thinking ahead to a balcony garden

[Zoe Girl]

I have a large balcony now and I started thinking ahead to gardening out there. I also want it to be affordable however I would love a couple blueberry bushes. I love blueberries and it is one of the few fruits I can eat. I can do herbs and tomatoes and salad, but the big cost is the containers. Some flowers are nice but I really don't know my flowers or other plants. Sometimes gardening is not that inexpensive, eek.

I am wondering what I can do now, maybe collect some coupons for the hardware stores and look for deals on pots at various places?

[Williamsmith]

As important as planning is to success.....just go out on that balcony and sit down or stand there and close your eyes. Breathe. Be quiet. Listen. You'll see an image of what you want. Don't get in a hurry. Let it evolve.

Go to places where pots get abandoned and rescue them.

[ToomuchStuff]

So are you looking for pots, or containers?
You still work at a school, correct? See if you can get some "pickle" buckets from them (used for multiple things, not just pickles). Checked CL and Freecycle?,

[lessisbest]

You can close your eyes and breath all you want, but at some point planting and growing reality will need some important questions asked and answered - it's not a "feeling", it's a science.

1. Which side of the building is the balcony on?

2. How much sunlight will it get during the growing season? Is it early morning sun or late afternoon sun? Will it get at least 5-hours of morning sun? How much shade will there be, and at what time of the day? As the sun tracts to the north in July, some south exposure areas won't get very much sunlight if it's next to a building that will shade it.

3. How much additional weight will the structure support? Containers heavy with water will add a lot of weight, so choose shallow planting beds. A gallon of water weighs 8.3454 pounds. If you have to haul that water from inside the home, consider it your weightlifting exercise program for the summer. If temperatures get extremely hot, you may need to water more than once a day.

4. How will you get water to the site?

5. Choose plants that don't have deep root systems. Remember, what goes in must come out, and you will have to deal with dead plants, leaf debris, renewing the soil.....

6. Choose plants that are compatible - ones that need the same amount of sunlight, moisture, etc. if planting more than one type of plant in the same planter. Use a mix of edible plants and flowers. Something short, medium, and tall and trailing.

7. Secondary planting.... Once the lettuce is done in May, what will you replace it with for the rest of the summer?

8. Is there adequate drainage for container gardening?

9. Containers will leave marks on the decking. If you are renting will this be a problem for the owner?

10. You may want to place containers on a platform with castors so it can be easily moved, if necessary, in order to track the available sunlight as the summer advances.

[mschrisgo2]

I second freecycle and craigslist; I have both passed on and obtained pots/containers on both.

I don't know how hot your summers are, but I know here I had to get fairly large containers for my deck, as the smaller ones (that I ultimately gave away on freecycle) dried out hard as a rock before noon!! Our summer days are well into the 100s.

The larger containers I evolved to actually came from a nursery, "15 gallon trees," and a landscaper friend got 5 of them for me. They are black heavy plastic, about 22 in tall and 20 inches across. I also have several large, glazed, terra cota pots. The glazing and the plastic are important to slow down evaporation of moisture. I got trays and saucers at the thrift store for 10 cents each; we are required in the lease to have "drip pans" under all pots.

I also scored an umbrella stand for free on craigslist, and got an umbrella on a early 50% off sale a couple of years ago ($30). My deck is in full sun, all day, had to have some shade.

I bought good potting soil, don't remember how much that was, as I bought it over time, and dumped the smaller pots that I had to switch out into the bigger ones. But all in all, I did not spend very much, probably around $65, including the umbrella, soil and plants.

[rodeosweetheart]

Re Lessisbest's comment number 9-- why not collect some free pallets and put the containers on those, to avoid staining deck? Maybe you could put casters on the pallets and take care of comment 10, too.

We've had good luck with the giant Walmart 5 dollar plastic containers--I don't think they are in garden section, as they are for something else. They are like horse waterers.

When I do container gardening, and I actually start most of my seeds in containers, I ball up newspaper and straw and such in the bottom, add coffee grounds, before putting the dirt in--much lighter than the dirt, and it feeds the worms, and it composts right in place.

