Hello veggies! I've been living mostly in flats and apartments recently so I don't have much of my own land to be gardening on. But I'm trying to doing what I can, having been inspired by basic ideas about balcony gardens, I've started growing strawberries and some yummy mini wild strawberries in some hanging pots around the place. So I was wondering if anyone else has found themselves in my land-scant position or if you could suggest any veggies that would do OK. The pots I have now get good late-afternoon to evening sun. Thanks in advance! clo
Welcome to the Forums and especially the Gardening Forum (the best forum of all). In this old hippie's opinion, herbs will give you the most return for small space invested. Fresh basil, sage, thyme, oregano, rosemary, chives, and dill will all have a big impact within your menu and unless you grow them yourself are hard to get and/or cost a lot of $$$. They'll all do fine in pots and can be easily gotten as young plants. After that, tomatoes - a couple full size & one cherry. Next would be a couple of jalapeno and/or cayenne peppers. All except the basil, dill, and tomatoes are perennials, so they'll be with you for years. Don't know where you are located, but the herbs can stand sub-freezing temperatures. You'd have to protect the peppers from freezing. Peace, poor_old_dad
I just got a book in a second hand book shop which is a WWII edition about gardening and it has a section on growing in flats/appartments for balconies and windowsills. I will have another look and get back to you...I do remember5 something about french beans - and they will look good if you are going to sit out on a balcony.
Just remember when growing veggies in pots to fertilize on a regular basis. Usually on a four to five week basis, and careful of the nitrogen level. Should be a well balanced fertilizer one with all three numbers pretty equal, something like 6-6-6, should do well.
Great! Thanks for the tips, you guys. If anyone else wants to follow up there's a quick tips page with which you can develop a pretty substantial apartment balcony hanging garden of your own using various container types. Thanks again.
I have a container garden on our 12' x 6' deck. It consists of a 2' x 3' x 6" deep plastic bin, a couple of giant buckets from Target, and an assortment of pots. It's a full-sun deck, and I have a 10' soaker hose running over a garden arch that waters the entire thing each evening. I've planted tomatoes, bell peppers, leaf lettuce, carrots, mini pumpkins, chives, mint, cilantro, lavender, basil & lemonbalm. Next year we'll be expanding our plans to include potatoes, nasturtiums, leeks, garlic, betony & chocolate mint. You can see some pics of what we've done all over this forum. You'll want to make sure to keep up on watering & fertilizing, but so far other than severe issues with squirrels my garden's doing fantastic! I'd say that I'm having the best luck with the tomatoes, lettuce & herbs... but really, everything except the carrots (used last year's seeds) and cilantro (squirrels keep digging it up) is doing well! love, mom
