You can have a balcony garden - partial shade

Third floor balcony garden, 2002. I'm growing roses, an orangetree, herbs, and leafy vegetables.

You can have a balcony garden! This photo (leafy greens) was taken in 2000. I had no direct sun at all, but I still managed to grow some sugar snap peas, leafy greens, and bulbs.

Ron loves fragrant plants, and really enjoyed the fragrance of the bulbs. They grew quite well. I'll cover some simple, fun, ideas a little later on.

So, let's assume right now you have a balcony area. It doesn't get much sun, maybe 1-4 hours of direct sun a day. What can you grow?

Well, if you like to grow your own food, you can grow quite a bit. Any kind of lettuce, mesclun mix, or leafy green will do well. Someone recently asked me, "What leafy greens? I thought all leafy greens were lettuce?" Well, you can grow mustard greens (if your climate isn't too warm), beets, kale, collards (excellent in hot and cold climates), swiss chard (actually related to beets), and salad mix veggies, the kind that come already mixed in the seed packet.

What will you need to do? Well, you'll want to start by getting a pot. Depending on what you grow, various pots will do. I've used everything from a paper pot to a 5 gallon bucket. For a salad/green veggie type plant, you will probably want about a 6-8 inch pot for each plant, and if you want a salad mix that you can reach in and trim, you'd want a window box pot (about 30 inches long and 6 inches wide). A window box pot would also be good for beets.

You'll also need a bag of potting soil. I like the moisture mix for Houston, it's very warm and drying out is a real danger. If you live somewhere that's more temperate, you can seek out a basic potting mix. Ideally, an organic mix with some compost. Also ideal, you can also get ahold of a bag of compost, to mix in with your soil. If you know an organic gardener they would probably be happy to give you a bucket of compost if you ask. If you live in a warm/hot climate, also get a bag of mulch. You want something that is a small shred of wood, that will be easily tucked around your plants in their pots.

While you're at the garden center, see if you can find some transplants, small plants in six-packs ready to be planted. Since we're assuming you have a mostly shady area, you want shade lovers or the leafy greens I mentioned. If you can't find the transplants, get some seeds that look interesting and say they will work with your light level.

If the pot isn't very large, you don't need to worry about putting in gravel. I did it both ways and never noticed any difference. The most important thing is to make sure it does have drainage holes. Some pots require you to poke your own holes. Once you've done that, you'll fill it up with your soil. If you have compost, add in a handful for every 3-4 handfuls of regular soil.

You want to fill it up about 3/4 of the way, and water it in. It may take a while for all the soil to get damp. You want the soil to be completely moist. Add more soil if you are planting seeds, until the level comes up to about 1.5 to 2 inches below the top of the pot. If you have a transplant, add a handful or two of soil and water.

Take the transplant out of the pot. The green side goes up, the dirt part goes down. You want to hide all the roots and soil that you see, until it's at about the same level as it was in it's first pot. Dig a hole, and put the plant into it. Does it fit? You may need to take out or add some soil to make it work. Give the plant a GOOD drink now. If you have the mulch, put a small around on top of the soil, about 1/2 inch or so. That will kept keep the moisture level even.

If you bought seeds, you can do a couple of different things. The easiest is to put a few seeds in the pot and set it out. They should sprout and do well. It is better (say you want swiss chard) to only put a few seeds into the pot (say 8 inch pot), cover lightly, and follow the directions on the seed packet. Don't put a lot of seeds UNLESS you are planting a window box with the salad mixes I mentioned earlier. I planted mine pretty thickly (one or two pinches of seed, scattered on top of the soil) and it was nice and full of plants. It was easy to trim and regrew quickly.

Water the plant when the soil gets dry down to about 1/2 inch. Give it a good drink, until you see water coming out of the bottom. If you forget to water and it wilts, put lots of water in the pot and see if it will recover. Often they do.

I have grown lots of salad greens and they always did well when treated this way. You can get a good organic fertilizer and give it a light dose once a month or so.

Congratulations! You have a balcony garden, even in partial shade! :)