place to get advice about what actually grows well in that specific region.
Agreed that you want to go for a bigger container rather than lots of small ones. Don't get a container too big/heavy to move by yourself, but little pots hold so little soil that they dry out just from a low-humidity day.
But don't worry too much about knowing everything before you start. Gardening is mostly about learning from your mistakes.
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Post by glasschmetterling on Apr 15, 2015 19:27:17 GMT
Mistake easily avoided: Keep an eye on the weather forecast until past the Ice Saints and take the stuff inside if it looks like it's going to freeze. Finding plantsickles in the morning is rather disappointing (Yeah. Been there, done that, got the damned t-shirt).
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Post by sortilegio on Apr 15, 2015 20:21:25 GMT
I planted tomatoes, peppers and peperonis today. I will keep you updatet. I just ordered rocket and strawberries and lot of ... potts and stuff. I hope for the best
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Post by muskratthemink on Apr 28, 2016 14:52:28 GMT
My mom won a chocolate mint plant last week and today I discovered that it's covered in aphids! I think I managed to get most of them off, but how do I keep them from coming back?
Edit: The plant went downhill pretty fast after the aphids, by the end of the day it was pretty much dead. I decided just to trash it. No one in the house really uses mint all that much anyway.
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