Growing Plants in Your Balcony

You do not have to do without the park just because you live in a flat a few high level. Thousands of people have an amazing diversity of plant life growing on the balcony or in the window boxes and hanging baskets, even when they do not run into a full-blown roof garden.

No problem, I give you. Once you leave the mainland, you have to worry about weight, wind and water in a way that gardeners do not need to be ground. But it was all perfectly doable, if you put your mind to it.

Window-box gardening is suitable for apartment living. Even when there is no other room you want, you can grow some herbs or flowers, especially shorter, squat, weather hardy annuals (such as nasturtiums and poppies California), you can sow in situ.

Or try the salad. Leaf salad mix that oh-so trendy will produce healthy plants, grown in a container, and you'll cut a lot of the small space. Combine all three for the cottage garden pot handsome and beneficial.

If there is room for some larger container, you can be more inventive. Tubs, troughs and hanging baskets do wonders to improve the view out over the balcony and they take up very little space. Plus, if you overlook the roof, a few strategically placed flower pots looks striking set against the urban landscape of mountains, gulleys and heating system vents.

The golden rule is to stick to a good crop happy in a container and rugged enough for the wind and the sun, because it is high, they will dry out quickly. And avoid anything that is too high or top-heavy - creeping, squatting, or plant mound- dome-shaped roof withstand the conditions the best.

The ideal candidate, when you want to keep the same look happen in the long term, are plants that naturally grow where it's wild and windy.

So you see ornamental grasses and leaves, more drought-proof, beach-style rock plants such as pink, thrift, daisies Erigeron and Sempervivum (houseleek), dwarf shrubs and small-leaved Hebes, and rough Mediterranean species such as juniper hills and phlomis.

aromatic green plants, such as rosemary and thyme, and silver-leaf plants such as Artemesia, all well survive the sun and drought, and they cope quite well with the wind.

If you prefer a scheme of planting annual flowers, species sun-and drought-tolerant harder, like Gazania, osteospermum and pelargoniums, including pelargoniums amazing Swiss-style balcony behind, are the ones to major in.

In the shade, go for foliage plants such as aspidistra, ivies and hart's tongue fern, and if it is well protected, too, try fuchsias.