And I agree with William Smith, all my gardens suggest themselves to me and evolve over time, if you just listen to what the plants are saying to you. There is much listening involved in gardening/farming, in my experience.

[Williamsmith]

You can close your eyes and breath all you want, but at some point planting and growing reality will need some important questions asked and answered - it's not a "feeling", it's a science.

1. Which side of the building is the balcony on?

2. How much sunlight will it get during the growing season? Is it early morning sun or late afternoon sun? Will it get at least 5-hours of morning sun? How much shade will there be, and at what time of the day? As the sun tracts to the north in July, some south exposure areas won't get very much sunlight if it's next to a building that will shade it.

3. How much additional weight will the structure support? Containers heavy with water will add a lot of weight, so choose shallow planting beds. A gallon of water weighs 8.3454 pounds. If you have to haul that water from inside the home, consider it your weightlifting exercise program for the summer. If temperatures get extremely hot, you may need to water more than once a day.

4. How will you get water to the site?

5. Choose plants that don't have deep root systems. Remember, what goes in must come out, and you will have to deal with dead plants, leaf debris, renewing the soil.....

6. Choose plants that are compatible - ones that need the same amount of sunlight, moisture, etc. if planting more than one type of plant in the same planter. Use a mix of edible plants and flowers. Something short, medium, and tall and trailing.

7. Secondary planting.... Once the lettuce is done in May, what will you replace it with for the rest of the summer?

8. Is there adequate drainage for container gardening?

9. Containers will leave marks on the decking. If you are renting will this be a problem for the owner?

10. You may want to place containers on a platform with castors so it can be easily moved, if necessary, in order to track the available sunlight as the summer advances.

A nice lesson in how to swallow the elephant in one big bite, choke on it and need the heimlich maneuver performed on you before you give up completely. Are you sure more isn't best?

[Zoe Girl]

Thank you all, I have been sitting on the balcony with tea even in the winter and it just came to me that I wanted it with a lot of plants this summer. I got one metal one that hooks on the railing from Ikea but don't have any other pots yet. So here are some of the factors.

I am on the northwest side of the building, so that side will get some decent morning sun, more afternoon I think. I will watch it however.

The balcony and this building are so solid, built in 1965, concrete everything! and there is the fake grass/astroturf on it. So it is very protected and supportive. I don't see issues with supporting or staining, but also casters on pots will be hard to roll on that surface.

Colorado is super dry so I don't use clay pots, it is too hard to keep them from drying out. Even when I had the outside garden when I rented a house I had to water daily. I love the glass aqua globes and have a small humidifier near some indoor plants. Either way daily watering will be part of the plan, and plastic pots overall.

I would love to do zucchini and summer squash because I eat a lot of those. I don't have good luck with cilantro but am willing to give it a try since I like to cook with that. I did chives outside and they were huge! I was thinking about just taking the overgrown stuff like mint and chives from our school garden but they are doing construction this summer so I won't be doing camp there.

I have thought about a small worm composting setup. I took care of a couple worm bins over one summer for the 1st graders who had their expedition on growing things that year, one bin did really well and the other didn't make it. But the kids over the summer checked on them and we added and kept them damp.

Totally forgot that everything will have to go down 3 flights and find a way to dispose of the garden trash. I may be able to put it back in the school garden when we get back in late August, but I think they put a lot in the garbage instead of composting because it attracts critters at our school. We do have a lunch composting program now and I could work compost trash into that system.

Okay thank you all!

[kib]

The five gallon bucket is your friend! I know they're ugly, but they can be spray painted for at least a slightly prettier look - I think once you have a coat of Krylon down you can even paint with any sort of paint on top of that. They're cheap at hardware stores and often available for free. It's also really helpful to have that handle. ETA: adequate drainage is important with these because there's no evaporation, need to drill some holes.

[ToomuchStuff]

Those buckets also come in other sizes; 2 and 3 gallon for sure. (seen some in a paint section, as well as some that one of the chef's I know, brought home rather then buy one for his drywalling job).
Indoor and outdoor carpet that is glued down, will be rolled over easily, if using either larger or pneumatic wheels. Pallet wood, could be used to build wooden boxes to disguise the buckets the plants are in.

[Float On]

Does your apartment complex have any rules regarding what or how much can be on the deck? Just curious because one here that a friend lives in doesn't allow plants on the balcony. Which is just rude!

[sweetana3]

Mom has all kinds of rules at her place but it is for safety and to protect others underneath. One person wanted to water her plants all the time and the water drained down onto her neighbor. Another had stuff falling off the balcony. If there are rules, there are usually reasons.

[lessisbest]

Williamsmith - Some people are dreamers, watching the elephant walk away --- while they starve. I happen to be a thinker, who also successfully gardens using containers.

rodeosweetheart - Anything, and everything, will leave marks on a wood deck. Wood pallets will absorb and hold moisture for a long period of time, and wet pallets are very heavy by themselves. There are also great planter ideas using free pallets, but make sure not to get wood that has NOT been chemically treated since it can leach into the soil and be absorbed by the plants. There are really creative, as well as inexpensive or free, ways to do container gardening. The library has loads of books on the subject, and you can get free information from the County Extension Office, including suggested plants that do best in containers, as well as plant varieties that do best in your region. You can do something as simple as lay down a bag of planting soil, cut the top open and tuck it under the edge of the bag (leaving 6-8" of plastic around the bag opening), poke drainage holes in the bottom of the bag, and grow rows of radishes, lettuce (and a variety of other veggies) in them.

It's the bags of soil that is the biggest expense, and for container gardens you may want to purchase a product that holds water, or add water-holding crystals to the soil. The more planters, the more soil needs to be hauled to the deck. You also need fairly large containers for warm-season veggies so they will last the season and be better producers. You also need to fertilize containers more often. I like to use compost tea in planters.

Zoe Girl: For zucchini and squash, look for a variety that is going to actually work for container gardening (this goes for all plant choices - not everything grows well in a container), and grow it vertically on some kind of support trellis to save space. They require full sun at least 6-hours a day. Pea pods are easy to grow in a container and are great for early cool-season planting. I turn a large round wire tomato cage up-side down in a container until it's buried in the soil at least 6-10 inches, then I tie jute around the 4 legs (which are now at the top) to make a tee-pee form. Plant no more than 8-10 seeds per container. Top-heavy supports for climbing plants like pea pods, cucumbers, tomato vines, etc. will be easy targets for the wind to topple, so make sure they are secure, including wedges at the base and/or tied to a railing, so they don't easily fall over.

I have a drip irrigation system for a lot of my container garden, and I use water from our rain barrels (1,000 gallon capacity) for the water source. Plants will do much better if you can collect rain water over city tap water. I load my large pot that holds the water for irrigation, and place a solar-powered water pump in it to feed the drip hose. You can also bury BPA-free plastic bottles into the soil to use for irrigation. Puncture holes in the bottles before placing in the soil. Leave the bottle top exposed above the soil for easy filling. Placed near the plants roots, they will benefit from the slow source of water. Plus, you can place nutrients in the water to feed and water at the same time. There is less water drainage with drip irrigation or buried plastic bottles, than watering with a hose or watering can.

[Williamsmith]

Lessisbest.......you would have done well to make your first reply without the pithy comment regarding my suggestion of mental preparation. It made you seem arrogant and smallish compared to your depth of knowledge on the subject. It also made you appear as though your purpose was to feed your own starving ego rather than to make a helpful suggestion to a person obviously embarking on a new and possibly overwhelming project. I understand you but you not me.

Your knowledge is getting in the way of your judgement. I make it a point not to attack anyone's intelligence or intent unless they attack first. At which point I feel I owe it to myself not to be a doormat. So it appears we are now equal. Tit for tat and expectations are we let this go.

Congratulations on your mastery of container gardening and I'm sure the OP will be well served taking your advise. Especially that of searching out the library and extension office for publications that have been credentialed, edited and well vetted information, not that of simple living forum novices like me.

[rodeosweetheart]

Zoe Girl, this site from Bonnie plants has a nice feature on container gardening,with lots of photos to give you ideas.

https://bonnieplants.com/container-gardening/

[Zoe Girl]

That looks great rodeo, I like the pictures especially.

And we can have planters on our decks, many people have a lot of plants out in warm weather, yeah! There are a lot of rules here.